Smashing Machine, The

Aroview: Intense and strangely moving look at the life of Mark Kerr, the most successful and celebrated combatant in the (now banned) Ultimate Fighting Championship League, in which competitors use a mixture of bare-knuckled martial arts, boxing, wrestling and pure brawling to batter their way to victory.

Since relocated to Japan for the newly inaugurated 'Pride Fighting Championships', Kerr is revealed as a painfully fragile personality who resorts to drug use to quell both inner demons and the effect of his numerous woundings. Featuring some wrenchingly brutal fight scenes, this remains respectful throughout of the dignity of its subjects, and is certainly the equal to classics of the genre such as HITMAN HART.