Forget “Fast And Furious” & Co.: Dwayne Johnson’s Best Movie Is On Netflix – Which Even Many Of His Fans Don’t Know!

+++ Opinion +++

Hardly anyone would have guessed in the early 2000s that struggling superstar Dwayne Johnson would soon become the ultimate Hollywood star — his performances as the Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns and the spin-off named after his character certainly didn’t suspect. necessarily. Today, the name of Hollywood’s #1 shining man is practically synonymous with smashing action goggles and lavish blockbusters. From Fast & Furious to Jumanji to Black Adam, which launched this week.

Relatively small and unknown, Johnson’s is in my opinion his best, but certainly also his most personal film: “Fighting with my family“, which you are currently on Netflix can stream. Johnson produced the film himself with his production company Seven Bucks Productions, but he also appeared on camera for the filming of the true rise of struggling superstar Paige. His role: himself, who gives the main character one or two valuable pieces of advice along the way.

So Dwayne Johnson kind of goes back to his wrestling roots with Fighting With My Family. The biopic is therefore a real heart project. And that – namely heart – is also probably the most important part of the film, which therefore needs neither big action spectacle nor Dwayne Johnson in a lead role.

“Fighting With My Family”: Outsider Drama Meets Feel Good Comedy

Director Stephen Merchant (“The Office”) follows in the footsteps of major genre films such as the Stallone classic “Rocky” with his film. Because Saraya Jade Bevis, who eventually became world famous under her ring name Paige, also enters the ring as a tough outsider. She not only wants to show the world, but also her wrestling family – but especially herself – that she has what it takes to make the leap from remote Norwich, in the east of England, to WWE. “Fighting With My Family” points the way there, paved with rows of stumbling blocks.

From the first scene it becomes clear that we don’t expect a melancholic drama, but a lot of fun. A story about a family of misfits who are at the same time so incredibly misguided and sweet that you can’t help but embrace them. When the father (“Shaun Of The Dead” star Nick Frost) angrily interrupts his children while they are fighting to explain to them how a The chokehold goes, and the mom (“Game Of Thrones” star Lena Headey) steps in to tease her daughter into the wrestling hype because it feels like coke, crack, and heroin together — even though she’s never taken the drugs, at least not. together – it suddenly becomes clear: nothing is right in this family. And yet somehow everything.

Finally, after a time difference, we see the two offspring who have grown into promising wrestlers and are now ready for potential professional careers. But while Zak’s (Jack Lowden, “Dunkirk”) childhood dream quickly ends, Saraya (Marvel star Florence Pugh) gets the chance of a lifetime.

A difficult situation that, despite all the comedy, makes for real family drama that gets under your skin. Because the screenplay, the characters, and their emotional world are so damn understandable at any given time that you could even be part of this quirky company. Parents projecting their dreams onto their children, siblings taking this dream away from you, and the courage to take your own life into your own hands – all of them this makes “Fighting With My Family” a rollercoaster ride of emotions.

The fact that the film makes you feel like you’ve just been cuddled for 100 minutes is because that roller coaster goes uphill at least as often as it does downhill. It’s not just the eponymous Chaos family that makes people laugh—for example, with their supposedly romantic introductory story, scarred by prison and addiction, which they first serve their son’s conservative in-laws—but also Vince Vaughn (“The Wedding crashers”). Because as Saraya’s instructor, he’s his version of Sergeant Hartman from “Full Metal Jacket” and clearly takes pleasure in chatting up his “recruits” with comments that are as mean as they are funny.

Yet the star of the film is undoubtedly Florence Pugh. The 26-year-old is one of the biggest and most versatile shooting stars of the moment. In recent years, she has starred in films as diverse as the cult horror “Midsommar”, the historical drama “Little Women” and the comedic actioner “Black Widow”. And in “Fighting With My Family” she brings out the acting that makes her so versatile: on the one hand, the badass, a daredevil who takes nothing from anyone. On the other hand, there is the vulnerable young woman who has to pull the coals out of the fire for her family before she knows who she really is. And then, of course, there’s Pugh’s amazing physical performance, which may have been one of the reasons she ended up on the Marvel wish list.

“Fighting With My Family” is an entertaining, light-hearted coming-of-age drama with an extra helping of heart. No punch in the stomach and no boring brain-out comedy – just a rousing mix of great emotions and just as much fun.