Of muscles and mad men
Author:
del91 from Penang, Malaysia / Chicago, USA
imdb link:
Bay is shamelessly reputed for huge explosions, choppy editing,
excessively flashy/glitzy cinematography, sexy women, fancy cars and
(recently) giant robots. With "Pain and Gain" he returns to low-budget
territory since his debut "Bad Boys" in 1995. The result - the film is
a debauchery in style - it's all over the film. Although Bay cuts back
on the explosions and robots (mercifully), everything else has Bay
written all over it, and considering how morbidly ridiculous the film's
subject matter is, Bay tackles it in such a head-on and energetic
manner that the audience is whisked off for the insane ride ahead.
For this movie, he has assembled together Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson
and Anthony Mackie as the three bumble-heads who have their hearts set
in the right goal but clearly lack the intellect to do so. All three
men look jacked up, and play their parts as ridiculous as the part goes
for it, especially Johnson, who clearly is having a blast showing off a
completely different side of him as opposed to what we've been seeing
him of late. Wahlberg plays a character so dangerously goofy and dumb
one will wonder whether such a person exists in real life. Tony
Shalhoub's unfortunate but still jerk-ish character sets the tone for
most of the movie as his predicament grows from one spectrum of
ridiculousness to another. By the time we've reached sexy Bar Paly's
and hilarious Rebel Wilson's love interest characters, the audience
have probably seen enough.
Then in comes Ed Harris as Detective Du Bois. Just when I thought the
film was about to careen off the rails into insanity. He's the only
sane person in the whole movie, and his presence helps bring balance
and clarity to what was a ludicrous first half.
Comic relief is key in Bay's action films, but here he's going all out
at comedy, and he sure does pull of the stops. The film is simply put,
hysterical. The fact that it was indeed a true story makes it all the
more hilarious to watch, who honestly can think of some story like this
and pull if off straight?
I am aware that since this is a film, some liberties had to be made to
the story and characters. Some scenes were undoubtedly exaggerated, but
which one? Every scene looked and felt so surreal, every major
character ridiculous, every line of dialogue inducing a chortle from
the audience. But it was a dementedly fun ride, and Bay, after making
two bloated sequels about giant robots, finally returns to his stride.
Michael Bay's "Pain and Gain" is a very bleak, very dark comedy about
three knucklehead bodybuilders in pursuit of their own American dream,
even if the road there is paved with sex, drugs, torture, humiliation,
and even murder.
Great, with a side of horror!
Author:
ariasn1 from Canada
This movie was near perfect to me, and let me explain why: The actors
portraying the three (can you call them) anti hero's incredibly well. I
don't quite know how accurate they were in comparison to the real
criminals but as standalone characters they were pitch perfect (even
the Rock, who may have actually stolen the show for me).
Tony Shaloub is no actor to be laughed at, he played such an
interesting 3 dimensional yet despicable character that forced me to
try to come to terms with how I felt with him being the victim.
And what really made the movie for me was the phenomenal writing and
directing combination, there were intensely serious moments surrounded
by the blackest of black comedy, something that shouldn't have worked,
but it did!
My only problem with the flick is that it IS a true story. From what
I've heard it's not even based on a true story, it's just a
sensationalized docudrama with added humour... Christ (re read this
after you see the movie and then you'll find it funny... I hope)
TL;DR VERSION Not for kids; great movie with great casting, writing,
direction, cinematography etc.; But it loses a point for taken such a
sad, serious story and making it painfully funny.
