Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie
Personal trainer Dan Lugo (Wahlberg) wants a big piece of
the American Dream, inspired by a seminar from motivational speaker Johnny Wu
(Ken Jeong) enlisting two of his bodybuilding buddies, Paul (Johnson) an
ex-con, recovering addict and devout christian, and Adrian (Mackie) a steroid
user. The trio kidnap a wealthy client of Lugo's (Tony Shaloub) but find that
simple plans aren't always easy ones.
Michael Bay is one of the biggest directors in Hollywood.
Having taken on the Transformers film franchise since 2007, Bay's work also
includes Armageddon (1998) and Pearl Harbour (2001). His films are big
blockbusters filled with explosions and action set-pieces that make millions
(and even breaking the rare billion dollar box office mark). However despite
his aptitude at making a profit, Bay's reputation as film-maker is that of an
extremely superficial film-maker with no skill in the more subtle elements of
making movies. Pain & Gain is a crime movie with a comedic slant, about
seemingly dim-witted criminals who don't know what they're doing. The plot
reads like a Coen brothers film, such as The Big Lebowski (1998) or Fargo
(1996), films which enjoy a much higher level of critical appreciation.
Ultimately, Pain & Gain does benefit from a fairly
intelligent and entertaining script. The film switches between characters in
narration, which allows for a little insight, although some of the characterisations
seem still a little sketchy in the finer details This is particularly clear in
Daniel Lugo, who seems to be somewhere between a ruthlessly ambitious murderer
and a largely unlucky dope, who believes that the Godfather trilogy is about
success (it isn't). Dwayne Johnson pulls off the likeable villain role much
better and often provides one the best performances alongside a rather
underused Ed Harris as a detective. However, Michael Bay's problems as a
director are still evident here. The extremely frenetic editing can almost make
your head spin, even during the quieter moments and women are largely shown to
be either figures comic relief or simply bodies to be ogled at (or, in the case
of Keili Lefkovitz' Krisztina, both). With a more measured and gentler
approach, Pain & Gain could've been a great film, as it stands, it's
perhaps betterthan what a lot of people might expect of Michael Bay, but it's
really just not much more than okay.
Next time, the life of Linda Lovelace and the dark side
of the production of the legendary porno film, Deep Throat is explored as
Amanda Seyfried in Lovelace.
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