Sangre, sudor y gloria

Finally! After that dreadful Transformers franchise, the Michael Bay who brought us those Bad Boys movies is back! PAIN & GAIN is pumped-up and hugely entertaining. Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, and Anthony Mackie bring the old saying, in way over your head, to whole new level of hilarious. Their performances are like The Three Stooges with biceps. A crime comedy doesn't get better than this..

PAIN & GAIN is your textbook Michael Bay, there are beautiful girls, fast cars, that 360-degree spinning shot where the camera circles the actors, plus it's back in Miami too, the land of all kinds of colors and sunshine! Yup! PAIN & GAIN looks, feels, breaths, and benches like a Michael Bay movie, alright! Minus the giant robots, and that's a good thing in this case. I have to give props to the true story that became the basis for this movie, just the idea of three knucklehead bodybuilders chasing American dream and the mishaps that happen along the way because of their stupidity, it's practically a formula for a laugh riot, it practically begged to be made into a movie. Plus it's scripted by the screen writing team who brought us Captain America: The First Avenger, the humor that banks on the cluelessness of the three leads just keeps on coming and hitting the mark. What a great cast, including the great Tony Shalhoub and the rising star/funnywoman, Rebel Wilson who steals every scene she's in. That big girl is going to go places.

Mark Wahlberg leads the pack, but this ain't The Hangover, because all the three lead characters in PAIN & GAIN are idiots, that's the attraction, they think they have it all figured out, but they never think things through, so when things go haywire, they're forced to improvise and when they do improvise, people get hurt and even after that, they still mess up in trying to cover their tracks, it's the idea of stupid people trying to get a shortcut to fortune, some people can't handle such fortune, they mismanage it and they're left hungry again. The film probably would make the late great Tony Scott proud too, because it moves like an A-D-D person, one scene moves to the next very quickly, which also speaks about how rash the three leads are in making their moves. Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, and Anthony Mackie have impressive comedic timing, you should see them panicking or cornered, their performances get even more intense. I hit the gym but I don't even come close to what Wahlberg, Mackie, and Johnson do regularly, perhaps. Their biceps have biceps, that's how ridiculously massive they look on the big screen, their belief in fitness is going to make you feel quite insignificant. PAIN & GAIN may have some commentary about American Dream, on whether or not those who do achieve it actually earned it, but in the end, it's just a laugh out loud cautionary tale told through the style of Michael Bay.

-- www.ramascreen.com --

For years, Michael Bay's career has solely consisted of shoot em up flicks and apocalyptic disaster movies. One after the other, they've always told the same stories, utilized the same clichés and have been brutalized by critics everywhere. Personally, I never had anything against the guy. He does what he loves to do and almost 100% of the time gives his audience what they're there for. But don't mistake him as a one trick pony. Bay has been making a career of blockbusters for the sole purpose of having the luxury to make serious, less expensive movies. Pain & Gain might be proof positive of my point. It was quite a daring move for Bay to commit to such a bold feat as to make a film based on the true events of the Sun Gym gang. Like most of the film's critics (and there are quite an abundance of them), I agree that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to reenact the actual murders and backstabbing actions that these murderers did and play them up for laughs. Because, yes, this is indeed a comedy. Or is it? I can't tell what genre this movie falls under. But I cant deny thats its entertaining. I was very interested in the story of the actual events. What I'm trying to say is, the execution couldn't have been better in telling the story. The performances from Wahlberg, Johnson and Mackie were equally unique and insanely enjoyable. The three of them were able to capture the meat-headed simpletons that these criminals really were. The movie as a whole works. As a thriller, I was thrilled. But as a comedy, I was sort of indifferent. At times, I found myself laughing at some of the film's darker shaded sense of humor, and rolling my eyes at the cringe worthy, Adam Sandler style gross out jokes that the film unwillingly felt obligated to shove down our throats. An identity crisis, this film indeed had. When you get past all these cons, Pain & Gain is a well crafted, violent joy ride. Its one of the most underrated films of the year, and its worth your time in seeing it.

I remember reading about this years ago. These idiots kidnapped and tortured this man until he gave up everything he owned. The actual account is significantly more chilling than depicted in the movie. The only embellishment seemed to be the stupidity of the villains. In actuality, it was their arrogance and hubris that got them caught.

I wasn't thrilled with the movie, but that doesn't mean it was not good. Actually, I think this film had incredible substance, due particularly in part to the casting. I would have given it 7 stars, but the length of the film took it down a notch (they could have knocked off 14-19 minutes worth of unnecessary, and sometimes boring footage).

The film started off with Wahlberg seeming to be just like Wahlberg. But, long story short, he and the film evolved to a character that fit him (and vice versa). Based upon the plot, I think it was a good match.

Dwayne Johnson is not brand new to drama, but this was a different kind of role nonetheless. I don't feel he was 100% there, but his likable character makes you just ignore it. I think with a few more roles like this, he'll be better.

I'm not that familiar with Mackie, but he did a great job in his role. Apart from Shalhoub, he was probably one of the most believable characters. He made me think of a subdued and more serious version of Mike Epps.

Shalhoub....well, what can you say about this guy? He was awesome in Monk, and his style is always great. He is a talented actor and the casting of him was a solid choice. He has that goof look to him, yet his face can show some noteworthy seriousness. This was no Giamatti being cast as a thug...Shalhoub can pull off a "tough guy" pretty well.

I've always been fond of Ed Harris, but his role was insignificant. Same for Corddry.

All in all, this was a well-made film deserving to be watched. I doubt I would ever watch it again due to it's slow development at times, but I'm glad I did see it. The casting was unexpected and unique.

Let me start this out by saying I hate Michael Bay. I hate Michael Bay. OK, OK, he's not the worst director in Hollywood. He's got his s**t together, and people are willing to pay him to glue together the worst movie ideas and turn them into a semi-watchable blockbuster. However, Pain & Gain isn't one of these movies.

"Wait, how does that make it good?" You ask? Well, my position is that Bay actually cared about this movie. He pitched this movie for years, even when he was a more struggling director, and nobody would buy it. Eventually, this movie was made on a measly budget of $26 million. Not exactly peanuts, but nowhere near the budget Bay is used to. I believe this encouraged him to put some real thought into it.

First of all, this is a dark, dark comedy at its core. It's Fargo ramped up to eleven and edited into the pace of a 2-hour-long seat-edging action thriller. The movie manages to go from serious, to gory, to slapstick all in a matter of minutes, and somehow still manages to work. It'll be impossible to keep yourself from cracking out in laughter, even though all of the characters are completely unlikable and self-absorbed. The movie constantly mocks gym jocks, self-help optimism, and class privilege. The acting is superb. All of the cast was well chosen, from Dwayne to Shalhoub and especially Wahlberg. And that shocking fridge horror moment comes with the realization that it all actually happened. Yes, unlike Fargo, that disclaimer at the beginning of the movie is an honest one, and the actual events are even more outrageous than this movie itself.

Most of the criticism seems to come from this movie being made as humor deriving from a true event, but I don't think it could have been done better any differently. All of the changes made to the events were understandable in order to make it watchable as a movie; Adding extra humor in order to balance the absurdity, merging a few characters into one much larger one, or even actually *toning down* a few parts to make them more believable. There are so many memorable moments that are permanently affixed to my brain, unlike other Bay films which are utterly forgettable. That makes this a cult classic, and easily one of my favorite movies.