Pain & Gain (2013)

[Scott McGillivray]

Title: Pain & Gain

Tagline: Their American dream is bigger than yours.

Genre: Crime, Action

Director: Michael Bay

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub, Ed Harris, Rob Corddry, Bar Paly, Rebel Wilson, Ken Jeong, Michael Rispoli, Keili Lefkovitz, Vivi Pineda, Christopher Jestin Langstaff, Gustavo Quiroz Jr., Corinne Ferrer, Zack Moore, Kory Getman, Peter Stormare, Larry Hankin, Tony Plana, Brian Stepanek, Persei Caputo, Bill Kelly, Emily Rutherfurd, Wladimir Klitschko, Yolanthe Cabau, Anthony 'Ace' Thomas, Kurt Angle, Jennifer Nicole Lee, Andrea Bennetti, Nikki Benz, Jessica Dykstra, Gwendalyn Barker, Vannessa Nevader

Release: 2013-04-18

Runtime: 130

Plot: Daniel Lugo, manager of the Sun Gym in 1990s Miami, decides that there is only one way to achieve his version of the American dream: extortion. To achieve his goal, he recruits musclemen Paul and Adrian as accomplices. After several failed attempts, they abduct rich businessman Victor Kershaw and convince him to sign over all his assets to them. But when Kershaw makes it out alive, authorities are reluctant to believe his story.

Hi Gang!
I just watched the trailer for this and thought it looked like a classic Bay film...uh...I meant that as a good thing.
I dont normally like a lot of his films, but when he does this genre, it tends to be a lot of fun.
I am stunned how big The Rock got for this role. That looks like a LOT of work to gain that much size (spare me the steroids comments...drugs or not, it takes a ton of effort). Mark Wahlberg also is looking bigger than ever.
I hope it is as fun as the original "Bad Boys" and "The Rock" was. Not looking for much, just some good old action-fun!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1980209/
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/12/19/watch-the-new-trailer-for-michael-bays-pain-and-gain

 

[Chuck Mayer]

The true story that this is based on is gruesome and very trashy. This isn't a romp, unless they pushed the story far away from the truth. Great trailer though.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Hopefully they've changed the story quite a bit.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1999-12-23/news/pain-gain

 

[MarkWK]

Hopefully they've changed the story quite a bit.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1999-12-23/news/pain-gain

Having read all three parts of this sordid affair, I hope that they don't change a thing in the story. I think it would make a good movie with the facts as they are. Looking forward to it.
MarkWK

 

[CSeabrook22]

This looks awesome. The Rock keeps getting better and better in his movie roles and Wallberg is fantastic. Cannot wait for this. Roids or not..the Rock is a real beef cake!

 

[Scott McGillivray]

Ugh...I read all three parts of that linked story and man...that was depressing. I mean, funny at times at just how bumbling they were, but so grim in how they had no concern for the lives of others. Some sick people out there.
I hope they can make it a little less grim and more about the bumbling antics of the muscleheads.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I watched the trailer. . .it definitely looks like they've lightened things up a bit. If the film's focus is accurately reflected by the trailer, then I don't think it would quite work if the characters were really true to the evil lunatics on whom they're based. You have to have *some* sympathy for the main characters. Otherwise it's too dark for a big, loud Michael Bay flick.
On a related note, despite pretty good reviews, I still haven't watched 30 Minutes or Less because the true story behind it just freaks me out. (Yeah, watching that YouTube was a mistake!)

 

[Aaron Silverman]

And just in time for a little PR. . .

Survivors angry over 'Pain & Gain' depiction

 

[Lord Dalek]

Michael Bay = The Plague.

 

[Patrick Sun]

In the hands of a better director, this might have been a more satisfying movie, but for what it is, it was just plain silly for a film based on a true story (muscle heads attempt to kidnap rich guy to steal assets, etc, but things go wrong, displaying a total lack of humanity for their desire for gain, earned or not). In the end, the 2-dimensional characterizations undermine the film, and turn it into almost satire and parody, unintentionally so.

I give it 1.75 stars, or a grade of C-.

 

[TravisR]

...almost satire and parody, uninitentionally so.

I was hoping that they'd go further in that direction but it seemed like they only wanted to dip their foot in the water of making it a flat out black comedy so the movie was only sporadically funny. I didn't care that much for the movie but I have to admit that I'm still chuckling when I think of the part when

Spoiler

THIS IS STILL A TRUE STORY

popped up on the screen.

EDIT: Just to accentuate the positive, I'll say that Wahlberg, Mackie and especially Johnson were fun together.

 

[mattCR]

Isn't it interesting, though Travis that the moment your spoiler happened, two of the people in that scene were fictional composites of several people, and that scene is unlikely to have happened at all in that way?

This is a true story that is wildly grewsome but was something I thought could have went a different direction, like "Natural Born Killers" meets "Fargo" etc. an over the top romp that really goes all in; but this film just didn't seem to have the balls to really commit, and when it reeled itself back in it just wasn't really satisfying.

If this had been with a different director or scriptwriter.. this is the kind of concept that I think if it were in the hands of the Coen Brothers or Quentin would have been that over-the-top sarcastic cringe worthy vehicle that people would buzz about. But it comes across as a guy who wants to be the Coen brothers but just isn't.

JMHO.

C-

 

[Michael Elliott]

This film was a complete, 100% masterpiece......


...compared to SCARY MOVIE V, which was my double feature today.


I was really disappointed in P&G because I had pretty high hopes going into it. I wasn't aware of the true story and only caught up on it afterwards but while watching the movie I couldn't help but wonder why in the hell Bay was showing the three main guys as loveable, cool or just good guys trying to get the American dream. Having read about the real case, I'm even more shocked that Bay would go in this direction but throughout the movie I just found the pacing bad and for the life of me I couldn't understand what Bay was trying to do. I thought all of the performances were extremely good and especially Johnson who is really impressing me lately (he was great in SNITCH). I thought the entire look of the film was quite ugly and after a while I just wanted the thing to be over with but it just kept going.

Some have mentioned that Bay didn't have the balls to go further with it and this might be true but I think the story itself was good enough to where we could have just seen what real evil was like. We didn't have to have a spoof or a "message" like Stone would have delivered but it just needed to be something other than what we got.

* 1/2 (out of 4)

 

[Colin Jacobson]

In the hands of a better director, this might have been a more satisfying movie, but for what it is, it was just plain silly for a film based on a true story (muscle heads attempt to kidnap rich guy to steal assets, etc, but things go wrong, displaying a total lack of humanity for their desire for gain, earned or not). In the end, the 2-dimensional characterizations undermine the film, and turn it into almost satire and parody, unintentionally so.

I give it 1.75 stars, or a grade of C-.

There we disagree. I thought this was CLEARLY played as parody/satire. It's the closest Bay's gonna come to spoofing himself, and he plays the whole situation as dark comedy.

Not a great film - probably a good 45 minutes too long - but more entertaining than I expected. The fact Bay self-satirizes makes the comedy work better, as he doesn't usually play things for overt laughs. It's dark and wanders too much, and the length really does hurt it, but it's still a fairly enjoyable dark comedy...

 

[ChristopherG]

having read the whole tawdry article from the Miami paper, I can't see me wanting to watch a film that transforms the murderous thugs involved into anything remotely sympathetic.

What a crazy story that was to read - compelling and disturbing...

 

[TravisR]

having read the whole tawdry article from the Miami paper, I can't see me wanting to watch a film that transforms the murderous thugs involved into anything remotely sympathetic.

Having seen the movie, I can say that the movie presents them as savage morons and does not make them even remotely sympathetic.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

The ads definitely imply otherwise.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I don't know. I don't think the film ever even tries to make us dislike these guys. I really think Bay wanted to show them as good but perhaps it's just his horrible direction that doesn't make it come across as anything else. Throughout the entire film I kept wondering why these people were made for us to "like" them and I don't think at any point the film tried to do other wise.

 

[DavidJ]

Despite how it was marketed, I don't think it was trying to make the characters likable or sympathetic. The way the movie is presented, the only likable character is the former detective working as a P.I. The composite/made-up Rock character might be considered pseudo-sympathetic.

 

[TravisR]

I don't know. I don't think the film ever even tries to make us dislike these guys. I really think Bay wanted to show them as good but perhaps it's just his horrible direction that doesn't make it come across as anything else. Throughout the entire film I kept wondering why these people were made for us to "like" them and I don't think at any point the film tried to do other wise.

I only watched it thinking "What a buncha dickheads." They're stupid, they're cruel and they're self-centered narcissists. I was never rooting for them to get away with it and was looking forward (for lack of a better word when I was fairly bored with the movie) to seeing how they screwed up and got brought down.

The composite/made-up Rock character might be considered pseudo-sympathetic.

I could see an argument for that but I found that character to be a sad, pathetic weak-willed pussy more than anything else. I mean he gets 'bullied' into a murder. We're not talking about a high school kid drinking a beer at a party but a murder so I didn't find that character sympathetic.

If someone told me a month ago that I'd have spent the time making 3 posts about Pain And Gain, I wouldn't have believed them.