Pain & Gain (2013) Directed by Michael Bay. Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie. IMDB says: “A trio of bodybuilders in Florida get caught up in an extortion ring and a kidnapping scheme that goes terribly wrong.”
Fucking Florida. For anyone not in the know, Florida seems to be a haven for bizarre crime in the U.S.
All you have to do is read through True Crime Report or Film Drunk’s hilarious Florida Friday reports and you will see why they decided to have Dexter take place in Miami. And explosion master Michael Bay has found another Florida story fit for a straight jacket in his latest film Pain & Gain.
The basic premise of the film is pretty standard. Three men attempt to kidnap and extort a man for all his money but everything doesn’t go according to plan. In this based-on-true-events story, Mark Wahlberg plays Daniel Lugo, a man obsessed with fitness and the American Dream. He is won over by self help seminars and applies their do better mantras to his life goals. Problem is, Lugo has a very warped perception about how working your way from nothing to something should work. He is a con artist and a schemer and at the start of the movie, he decides on his next target before enlisting the help of his weight gain obsessed friend Adrien Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) and ex con turned Jesus freak Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson.)
Bay has hit a gold mine as far as material goes and with the true crime events being as outlandish as they are, it is only fitting that he tell the story in the nuttiest way possible. I was expecting more Bad Boys going into this flick but it’s not as much of an all out comedy. It’s a lot more comparable to a Smokin’ Aces type film, lots of style and an ever evolving crime story. Bay handles it the way you might expect with a loud soundtrack, hot chicks, slow mo shots and yes even an explosion! But while most of those signature moves can often be a weakness in his films, they work pretty well in Pain & Gain. Thanks to some really funny performances from the three leads (especially Dwayne Johnson who is doing his best work in the film) the criminal plots in the movie are often played out with a fun mix of humor and brutality. The film is excessive but no more than the characters are.
What hinders the movie from becoming something special is keeping the comedy in line with some of the scarier acts depicted on screen. For most of the movie’s running time, the three stooges are never taken very seriously because they are complete and total idiots. In fact, they are so misguided and inept that you almost feel sympathy for them. When things get hairier in the third act of the film, you are somewhat abruptly reminded of the consequences and forced to view the men in a dark light. It’s not completely jarring but just a small tonal issue that Bay struggles to keep in line. I enjoyed the zaniness of the film but wondered if it was the right thing to do painting the bodybuilding trio as simple minded criminal. I’m sure it’s not far off but it still remains a small piece of Pain & Gain that had me wondering.
At the end of the day though, the movie is a lot of fun. As I said before, the three leads work well together and even though some of the side characters don’t have as much scenery to chew (Rebel Wilson and Rob Corddry aren’t nearly as funny as they can be,) Markie Mark, Mackie and The Rock eat their scenes with a full dose of protein. I’d recommended giving the movie a shot if even if you aren’t a huge Michael Bay fan. It’s a mild departure for him genre-wise and he proves his ability to tackle different types of stories. And on a final note, if you are as interested in true crime as I am, be sure to read this new story from the Miami Times that details the actual events of the case.
Pain & Gain opens in theaters nationwide Friday, April 26th.