Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is a personal trainer in Florida
who, like most people, just wants to be rich and have the money at his disposal
to do with as he pleases. He concocts a plan to kidnap a wealthy business owner
(Tony Shalhoub) and force him to sign over his assets to not only himself, but
two gymrat friends (Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie) who assist with the deed.
And then all hell breaks loose.
While the film does suffer from all the usual Michael Bayisms
that drive fanboys to lose their shit (super high contrast filters, fast edits,
style over substance) it’s actually one of his all-time best films. While I am
a lifelong fan of the Bay (but not fond of Pearl
Harbor or Transformers: Revenge of
the Fallen) this is his most successful project in terms of story and
performances.
Mark Wahlberg (Ted)
gives a suitably manic turn as the manipulative and charming leader of the
kidnappers, Daniel Lugo. He’s actually likable regardless of the fact that he organizes
some increasingly effed up stuff in the name of greed and he certainly looks
the part of a bulked up weightlifter. The character is written as a sincere
sociopathic moron and he pulls it off without a hitch.
I especially liked Dwayne Johnson (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) as the reborn Christian ex-con Paul Doyle.
His character is so dumb and bumbling that it betrays his buff exterior in ways
that are hilarious. He becomes especially funny once he resumes his old cocaine
habit. Anthony Mackie (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is a good actor, but his character isn’t all that great
since he spends the entire movie whining about his erectile dysfunction due to
excessive steroid use. Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect) on the other hand plays an awesome foil to his mopey ways as his
love interest.
Tony Shalhoub (Monk)
is fantastically sleazy as the target for all the mischief as Victor Kershaw. While
he definitely didn’t deserve all the stuff that happened to him, he isn’t
exactly a saint either. Thankfully he isn’t written as a helpless victim and
has a number of awesome scenes, especially the ones involving Johnson. Ed
Harris on the other hand is underused as a private detective Kershaw hires to
prove his wild claims about Lugo and company.
Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely take the
source material, a series of news articles in the Miami New Times titled “Pain
& Gain” by Pete Collins, tweaked details and combined a few of the people
involved into a single character (Johnson’s Doyle) in order to simplify the
story into something manageable. They did a damned fine job of it too. The
sheer ludicrousness of the crime and the fact that the police didn’t believe
Kershaw’s claims when found left for dead is fantastic material for a flick. Tthey run with it and somehow make it work. While it does go off the rails a
bit toward the end it still fits nicely into the grand scheme of things and
isn’t all that much of a leap in terms of the plot.
Michael Bay does let his crazy side out to play a few times
and unfortunately his style takes away some of the impact of the story. Not Revenge of the Fallen crazy, but Bad Boys II crazy (that’s a good thing).
He yet again finds a way to use his signature camera moves, like the high
angle spinning dolly shot or the computer assisted multi-room dolly shots where
the camera zooms through a hole in the wall from one room into the next and
back again (it was used in the first two Transformers
films and Bad Boys II). For the most part he reigns it in and appears to be trying his hardest to tell
a story and not melt the collective audiences’ Medulla oblongatas with crazy
visuals and special effects. Pain &
Gain is a huge improvement in that aspect, and Bay thankfully avoids his
usual racial humor (but not the goofy homoerotic humor he seems to find
hysterical) in place of genuine laughs that come from the story and characters
organically. He still has a lot of work to do in order to be taken seriously as
a storyteller, but this is a step in the right direction.
When the end credits begin we are shown the real people
involved in this oddball crime story, reminding us that it was true. It
made me feel bad for laughing as hard as I did at certain parts. Real people
died because of these people. In some ways it’s kind of detestable that the
movie portrays the events in a comical light, but even if it was played
absolutely straight it would still come off as funny due to how crazy it all
is. That’s not an excuse for all my cackling during the film, but I’m okay with
using that rationale to ease my conscience.
Just the fact that this gaggle of idiots managed to pull off
the heist for the most part based on the charisma of one person is amazing. How
easily it all came crashing down is just so. Pain & Gain is a great ride as long as you’re okay with
laughing at someone else’s misery.
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