Pain and Gain

I love Michael Bay movies. I am not ashamed of this fact. He makes noisy nonsensical movies and I think he makes them better than anyone else. There is something to be said for being the best creator of mass noise. When I first heard he was going to make a smaller action/comedy, I was immediately down for it because the first Bad Boys movie had a smaller feel and is still an excellent movie. When I heard that Anthony Mackie and Mark Wahlberg would be starring in it and that it was going to be based on a truly wild true story, I got even more excited. Then, The Rock joined the cast. If you follow my blog at all, you know I love The Rock. He makes movies better just by being in them. His cartoon like stature has been utilized in action movies and kids movies for the last decade of so, but those of us who watched The WWE know he is hilarious. The man can do comedy and he actually showed it in the ill advised Get Shorty sequel Be Cool way back in 2005. For me, this combination of actors and director could only spell A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

Daniel Lugo (Wahlberg) believes in fitness. He believes he can change the world through being a personal trainer, but he is poor and he is tired of being poor. He has a positive attitude, a great work ethic and now he has a plan. He is going to kidnap Victor Kershaw (Tony Shaloub), and force him to sign over his entire fortune to Lugo. Then he just plans to let him go and move on with his life. He enlists his buddy, Adrian Doorbal(Mackie) and eventually Paul Doyle (The Rock). The three of them make the three stupidest criminals ever, but after 3 failed attempts at kidnapping, they successfully kidnap Kershaw and after a series of ridiculous torture methods convince Kershaw to sign over everything. There is a problem though, with Kershaw being one of Lugo's clients, Kershaw knows it is Lugo and therefore, the trio must kill Kershaw. They force feed him alcohol and try to create a drunk driving accident, but when that does not work, they set him on fire, but that still does not kill him. Eventually Lugo convince Doyle to run over Kershaw's face, but that still does not kill him! Oh, did I meantion this is a true story? It is, and among the points the film gets right, are the failed murder attempts. it is the kind of overly ridiculous film moment if it were not true, but because it is true, it is even more ridiculous and unbelievable. Kershaw gets free and begins to plot his revenge by hiring a Private Investigator to find out what is going on. The cops do not believe him and Lugo has all of the proper legal documents stating that Kershaw signed everything over to him. Of course, once poor people get some money, they will want more and the private investigator starts to worry they will do it again. Of course, Doyle soon runs out of money because of his reoccurring cocaine habit and Doorbal needs money because he spent it all on the house he bought for his new wife, who is also the nurse who ingests him with shots in his penis to get him hard because steroid use has left him impotent. Lugo is the only one doing well, but even he realizes with Kershaw free, they will need more money to get away, so they try and set up the whole thing again.

Told through a series of voice over narrations, flashbacks, and a variety of edits and jump cuts, Pain and Gain is as ridiculous and silly a movie can be that is based on a true story of kidnapping, attempted murder, theft and actual murder. There is never a dull moment and the movie moves at such a quick pace, there is never really a moment to question if this could possibly be real. There is a great moment, when after a super ridiculous and unbeleivable thing happens, text flies across the screen reminding us that yes, this is a true story. Bay manages to direct a really great movie that is basically void of serious explosions and that has a run time under 2 hours and 20 minutes. Often his movies can feel a bit bloated, and while there are things here that I could have done without (Ken Jeong's entire contribution), Pain and Gain never overstays its welcome. Plus, Bay gets to keep his usual visual style of nonsense slow motion, swooping camera shots of people looking up at the sky, the bizarre color pallet, and visual sight gags. In this movie, most of the sight gags involve sex toys, because the guys kidnap and keep Kershaw in an abandoned sex toy warehouse. it is totally pointless, but it adds something to the heightened sense of stupidity to the film. Bay understands how to make everything in the scene add to the theme of how in the world did these idiots pull this off?

Wahlberg plays meatheads very well. This is no surprise. He can also play comedy very well as evidenced by Ted. Here Wahlberg gets a chance to do a bit of everything. He is the "brains" of the operation, and the leader, but he also gets a good amount of comic relief in his flabbergasted state that he is working with people even stupider than he is. Wahlberg does a great job diving into the character of Lugo, who you know is doing a bad thing, but he is not all together unlikable. I would not say I was rooting for him, but I understood that he really believed he was doing a good thing. Kershaw was a total jerk and everyone hated him. Lugo gets the money and does good things with it. He treats the employees of Kershaw's shop better, he starts a Neighborhood Watch in his new mansion and he funds the gym where he works so they can have the best machines. He believe in changing lives through fitness, remember. Mackie is his usual solid self, proving that he is an invaluable character actor. Rebel Wilson, as Mackie's wife is excellent. She does not have much to do, but she is hilarious and the character even breaks your heart just a bit as the whole thing comes crashing down.

However, the MVP of this film is The Rock. Talk about a breakout performance. The Rock's Doyle is a man fresh out of jail, believing God can rehabilitate him. He is a big dumb oaf, who is too trusting and too willing to help. His performance is flat out awesome. It will never get awards notice, but it should. Beyond his intimidating physical bulk, the Rock transforms himself in this role. He throws everything he has at it and we, the audience, are rewarded with a layered performance that is manic, tragic, hilarious and drugged up. The Rock makes the entire film pop every time he is on the screen. If you think I am overselling this, you are wrong. I was rooting for The Rock to find a great break out role and I truly believe this is it. I was laughing hysterically at him when I was supposed to be laughing and I was worried for him as he faced the possibility of killing someone. It was fun to watch someone so scary looking be the one who most despises violence. It leads to a few key moments between Wahlberg and The Rock.

Pain and Gain is hilarious in a dark way and in an unabashedly goofy way, but knowing 85% of the film is the true story makes the ridiculous comedy even more hilarious. Bay directs what is probably his tightest movie and all of actors shine where you need them to shine. The color pallet of the film takes a bit to get used to, if you are not used to Michael Bay's heightened sense of Florida, which I am. I had pretty high expectations for this film and they were all met.

Final Grade: B+