ninazaharin blog: Pain & Gain

Pain & Gain1 Star

Good movies can be made about bad people. Although we may not like the characters as presented we can still find ourselves involved with the situation of the story. You might even sympathize with the plight of the characters but in the case of PAIN & GAIN I doubt one would find anything to sympathize with these characters. This is an extremely disappointing film and given the talent level of those involved it is a borderline disaster.When one walks into a Michael Bay directed film one should to expect. Fast edits, flashy camera angles, lots of slow motion shots etc. In this film Bay brings his usual bag of tricks with him although this time he is dealing with human characters rather than robot characters. Mark Wahlberg, The Rock and Anthony Mackie play bodybuilders who decide the best way to live the American Dream is to take it from someone who already has it. Since these are the three of the dumbest criminals in recent cinema history it is no wonder that their plan goes terribly wrong. The film is being marketed as a comedy and I was expecting it to be a look at bodybuilders or something along those lines but what I got was something else all together. The story is based on a true story and involves some very gruesome events but here these things are played for laughs and it makes it hard to gain any sympathy for the characters. All three leads try their best to make this material work but they are hampered by a very bad script and worse directions. This is one of those films where they probably had an absolute ball making the film but little of that fun is seen on the screen.When I reviewed SNITCH I was critical of The Rock for taking a role has him play a normal looking guy but no one in the film comments on his obvious size. While I applauded him for attempting to break his “Rock” image I think it hindered that films effectiveness. Well here he is playing a bodybuilder and of course that is role that is perfectly suited for him. However his fans maybe surprised as to what his actual role in the film is. He is definitely playing against type here but unfortunately Bay is incapbable of getting a good performance out of him. He is capable of playing against type as he did in BE COOL but the difference is that the material in that film is better. All the lead actors in the film give bad performance and that is a clear indication of a combination of poor direction and a poor script.There are a couple of moments that almost makes the film bearable. Ken Jeong has a hilarious cameo as a motivational speaker and one can only hope that character could get developed into his own movie. Rebel Wilson is also very funny and underused as Anthony Mackie’s nurse girlfriend. And a late appearance by Ed Harris had me hoping he was save the film but by this point all hope is lost. I would rather spend time with those characters than the lead characters and just goes to show you that no matter how talented the cast, there is just no saving bad material.This is one of the year’s worst films without a doubt and it contains one of the grossest, unnecessary shot in recent memory. The offending shot/moment has absolutely nothing to do with the story and its inclusion is a mystery. The stars of this film will recover and will go on to do bigger and better things. A better film could have been made with this subject matter and it’s obvious that Bay is better at directing robots than humans. Although the TRANSFORMER films are not much better than this I was expecting a lot more given the talents of Wahlberg, The Rock, and Mackie. Better luck next time gents.******SIDE NOTE******When I saw a screening of this film there were lots of children in attendance. Obviously their parents did not take the time to do a little research to determine the rating and if the film was appropriate for children. Although it stars The Rock it is NOT appropriate for children. It contains nudity, heavy drug use, murder, dismemberment, jokes involving sex toys and erectile dysfunction. Leave the kiddos at home for this one.
Source:http://hillstreetviewz.blogspot.com/2013/04/pain-gain.html

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