Pain and Gain
Opens Friday at Scotiabank
That subtlety is not Michael Bays strong suit is well known. However, if youve ever walked Miami Beachs Ocean Drive, you know that Bay might just be the right man to tell a tale of excess and unashamed superficiality.And there was hope that the directors buddy comedy/true-crime caper Pain and Gain could deliver, reined in by the restraint of a smallish budget (a reported $25 million: barely enough to cover Optimus Primes personal trainer).No such luck, as Bays promising story suffers from too much of everything: gore, violence, extraneous characters, and an inflated sense of its own importance. The movie is all about bulking up, but some serious trimming down couldve made it a contender. Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is a personal trainer at Miami Beachs Sun Gym in the mid-90s, unwilling to endure "another 40 years of wearing sweatpants to work." After seeing inspirational speaker Johnny Wu (Ken Jeong) in action, Daniel recruits fellow gym buddy Adrian (Anthony Mackie) in a nefarious scheme to kidnap one of their clients, slimy deli owner Victor Kershaw (Tony Shaloub) and get him to sign over of all his assets. With the arrival of recently released convict Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson, looking even less like a Paul Doyle than he does a Dwayne Johnson), the team is complete. "I watched a lotta movies I know what Im doing," Daniel reassures them. Together these guys bumble their way through every plan, worse than amateurs. It would be silly stuff were it not true, which is the only reason we watch past the first blood is spilled. Flush with cash, the boys become careless, broke and greedy for more. World-weary private investigator Ed du Bois (Ed Harris) is called in to pick up where the disinterested Miami Police left off; no one can believe that three ninja-clad muscle men got perpetrated the crime.Johnson gives the best performance here. His gentle giant is putty in Daniels hands, and his tenuous grip on prison-born faith and sobriety is a sad thing to watch. Wahlberg is merely fine; Mackies role consists mostly of jokes about his lost manhoodThe true story, gleaned from Pete Collins magazine articles, is ridiculous enough on paper without extra embellishment. Disappointing, then, that Bay chose to add to the mayhem with redundant chase scenes and added gore (I lost interest after the Chihuahua toe snack). Rather than present the story as a darkly comic cautionary tale, the film is so much hammy fun that it is sure to inspire the same felonious career ambitions among many in the audience. Other things learned from watching the film: women are hookers or strippers, or well on their way; steroids will shrivel up your man parts and cause impotence, but its played for a few cheap laughs here (with Rebel Wilson playing Adrians understanding girlfriend, again too much).This perverse spin on the American dream held promise. It is billed as an action comedy, but played with a little more pathos Pain and Gain couldve been a knockout.
