Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and high-octane director Michael Bay (Transformers) bring this comedy about a pair of knucklehead bodybuilders in Florida, who get mixed up in a doomed extortion and kidnapping scheme. Based on a true story.
Pain & Gain marks a change of pace for Bay - the movie's budget is only $US25 million (a tiny budget relative to Transformers). The script is based on a story uncovered in a series of newspaper articles by investigative journalist Pete Collins.
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It's telling that Michael Bay's notion of a scaled-down, pared-back movie experience is a dark, violent comedy bulging at the seams with testosterone. All of Bay's films exist in a glistening wonderland of toned bods and over-the-top action, and Pain & Gain has plenty of the former but little of the latter.
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Bay can be a master of exuberant chaos, but here the violence mostly lands with a sickening thud, which is fitting, one supposes, but also ultimately numbing.
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It’s M.B. business as usual: You’ve got your jacked-up, Jerry Bruckheimer–sanctioned aesthetic that jettisons all editorial coherence.
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It's like a giant sculpture that is so strange and off-putting, it's instantly, intriguingly post-modern. Swept up in the film's pile-driving self-assurance, even Bay-haters may absorb the pain to enjoy the gain.
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It all leaves you pondering whether you have just seen a monumentally stupid movie or a brilliant movie about the nature and consequences of stupidity.
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Pain & Gain is available to stream in New Zealand now on Google Play and Apple TV.
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