Based (apparently)on a true story - Mark Wahlberg plays
Daniel Lugo, a bodybuilding personal trainer who believes achieving physical
perfection, unlocking his full potential and making use of his “gifts” will
help him strive towards the American dream. However, these desires are undone
by the fact that Lugo is a total plank. With the help of the equally dense Adrian Doorbal(Anthony
Mackie) and Paul Doyle(Dwayne Johnson) the trio hatch an ill-conceived plan to
extort a fitness client, which all goes horribly wrong.
Pain and Gain struggles initially with figuring out its comedic tone and there are a few missteps where it doesn’t really know whether it is a dumb gross out comedy, a black comedy or indeed, trying to satirise the bodybuilding community. The result is that it ends up doing a bit of all three. For better or for worse, all of the Michael Bay directorial traits we have come to expect are present – although there are less explosions than his typical blockbuster staples - the film is still incredibly loud, brash, pumped up fare with deliberately meretricious, oversaturated visuals. Dwayne Johnson plays a real knuckleheaded character and is the funniest thing in the movie and Mark Wahlberg is also very amusing, demonstrating once again, a real flare for comedy. It is hindered by its overlong run-time and often the humour and indeed the purpose of the film get lost amidst its own ramped up, erratic stupidity and violence. Pain and Gain is nonetheless, entertaining.
Pain and Gain struggles initially with figuring out its comedic tone and there are a few missteps where it doesn’t really know whether it is a dumb gross out comedy, a black comedy or indeed, trying to satirise the bodybuilding community. The result is that it ends up doing a bit of all three. For better or for worse, all of the Michael Bay directorial traits we have come to expect are present – although there are less explosions than his typical blockbuster staples - the film is still incredibly loud, brash, pumped up fare with deliberately meretricious, oversaturated visuals. Dwayne Johnson plays a real knuckleheaded character and is the funniest thing in the movie and Mark Wahlberg is also very amusing, demonstrating once again, a real flare for comedy. It is hindered by its overlong run-time and often the humour and indeed the purpose of the film get lost amidst its own ramped up, erratic stupidity and violence. Pain and Gain is nonetheless, entertaining.
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