Director: Michael Bay
Talent: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub
Release Date: 30th August 2013
Pain & Gain, the based-on-a-true-story of Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg), a visualise-and-achieve-obsessed personal trainer who kidnaps a wealthy client (Tony Shahloub) and forces him to sign over all his possessions, is talked about as having been a pet project and labour of love for its director, the larger-than-life Michael Bay. Set in Florida in the mid-90s, the film revels in itself as a monument to excess, as a gaudy, exhilarating look at the dark side of the American Dream. In doing so, it bears more than a superficial resemblance to this year’s Spring Breakers, which similarly suffered from having less in the way of good ideas than it did running minutes. It’s not vintage Bay: not exciting enough to be a multiplex action film, nor clever enough to be the Tarantino-esque kidnap caper it occasionally aspires to be. Some clever handheld cinematography and heavily saturated filter work makes it look the part, but there’s little besides to recommend this long, low foghorn salute to the U.S.A.
