Pain & Gain (2013)

Michael Bay took a true story about bodybuilding thieves and kidnappers, and chewed it up and spit it out bigger and better than before.  The producer and director has a tendency to go big or go home.  Pain & Gain went huge with a super sized Mark Wahlberg, a bulkier Dwayne Johnson “The Rock”, and an extra beefed up Anthony Mackie.

I should not have enjoyed this movie, but I did.  It is supposedly a true story, but you have to believe that with Michael Bay involved, the film could very well be far from the truth.  Everything about the movie was way over-the-top.

The movie was raunchy, vulgar, and went totally off the deep end.  It’s filled with drugs, cussing, nudity, and brutality.  I was caught off guard at how funny the movie was though.  I expected an action/adventure and I got an action/comedy.  The story is pretty twisted and it needed a lot of comedy to help you get through it, so kudos to the filmmakers for recognizing this fact.  The real story was probably not that funny.  The real story was probably not that entertaining either.

If you are not a fan of dark comedy, then you might not like this movie.  It is mostly filled with dark comedy and stupid comedy.  After all, all brawn and no brains is the underlined theme of this film.  The movie could also be considered very offensive.  If you are easily offended, you might not like the film.

The rest of the notable cast includes Tony Shalhoub, Ed Harris, Rob Corddry, Bar Paly, Rebel Wilson, Ken Jeong, Michael Risponi, Larry Hankin, Tony Plana, and Peter Stormare.

The characters were far out, but very well-acted.  The casting was perfect.  I don’t think that you could find a funnier bunch of giants anywhere.  With that being said, if this movie had a different cast, it probably would have just been awful.  I am certain that the actual people that the characters are based on are not nearly as likable as the actors who play them in the movie.

With how big Mark Wahlberg is now, if he could go back in time and fight his character in The Fighter (2010), he would beat the crap out of that guy.  He gained 40lbs. to make Pain & Gain and he looks gigantic.  Dwayne Johnson “The Rock” somehow became more enormous for his role.  It just goes to show the dedication that these guys had to make the movie.

I rate this movie a 7 on a scale of 1-10.

Buy, rent, or run?  Rent.

If you liked Pain & Gain, then you will most likely enjoy:

2 Guns (2013)

Broken City (2013)

Ted (2013)