Bad guys Based on a newspaper article, the film tells about a group of bodybuilders who kidnap a millionaire in order to take all his wealth. The picture from the very first minutes in a frantic pace and colorful editing rushes into battle with humor, a little absurdity and a spectacular stylish picture.
Michael Bay, the most explosive, mainstream and action director of all time and peoples applies in the film both his favorite tricks in the spirit of flying the camera on a single frame from room to room, and new developments from Transformers in the spirit of a live fastened camera and slowing scenes. “Pain & Gain” is such a revealing video clip of all visual lotions and stylish features, Michael Bay in his best form, signature creativity, with a noticeable growth compared to the first works, as well as the ability to shoot shootouts, broken cars, beautiful girls from a strip club and stars of the first magnitude for a pitiful penny in a grinding picture! Only he can do that!
Mark Wahlberg, rocked so much that even Dwayne Johnson can be envious (however, he does look like a beast and a killer machine against the background of the rest, the good type turned out much more interesting than you could expect), plays almost the best role in his career. After successfully fooling around in “Other guys” and “Ted”, he, on the one hand, continues to break away in the image of an inadequate type, and on the other hand, powerfully plays on the theme of the American dream deep gangster drama.
Rock Johnson on the part of a religious fanatic and a cocaine man here in its physical form looks cooler than ever before, in films, in the ring. With this form, I want to wish him as many cool films as possible in the genre of action and adventure, and family cinema he often just chicly decorates. Bay here, thank God, is not a family movie, but with severed hands, thawed skulls, half-naked strippers and shot fingers. “Pain & Gain” turned out to be the most powerful, most R-rated and sturdy film of the director.
Here, humor is so effectively combined with on-screen creep, not rolling into thrash, that it seemed such successful black comedies no longer do. Just brilliant dialogue makes you laugh and open your mouth with surprise. Heroes, represented by a pathetic and stupid gang, every minute throw something like this, and the film rushes with such an aggressive speed that against its background both parts of the Bad Boys will seem tedious and leisurely.
These bad guys are real villains and murderers, with a rather unusual interpretation of the “American dream”, all surprisingly different, but stunningly spectacular. Secondary characters like the characters of the coolest Ed Harris, supermodel Bar Pali and funny Ken Jong add a special flavor. The character of the Rock is completely religiously fanatical, which turned out to be the most interesting in the picture due to all the duality that happens to him and the internal struggle of evil and good forces.
The film satirically runs through a variety of curious public facts, ranging from sloppy cops seeing a chainsaw with hair and blood in the store, receiving messages on the radio, but still not arresting a couple of villains, continuing with gay priests, idiotic motivation seminars, or the underlying relationships between classes, races and stereotypes of society, and ending even with such absurdity that typing in the store an obvious set for dismemberment and disposal of a corpse (barrels, chainsaw, solvent and the like) will not say anything.
The absurdity of what is happening is regularly combined with reminders that it is all a real story. And such absurdities and stupidities occur in life, as there are such unbreakable morons with a perverted pathos, who have entered the slippery path of crime. Black comedy is really brutal and cruel, but also incredibly funny. What is the only cost of frying fingers-barbecue in front of friendly neighbors or died of an overdose of sleeping pills, not having time to report the safe code. Scene by scene, the picture leaves incredible memorable adventures of the main characters, creepy and funny, delusional and incredible, while not torn by a patchwork blanket, but very clearly kept within the framework of the told criminal story.
The action here is mostly fun too. Sometimes kindly, like a lost client for kidnapping, going to another car, sometimes evilly, in the spirit of a dog running with a shot finger or jokes about the lack of potency. The explosion for the whole film is only 1, but branded genre - with cool guys who do not look at the fire, pathetically walking on camera. The musical selection and completely demolishes the roof, Bay regularly experiments, then will include some rock music, including a chic hit from Bon Jovi, then will mount a video sequence under R`n`B clip and will give the credits of the famous «Gangsta's Paradise» from Coolio.
A sea of violence, a sea of female nudity, beautiful wheelbarrows, cool guys, chic musical accompaniment and brilliant spectacular camera work, a juicy advertising picture with beauties and expensive “toys” – a nuclear evil cocktail of drama, criminal black comedy and action, and all based on real events, some of the real participants of which will be shown in the first few minutes of the credits. With a small scale of history and a rather modest budget (although the film looks much more expensive than the stated amount), it is difficult to compare it with Armageddon, Pearl Harbor or Transformers, but Pain & Gain is definitely a new masterpiece of the great Michael Bay, and moreover, one of his best films, if not the most-most!
10 IZ 10
Original