Pain & Gain
Pain & Gain
R | 26 April 2013 (USA)
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Daniel Lugo, manager of the Sun Gym in 1990s Miami, decides that there is only one way to achieve his version of the American dream: extortion. To achieve his goal, he recruits musclemen Paul and Adrian as accomplices. After several failed attempts, they abduct rich businessman Victor Kershaw and convince him to sign over all his assets to them. But when Kershaw makes it out alive, authorities are reluctant to believe his story.

Reviews
Diagonaldi Very well executed
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Michael Ledo This is a true story that reads like dumb crook news. Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is a muscle headed body builder who is inspired in ironic fashion by unorthodox motivational speaker Johnny Wu (Ken Jeong). With the aid of two other body builders, Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson) and Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) they devise a plan to kidnap and extort money from Colombian businessman Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub).They fumble their way through the operation and become greedy. It is clear these guys were not bright. The writers created dialouge for these crooks in order to lighten the story and to keep them from looking like complete idiots. Fictional aspects such as making the nurse (Rebel Wilson) look heavy-set with portraying Doorbal as liking those type of women kept the story from becoming dry.The beginning of the film demonstrates some humor as Danny names fictional characters as his heroes..."There are no shortcuts to the American dream" he proclaims. In spite of the efforts made by the writers, the film somehow loses its hook and charm as you wait for it to end.Parental Guide: F-bombs, sex, and nudity. Porn star Nikki Benz is one of the unnamed strippers.
EasyThere Pilgrim The only way I'd like this movie is if Charles Bronson showed-up and took out the trash. The trash being the main characters. I don't understand how anyone can root for murderers and torturers. It's sick to turn such horrible real-life events into a comedy.
mrbassman777 This was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I find it incredulous to believe that human beings could actually be as stupid as they are portrayed to be in this film. By the time I had watched three-fourths of the movie, I wanted bad things to happen to the three protagonists, as they would deserve whatever came their way for being utter morons. The film is filled with crude humor and vulgar language, that just comes off as being in poor taste. This movie is a monument to the glorification of crime and getting what you want without earning it. I would not recommend this film, it is unwatchable.
Sam Fonseca Pain and gain is the true story of Daniel Lugo, portrayed by Mark Wahlberg, a likable criminal with genius plan to get rich with his two partners in crime, which horribly backfires. His two accomplices are Paul Doyle, Played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Adrian Doorbal, who is played by Anthony Mackie. This film is a true classic crime, drama with bits of comedy. Pain & Gain was directed by Michael Bay, which you may categorise him as someone who makes bad movies such as Transformers which contained an overhaul of explosions and special effects, who changes his stance on films completely with a crime comedy, with little special effects and explosions. When I first went to watch the film I judged it all wrong. I thought it would be another comedy that wasn't funny and a waste of time. But convinced by my friends to watch it, I can safely say it was worth every penny. I think the best part of the film was the phenomenal acting by Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson & Anthony Mackie. Portraying the characters amazingly. It felt like I was watching the real thing. Dwayne Johnson fits the role Of Paul Doyle perfectly, who is a body builder but a very religious man with a good conscience. Michael bay did a really superb jobs in the casting. The only criticism of the film is that it has a very slow build to the action and the drama. But it's a needed build with the films, so when watching remember to patient and accept the long but great build. The main point of the film was to re-enact the true events but to keep the audience entertained, as well as get a few laughs on the way. A film that truly won't disappoint. My overall rating of the film is 9 stars out of 10. Only because I felt all the build was not need some of it was there for no reason, and could have been a shorter film and could have kept the audience entertained for the whole film.