Pain &Gain Critique :Markietra Keese
Pain and Gain is a very comical yet debatable movie about finding the American Dream. The movie is a true story about a 1999 published article in the Miami New Times written by Pete Collins. What makes this movie good is that there is no question that these real life criminals are amateurs, and the actors Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Mackie, and Dwayne Johnson portray that very well. What makes this movie less than great, is the thought that the actors weren’t given enough to work with to make the film better. Michael Bay, the director of the film has a style like no other, but that does not necessarily mean that it is the best style for this type of movie.
Daniel Lugo (Wahlberg) opens up the movie explaining why he has turned into a felon. The answer is simple, he wants to have the American Dream. This is a controversial topic throughout the entire movie of what actually makes the American Dream, and how far people are willing to go to achieve it. In the movie you see that the characters, stole, impersonated, murdered, kidnapped, and tortured to have their own versions of the American Dream, but these real life events were made fun of. The events that happened were real and people were killed by these men, but you kind of forget that it is a true story, until a pop up message says “This is still a true story” while Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson) is grilling the hands of his victims outside.
Although this movie has a funny side, there wasn’t enough effort to make this movie wow me, and I can’t blame the actors for that. It does make me wonder if it was made this way to show how dumb and naive the real criminals were, or was this the usual style of the director. There was a lot of action, but the movie gave a off a low budget feel to it, like there wasn’t enough props in the background, yet it was in high definition with vibrant colors, so it was confusing as to how this film was really supposed to look.
Even though this movie did have much controversy, there were some things you couldn’t miss, like the line between rich and poor. Daniel Lugo and his best friend/follower Adrian Doorbal (Mackie), would train guys with 3 million dollar houses everyday. Money was right in front of their faces everyday, so a “simple” plan to take everything that one man had turned into an accidental crime spree.
This action-comedy was very funny, but unfortunately people will forget that this is not fictional and all of this really happened. As much as I love Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson, they are not getting the credit they deserve for this film, because no one wants to praise a comedy with unfortunate events that happened once upon a time ago. My thought is that Michael Bay did not think this one through which is sad because he has done great movies in the past like Bad Boys II and Transformers.
Citations:
O'Sullivan, Michael. "Editorial Review Reminder: That Really Happened." The Washington Post. Washington Post, 26 Apr 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/movies/pain-and-gain,1239843.html>.
Travers, Peter. "Rolling Stones Reviews." Rolling stones. N.p., 2 May 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2014. <http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/pain-and-gain-20130502>.
Pain and Gain is a very comical yet debatable movie about finding the American Dream. The movie is a true story about a 1999 published article in the Miami New Times written by Pete Collins. What makes this movie good is that there is no question that these real life criminals are amateurs, and the actors Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Mackie, and Dwayne Johnson portray that very well. What makes this movie less than great, is the thought that the actors weren’t given enough to work with to make the film better. Michael Bay, the director of the film has a style like no other, but that does not necessarily mean that it is the best style for this type of movie.
Daniel Lugo (Wahlberg) opens up the movie explaining why he has turned into a felon. The answer is simple, he wants to have the American Dream. This is a controversial topic throughout the entire movie of what actually makes the American Dream, and how far people are willing to go to achieve it. In the movie you see that the characters, stole, impersonated, murdered, kidnapped, and tortured to have their own versions of the American Dream, but these real life events were made fun of. The events that happened were real and people were killed by these men, but you kind of forget that it is a true story, until a pop up message says “This is still a true story” while Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson) is grilling the hands of his victims outside.
Although this movie has a funny side, there wasn’t enough effort to make this movie wow me, and I can’t blame the actors for that. It does make me wonder if it was made this way to show how dumb and naive the real criminals were, or was this the usual style of the director. There was a lot of action, but the movie gave a off a low budget feel to it, like there wasn’t enough props in the background, yet it was in high definition with vibrant colors, so it was confusing as to how this film was really supposed to look.
Even though this movie did have much controversy, there were some things you couldn’t miss, like the line between rich and poor. Daniel Lugo and his best friend/follower Adrian Doorbal (Mackie), would train guys with 3 million dollar houses everyday. Money was right in front of their faces everyday, so a “simple” plan to take everything that one man had turned into an accidental crime spree.
This action-comedy was very funny, but unfortunately people will forget that this is not fictional and all of this really happened. As much as I love Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson, they are not getting the credit they deserve for this film, because no one wants to praise a comedy with unfortunate events that happened once upon a time ago. My thought is that Michael Bay did not think this one through which is sad because he has done great movies in the past like Bad Boys II and Transformers.
Citations:
O'Sullivan, Michael. "Editorial Review Reminder: That Really Happened." The Washington Post. Washington Post, 26 Apr 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/movies/pain-and-gain,1239843.html>.
Travers, Peter. "Rolling Stones Reviews." Rolling stones. N.p., 2 May 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2014. <http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/pain-and-gain-20130502>.