Pain and gain

Year of release : 2013

Run time : 2h10min

Genre : Action / Comedy

Cast : Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub, Ed Harris, Rebel Wilson, Peter Stormare

Director : Michael Bay

The movie is based on a 1999 series of Miami New Times articles by Pete Collins,compiled in the "Pain and Gain:This is a True Story" book,released at the same time with the movie.

In 1994,Daniel Lugo,an ex convict and bodybuilder, working at a gym as a manager, meets Victor Kershaw. As the man likes to talk when he trains,he finds out he is rich. He decides to kidnap him and make him give him everything he owns. He convinces his friend, Adrian Doorbal, who is impotent due to the steroids he injects to look buff,to help him,and together they bring in Paul Doyle,another ex convict,and born again Christian,who at first doesn't want anything to do with their plan.

 

They manage to kidnap Victor ,after a few failures,and torture him,as he refuses to give them his money. After he gives in, they take rounds in keeping an eye on him,and Victor starts to work on 'the weak link' Paul,in order to escape.

Needless to say,he does not escape,and the men plan to k1ll him.

It's a Michael Bay movie,so you know it's beautifully directed,it has vivid colors,it has good music,beautiful people and Bay's favorite city,Miami. The movie reminds me of the Bad Boys franchise. I don't know when it was released,but it felt like a summer movie.

The movie was funny,which I didn't expect from a biography,but also has a lot of scenes unsuited for minors.

Only one problem with this picture : Transylvania is a region in Romania,and Bucharest is not in it.

The actors were great. Mark Wahlberg stood out,but the rest were good too,including Dwayne Johnson ,whom I never considered as being one of the best,but he gave a good performance in this one.

I loved the soundtrack.

The title of the movie comes from the fitness mantra "no pain, no gain".

The movie received mixed reviews, the critics loving the performances and story, but hating the directing, violence and historical inaccuracies (as many significant people are dropped from the story (as the gang was much larger), and new major characters were added,yet we're told it's a true story; and many details are changed) . The man Victor was inspired by, sued the production company over the way he was portrayed in the movie!

The movie was a success, as it grossed 86 million dollars against a budget of 26 million.

Cinema Score audiences gave the movie a C+, on an A+ to F scale.

 

The movie is 7 days free on Paramount+, Paramount+ on Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+ on AppleTv Channels, Paramount+ The Roku Channels, Philo, and for rent / sale on Amazon, AppleTv, Fandango at Home.

Rating : Worth a watch !