Pain & Gain is supposed to be a comedy about criminal bodybuilders. In reality, it plays like a campy SNL skit. There are funny moments but there is an overall lack of chemistry between the entire cast. I then found out Michael Bay directed it and it all made sense. He's not known for creating the best onset atmosphere.
The Rock's character..excuse me, Dwayne Johnson's character, had potential and is the funniest of the bunch, but his talent was still overtaken by the heavy-handed directing and bad script.
Originally I thought the whole "this is true" bit was like Fargo where a part of the fake story is to pretend it was real. Then the ending with the pictures of the actual criminals came up and I looked it up. It's a sad and crazy story. Then in reflecting upon the movie I was disturbed. It's quite actually in bad taste to make a comedy out of two people being butchered and another being tortured for a month! The families did not approve of this version of the story and are all outraged. I would be as well and had I known this from the start, I would not have watched this out of respect to the victims.
If they wanted to make it a comedy, they would have been much better off angling it as a dark comedy where the seriousness of the killings don't seem so diminished. Any which way you look at it, even if it wasn't a true story, the movie was not made well and is disorganized.
A painful mess. I do not recommend it.
