Pain & Gain (2013) - Bay succeeds with smaller scope testosterone-fueled true-crime

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Three Hollywood beefcakes against the Stars and Stripes make up this poster for Michael Bay's Pain & Gain

Daniel Lugo is an ambitious bodybuilder and trainer in Miami, Florida, who wants more and makes a plan of how he's going to get it: With two compadres he intends to kidnap a rich man and steal everything he owns.

 

Pain & Gain is written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (You Kill Me (2007), both), based on a 1999 series of Miami New Times articles about the real-life Sun Gym gang written by Pete Collins. The film is directed by Michael Bay (Bad Boys (1995)).

Bay appropriates a Goodfellas (1990)-like approach to this incredible, more or less true crime story, which succeeds largely thanks to a tremendous cast: Dwayne Johnson (The Other Guys (2010)) is charismatic and funny as a neo-Christian coke-head, and Anthony Mackie (Seberg (2019)) and Mark Wahlberg (Planet of the Apes (2001)) give themselves 100 % as the Stooges-like gang's other two knucklehead members. Tony Shalhoub (Rosy (2018)) is frenetic as one unsympathetic victim; Rebel Wilson (Bridesmaids (2011)) is funny; Rob Cordry (80 for Brady (2023)) is cool; and Ed Harris (Absolute Power (1997)) is perfect as the detective who becomes the group's downfall.

Photographed (by Ben Seresin (The Mummy (2017)) with the expected visual flair and eye for details of excess from the sickly Miami life. A part of the fun in Pain & Gain is undeniably in poor taste, (SPOILER especially the chainsaw scene), but since it is a Bay picture about criminal bodybuilders in Miami, this reservation seems pointless. The film gets a bit lost in all the points of its outrageous story and thereby grows long. Yet it remains very entertaining as a dark-humored crime dramedy.

 

Related posts:

 

Michael Bay: 13 Hours/13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) - Bay portrays controversial recent history in generally thrilling actioner 

Pearl Harbor (2001) - Bay's stuffed war melodrama baloney 

Armageddon (1998) or, Macho Men Save Earth From Disaster!  

Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Bad Boys (1995) - Bay's successful buddy cop debut is still fun

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 26 mil. $

Box office: 87.3 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.35 times its cost)

[Pain & Gain premiered 11 April (Miami, Florida) and runs 129 minutes. Shooting took place from April - June 2012 in Miami, Florida. The film opened #1 to a 20.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3-#4), grossing 49.8 mil. $ (57 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 7.2 mil. $ (8.2 %) and Germany with 6.2 mil. $ (7.1 %). Sun Gym gang victim Mark Schiller sued over his portrayal in the film, and Paramount paid him an undisclosed sum to drop the suit. Bay returned with Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). Johnson returned in Fast & Furious 6 (2013); Wahlberg in 2 Guns (2013). Pain & Gain is rotten at 50 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Pain & Gain? 

The Hurt Locker (2008) - Bigelow's electric Iraq War thriller

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  + Breakthrough Actor of the Year: Jeremy Renner + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best War Thriller of the Year 

 

An explosive poster for Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker

We follow a small bomb disarmament team in their last 40 days prior to getting sent back home to the US from the Iraq War. Sergeant James is the bomb expert, who pressures himself and his comrades beyond the expected, and pays the price.

 

The Hurt Locker is written by Mark Boal (In the Valley of Elah (2007, story)) and directed by Californian master filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow (The Loveless (1981)) as her 8th feature.

The film is as suspenseful as the adrenaline fix that protagonist James is chasing, successfully coupling a 'war is hell' narrative with an enormously excitement-driven thriller. Jeremy Renner (28 Weeks Later (2007)) is a find in the very Tom Cruise-like protagonist role. He gets excellent backing from Anthony Mackie (Synchonic (2019)), Brian Geraghty, David Morse, Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes. The film's portrayal of the war's distance-creating conflict to the life at home burns fiercely, even if Sergeant James' explanation of himself to his son is a bit overly eloquent, (and the film's title remains unexplained.) The trials seem realistic and are awfully exciting.

Camera style-wise I could have wished for some more fluid conversations, but the anxiety is played up here with twitchy handheld work and lots of edits. This is but a minor aside to a truly excellent war picture.

 

Related posts:

 

Kathryn Bigelow: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) - Bigelow makes the Bin Laden manhunt into suspenseful, debate-inspiring, intense contemporary cinema 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

 

 

Watch a short but intense clip from the film here

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 49.2 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.28 times its cost)

[The Hurt Locker premiered 4 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 131 minutes. Boal was embedded with a US bomb squad in Iraq for 2 weeks in 2004, which informed his script. Renner was paid 65k $ for his performance. Bigelow unsuccessfully attempted to get permits to shoot in Iraq or Kuwait. Shooting took place from July - September 2007 in British Columbia, including in Vancouver, and in Jordan, including in Amman. The Jordan shoot, at times near the Iraq border, was a high-stress, rough shoot with average temperatures of reportedly 49 degrees Celsius, illnesses, accidents and dangerous security situations, resulting in reportedly 200 hours of shot footage. The film opened #27 to a 145k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #13 and in 535 theaters, grossing 17 mil. $ (34.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 7.7 mil. $ (15.7 %) and Australia with 5.2 mil. $ (10.6 %). It was nominated for 9 Oscars, winning 6: For Best Picture, Director (Bigelow became the first female to win the honor), Original Screenplay, Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. It lost Best Actor (Renner) to Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, Cinematography (Barry Aykroyd (Captain Phillips (2013))) to Mauro Fiore for Avatar and Score (Marco Beltrami (Love and Monsters (2020)) and Buck Sanders (Highway 395 (2000))) to Michael Giacchino for Up. It also won 6/8 BAFTA nominations, an AFI award, was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards, 3 Golden Globes and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among countless other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. The film made in excess of 30 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Bigelow returned with The Miraculous Year (2011, TV movie) and theatrically with Zero Dark Thirty (2012). Renner returned in The Oaks (2008, TV-series)) and theatrically in Ingenious (2009). The Hurt Locker is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Hurt Locker? 

Man on a Ledge (2012) - Neutered stars in insipid thriller

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Star faces and a major still of the titular suicide scenario with fish-eye effect make up this poster for Asger Leth's Man on a Ledge

 

An escaped convict gets out on a ledge on a tall hotel building in Manhattan - but why?

 

Man on a Ledge is written by Pablo F. Fenjves (A Case for Murder (1993, TV movie)) and directed by Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006, documentary)).

It is hard to care about mullet-haired Sam Worthington's (Bootmen (2000)) protagonist's plans in this dull, unexciting thriller. A random cast of stars are seemingly present to cash easy paychecks, and unfortunately lead Worthington is especially uninteresting.

The film has only insufficient and small bouts of weak action. Man on a Ledge is deeply forgettable and pointless. Its story is hard to follow as it plays out, simply because it is so facade-focused and vacuous. A major turkey.

 

Related post:

 

Asger Leth: Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006, documentary) - A. Leth debuts with formidable documentary

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 42 mil. $

Box office: 47.6 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.13 times its cost)

[Man on a Ledge was released 26 January (Germany and 6 other markets) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place in New York around October 2010. The film opened #5, behind fellow new release The Grey, holdover hit Underworld: Awakening, new release One for the Money and holdover hit Red Tails, to an 8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 18.6 mil. $ (39.1 % of the total gross. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 3.9 mil. $ (9 %) and South Korea with 3.8 mil. $ (8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Leth returned with Hold On (2012). Worthington returned in Wrath of the Titans (2012). Man on a Ledge is rotten at 31 % with a 4.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Man on a Ledge?

She Hate Me (2004) or, Champion of the Lesbians

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+ Worst Dollar Return of the Year: 0.18 Times the Cost

Star Anthony Mackie has a deer-in-the-headlights kind of vacant look on his face on this brightly colored poster for Spike Lee's She Hate Me

Jack Armstrong works for a medical company, which manipulates the value of its new HIV-drug. He decides to blow the whistle on the scam, is consequently fired and instead begins impregnating lesbians for money. - Which ends him up in court.

She Hate Me is written by Michael Genet (Talk to Me (2007)) and great Georgian co-writer/co-producer/director Spike Lee (She's Gotta Have It (1986)). 
There's runs a tongue-in-cheek line from Lee's great theatrical debut She's Gotta Have It to She Hate Me almost 20 years later, - possibly implicitly saying something about the filmmaker's own private experiences with women? The latter film is way less youthful, fresh and vibrant than Lee's early work. Implicitly, again, She Hate Me is in favor of gay families, which are at the film's center, but it soaks its pro-LGBT politics in a heavy bath of vinegar, which seems always to be aware of these family constructions as being 'wrong' in some unexpressed way, which is weak and uncool of Lee.
She Hate Me still works as an off-center late-night watch with plenty of New York aroma to it. It has a sex idea at its core, - call it smart or fun, - that forces Armstrong to have actual sex with the lesbians, although this also comes off possibly male-chauvinist, as the lesbians are wildly excited about both the male body and sex with a man. (The very thing lesbians by definition are not traditionally interested in...)
What lifts this flawed conception, in the end, and gets it flying enjoyably still, are the performances: Anthony Mackie (We Are Marshall (2006)), Kerry Washington (Sin (2003)), Woody Harrelson (Wildcats (1986)) and John Turturro (Margot at the Wedding (2007)) are all good, the latter in a mafia part that has him as the father of Monica Bellucci (The Apartment (1996)), who is 7½ years younger than him in real life, a bit of a stretch. Despite all these problems, I still liked She Hate Me.

Related posts:
 
Spike Lee:  The day after the day after ... the 2019 Oscars

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
25th Hour (2002) or, Taking a Second Chance

Listen to 4 minutes of the film's soundtrack here

Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: 1.5 mil. $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.18 times its cost)
[She Hate Me premiered 20 July (New York) and runs 138 minutes. Shooting took place in all of New York's 5 boroughs and in New Jersey from March - May 2004. The film opened #55 to a 55k $ first weekend in 11 theaters in North America, where it never achieved a higher rank, although it spread out to 28 theaters, grossing 366k $ (24.4 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was France with 653k $ (43.5 %). North America was the 2nd biggest, and 3rd biggest was Italy with 226k $ (17.7 %). The film is the 2nd lowest-grossing of Lee's career, behind Red Hook Summer (2012). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Lee returned with a TV movie, 2 episodes of a miniseries, a short and a movie segment before hitting cinemas with a proper work of his own again with Inside Man (2006). Mackie returned in Haven (2004); Washington in Ray (2004). She Hate Me is rotten at 19 % with a 3.93/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of She Hate Me?

Gangster Squad (2013) or, Good Men vs. Bad Men!

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Los Angeles is ravaged by the Jewish gangster boss Mickey Cohen, but one good police chief wants to get rid of him, and he gets a pertinacious, tough cop to lead the group which is to crush Cohen.
Gangster Squad is highly stylized and handsomely produced, but cartoonish in its simplified representation of reality; good vs. bad.
Reality yields to action and gore in this forgettable, thoughtless, - but entertaining - shoot-em-up-movie. It is based on true events but takes so many liberties in its storytelling that it is more fiction than historical by any reasonable account.
Sean Penn (Mystic River (2003)) goes theatrical with his heavily make-up-created villain. Ryan Gosling (Drive (2011)) not so much plays a character as merely being a sex-steaming model for the film. The macho-picture that is Gangster Squad also mauls over one of its few female roles, Josh Brolin's wife in the movie (Mireille Enos), who only plays functional second banana to the inelegant, stomping picture.
It is directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland (2009)), who had to reshoot a scene of a shooting at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood following the Aurora-shooting (during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises that killed 12 people and injured 58). The real-life massacre also changed the trailer and pushed back the release of Gangster Squad by around 6 months.
The squad that is the basis of Gangster Squad has also been the basis of another movie, Lee Tamahori's better Mulholland Falls (1996).
Since the relative flop of this and Fleischer's movie before it, 30 Minutes or Less (2011), he has reverted to TV gigs for the time being.


Related posts:

Ruben Fleischer: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

30 Minutes or Less (2011) or, Idiots and Lesser Idiots

'Pulp' version of the Gangster Squad poster

 Watch the film's in-your-face trailer right here

Budget: 60 mil. $
Box office: 105.2 mil. $
= Minor flop

What do you think of Gangster Squad?

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) - Middle-of-the-road ahistorical nonsense

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+ Stupidest Movie of the Year

A dark, blue-tinted poster for Timur Bekmambetov's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Lincoln leaves in his wake a journal over his secret profession as a vampire hunter from young man and ahead, as the nation gets threatened by the vampires of the South.
Hunter is based on a so-called mashup novel with the same title by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also co-wrote the screenplay.
The story is historically insulting. - 'Barack Obama: Vampire Hunter' would obviously be wrong, so how can it be that national hero Lincoln is alright? (I guess time makes everything fair game to some.)
The basically (for me) unacceptable idea doesn't get any wings to fly with in the actual film; a mediocre cast, - highlights Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Die Hard 4.0 (2007)), Anthony Mackie (Pain & Gain (2013)) and Dominic Cooper (Fleming (2013), TV), - in a mediocre production. Nothing lights up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter; there's no fun, no sense of any intelligence behind it. The only thing this action/horror/romance has going for it is its technically fair execution.
Director Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch (2004)), a Kazakhstani action filmmaker, is now rumored to direct a remake of Ben-Hur (2016), which seems like an absolutely terrible idea.

Related posts:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch the ludicrous movie's trailer here

Budget: 69 mil. $
Box office: 116.4 mil. $
= Unspectacular

What do you think of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter?
And what do you think of letting its director tinker with Ben-Hur?