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? 

Cars (2006) - Idiotic, loud sports drama animation

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+ Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

Powerful visuals on this poster for John Lasseter and Joe Ranft's Cars

QUICK REVIEW:

Lightning McQueen is a solo-driving race car star, who falls off the transportation truck and ends up in an abandoned small town, where he learns something about friendship and teamwork, before SPOILER he triumphs completely at the mega-race.

Cars is an almost unendurable movie; intolerably loud and overwrought, and seemingly based on the dubious core value that everyone wants to be famous and # 1.
This rather flat and illusory representation of people and the world is then exposed to a carpet-bombing of mostly American accents, whereof especially the stereotypical Southern ones are gratingly awful.
The story is wildly predictable and sentimental. It doesn't lift the task of getting us to feel any empathy for cars. The idea is in some way just too ridiculous... - What was Paul Newman (Torn Curtain (1966)) doing lending his voice to this film, which became the last of his career?
The one thing that can't be taken away from Cars is its animation, which is incredibly handsome. - But that is, of course, not enough, seeing as Cars is the last exclusive Pixar film (before their merger with Disney), the animation studio that brought us Toy Story (1995) and many other endearing classics.
It is directed by John Lasseter (Toy Story), with (according to IMDb) co-director Joe Ranft (Finding Nemo (2003), voice actor). Lasseter is busy with Cars 3 right now ...

Related reviews:

John Lasseter: Bolt (2008) - Hollywood dog road adventure fun for the whole family! (executive producer)

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Incredibles (2004) - Unwanted animated action slam-dunk (executive producer)

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 120 mil. $
Box office: 461.9 mil. $
= Big hit
[Cars made 60.1 mil. $ in its opening weekend in the US, where its run landed on 244 mil. $ (53 % of the total gross). It was # 1 for two weeks before Click and then Superman Returns overtook the spot. It was even beloved by US critics and twice Oscar-nominated, (Best Animation and Best Song.) Cars was the biggest animated hit of 2006 in the States and the second biggest worldwide, behind Ice Age: The Meltdown. The spin-off merchandise has grossed a stunning 10 Bil. $ in the first 5 years since the release of the film, which has spun a sequel, a spin-off and soon a second sequel.]

What do you think of this huge, glistening money machine?

Barton Fink (1991) or, The Writer's Hell

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A mosquito is magnified against co-star John Turturro's forehead on this sepia-toned poster for Ethan and Joel Coen's Barton Fink

An impassioned New York playwright travels to the very commercially minded Hollywood in 1941, where he is employed to write a film that he can't seem to crack open. While things around him grow gradually worse, so does his writer's block.

 
Barton Fink is written by Minnesotan master filmmakers, co-writer/producer/co-editor Ethan Coen and his brother, co-writer/director/co-editor Joel Coen (Blood Simple (1984), both). It is the brothers' 4th feature.

I have warmed to Barton Fink, since first seeing it, and find that it grows on me. While first finding it a bit too smart for its own good, and disliking the ending for some reason, I have since found that I like it very much. It is unconventional and ambiguous and makes you think about stuff, - and that's a good thing.
The title character is played by the great John Turturro (The Big Lebowski (1998)) in perhaps his career's best part. He plays the moody intellectual with great resourcefulness, and particularly his dance scenes are memorable and fun. The film also has a wealth of great supporting performances: John Goodman (Storytelling (2001)) as Fink's likeable but insane murderer neighbor in the hellish Hotel Earle. Their scenes together are some of the best in the film. Tony Shalhoub (Monk (2002-2009)) is larger-than-life as a Hollywood producer, and Michael Lerner (Amos & Andrew (1993)) is even more hysterical as the slave-owner-like studio boss.

The photography (by Roger Deakins (Revolutionary Road (2008))) is entirely lovely, and  the film is also heightened by atmospheric, great sets by Dennis Gassner and Nancy Haigh (Road to Perdition (2002)). Barton Fink is filled with meanings, some symbolism and many great scenes. A very entertaining film.

Related posts:

Ethan and Joel Coen: Hail, Caesar! (2016) - The Coen brothers serve a whimsical, flashy letdown
Unbroken (2014) - Despite good elements, Jolie's Grand WWII Biopic is mostly distant and weak (co-writers)

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI] 

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]
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) or, The Man Who Wasn't Dylan  
True Grit (2010) - The Coens' grand western present

Top 10: Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
A Serious Man (2009) - One of the Coens' best; a philo-religious serio-comedy
Burn After Reading (2008) or, Idiocy 2008

No Country for Old Men (2007) - Undigestible McCarthy adaptation lets you hang in midair 

Paris, Je t'Aime (2006) - Short film anthology playground set in Paris (segment)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) - Much to love in fabulous Coen music yarn 
Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
The Big Lebowski (1998) - The stoner comedy to reign over all

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

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

Fargo (1996) - The Coen brothers make movie magic with dark-humored crime thriller 

1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) - The Coen's satirical firecracker mega-flop 

Top 10: Best Hollywood-set movies 

Top 10: Best films about filmmaking 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 9 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 11.64 mil. $
= Uncertain but likely a big flop (projected return of 1.66 times its cost)

[Barton Fink premiered 18 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 116 minutes. It was written during a 3-week hiatus from the difficult work of writing the script for the Coens' preceding film Miller's Crossing (1990). Shooting took place from June 1990 - ? in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #18 to a 268k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #13 and grossed 6.1 mil. $. The international gross numbers have regrettably not been released. However, online sources list that the film made 821k £ in the UK (approximately 1.4 mil. $), and that it sold 720k tickets in France and Germany (double as many in the former), coming to approximately 3 mil. $. It sold 210k tickets in Spain, approximately 863k $. It sold 34k tickets in Denmark, coming to approximately 287k $. With the remaining markets added, the total gross should be at least 15 mil. $, which would nevertheless still result in a big flop categorization. The film was nominated for 3 Oscars: It lost Best Supporting Actor (Lerner) to Jack Palance for City Slickers, Art Direction/Set Decoration to Bugsy and Costume Design to Bugsy as well. It won the Palme d'Or, Best Director and Actor prizes at Cannes in a rare feat, a David di Donatello award and was nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The Coens returned with The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). Turturro returned in Brain Donors (1992); Goodman in Little Richard: Good Golly Miss Molly (1991, music video) and theatrically in Babe (1992). Barton Fink is certified fresh at 89 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Barton Fink?