Pain & Gain (2013)
Untalented and not very bright, Daniel Lugo (Mark Walhberg), Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson), and Noel Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) are so enamored with the promise of the American Dream and its associated wealth, they will do anything to achieve their goals.
Walberg and Mackie are great, but the star of the film is Dwayne Johnson. Because of his physique, he often gets stuck in the Stallone / Schwarzenegger paradgm, which is a shame because he has a better range and sense of comedic timing than either of them.
Tony Shalhoub is great as the unscrupulous Victor Kershaw, whose shady dealings and selfishness finally catch up to him. He may be the victim of the Sun Gym gang, but he’s not innocent.
Ed Harris is okay as Ed Dubois, the private investigator searching for Kershaw’s kidnappers, but it’s a minor role.
The breakout star of Pitch Perfect (2012), Rebel Wilson, makes the most of limited screen time here. She’s a talented comedienne with a long career in front of her.
Ken Jeong plays another version of the caricature he’s perfected in the Hangover films and Community. He has charisma, but I’m not sure I’d call what he does acting.
This was a typical Michael Bay film: a slight movie with plenty of outrageous action pieces and lots of silly, macho humor. It’s a smaller playground than the one he had in the Transformers films, but Bay’s playing the same game. He promises a diversion from reality and delivers with a film which feels like a mash-up of The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975) and Pulp Fiction (1994).