Film Review: Pain & Gain

Anthony Mackie, Mark Wahlberg and Duane Johnson in Pain & Gain
Anthony Mackie, Mark Wahlberg and Duane Johnson in Pain & Gain

When you hear the phrase “Directed by Michael Bay,” you probably think of some if not all of the following things: giant robots, massive explosions, military hardware, unnecessarily scantily clad and impossibly thin women and an insane amount of quick edits. You probably don’t think “passion project.” But that’s what we get here. In order to say yes to directing Transformers 4 for Paramount, Bay insisted that he be given the opportunity to make this “small budget” film ($25 million) based on a series of articles from the Miami New Times that document the exploits of the so-called Sun Gym Gang. The real story is brutal, full of twists and turns, and more than a little weird. So how would this translate into a Michael Bay picture? Continue reading “Film Review: Pain & Gain”