Pain & Gain is a movie so crazy, so out there, so “Michael Bay” that it’s hard to even think that the events in front of you really took place. It’s even harder to rationalize that three body builders from Miami in 1994 staged a staggering heist that netted them wealth beyond their dreams. Pain & Gain is a look into the have’s and have-not’s and don’t let the comedy fool you as these were bad men that did bad things to get where they got. And by the end, when the credits show the actor’s images next to the images of the actual people they portrayed, you realize that this did happen and that real people got hurt and killed between October 1994 and June 1995.

Mark Wahlberg plays Daniel Lugo, a personal trainer at Sun Gym located in Miami, Florida. He has big dreams and wants more and feels that the universe owes it to him. He concocts a plan with co-worker Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) and fellow gym-nut Paul Doyle (Dwayne”The Rock” Johnson) to steal the wealth of businessman Victor Pepe Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub) whom also happens to be a client of his at the gym. Needless to say these three are not the best at executing a crime and it’s this comedy of errors that drive the plot of Pain & Gain.

 

Grade: 4 out of 5 stars

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