Pain & Gain

Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie
Length: 129 minutes
Country: USA

Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain is a continuation of his stream of awful films; films without substance, engaging characterisation, likeable personas, or even a shred of moral dignity. Pain & Gain is entirely devoid of such aspects, and is morally akin to the arctic tundra of Alaska: cold, dark and empty.

The film follows a muscle bound Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie, as a team of bodybuilders stuck in the rut of daily life, who concoct a cunning plan to quickly amass a fortune. The plan is simple; they must kidnap a wealthy local businessman, then hold him for extortion and take everything he owns. However, they find that it isn’t as simple as it seems and that they aren’t quite as smart as they believe they are.

Whilst Bay’s film is going to be let off by the majority due to its ‘blockbuster’ status, a statement which has the intention of dispelling any belief that all films should not so much preach, but condone good morals, instead marginalising and forcing morals in cinema to remain in the art house. It is simply not acceptable that a film should abandon any sense of what is right and wrong.

Pain & Gain’s entire lack of respect for women is disgusting. Women are solely in Bay’s film to fill the function of eye-candy, sex appeal, and the horrific clichéd stereotype of the screaming female in distress, or the easily tricked woman who can be controlled completely by the masculine protagonist, that has always plagued the blockbuster. Women play very little part in Bay’s film; it is always the men that are the centre of attention; the wealthy business men, or the detectives investigating the crimes committed by Wahlberg and his gang of steroid bloated cronies. The roles of woman are simple, they are relegated to menial tasks, such as; making sandwiches, acting as the trophy wife, or lying bikini clad at the side of the pool for men to gawp at. This film is not only a continual attack on equality, but a vastly superficial film, and is wholeheartedly concerned with appearance and physical stature. Every character is judged upon their strength, muscle mass, weight, beauty, and general attractiveness, and not only are they judged on these traits, but they are equally as obsessed with such characteristics themselves. Pain & Gain seemingly occurs within this bubble of unbelievable self-obsession, which further taps into the void of morality that fatally wounds Bay’s film, a quandary which can’t be rectified.

Pain & Gain seemingly occurs within this bubble of unbelievable self-obsession, which further taps into the void of morality that fatally wounds Bay’s film

Other aspects of the film are equally as tedious as the onslaught of sexism. The narrative arc is elongated and linear, with jaded and stilted ‘twists’ that fail to rouse any enjoyment from the limp and lifeless body of the soulless entity that is Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s script. The plot itself seems like an afterthought, as a way of parading as many muscle bound weightlifters around, instead of creating an engaging and interesting recreation of the true story that inspired it. Despite this lack of interesting narrative decisions, Pain & Gain clocks in at a demoralising 129 minutes, dragging out the tedium of the story in order to fit more shots of oiled up muscles and Mark Wahlberg exercising, whilst the scriptwriters attempt to occasionally inject a little comedy into the bare script, which falls flat every time. The length makes the inherent sexism and misogyny even harder to swallow and the extended period with which the viewer is subjected to such insulting and degrading values entirely removes any possibility that Pain & Gain may be considered a good piece of filmmaking by any account.

Pain & Gain is devoid of any positives, the intensely offensive nature in which the film portrays and treats women is highly inappropriate and unacceptable, which is only made worse by the dull stabs at comedy and the extremely lengthy 129 minute running time. Wahlberg, Johnson, Mackie and Harris will hopefully one day regret making such a hideous film, and once again Michael Bay clearly demonstrates minimal tact and a highly questionable moral compass.

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