Review of Pain & Gain (2013) by Togetherlemon — 28 Apr 2013

After seeing the trailer for this movie, I pretty much envisioned it to be a comedy. It turns out that the movie is actually a rather brutal depiction of a completely true story about a trio of bodybuilders who kidnap, torture, and kill people.

I was honestly entertained by the movie, and I wanted to know what would happen next, but I knew that it would end poorly. Since I knew about the court rulings in real life, I knew what would happen at the end of the movie, and that made me somewhat lose interest in the movie.

A major flaw of the film are its unlikeable characters. Marky Mark portrays Daniel Lugo, easily the least likable of the bunch, and he is nothing but a brutal criminal with big muscles. Luckily The Rock plays a much better role as a born again Christian, although he hits a rough spot once he becomes a cocaine addict.

By the end of the movie, I felt bad for Victor Kershaw and those other two people who were killed. I honestly ended up liking Clint Eastwood as a minor character as a detective than I liked any of the three bodybuilders.

This sounds like a lot of criticism, but at the end of the day I was still satisfied with this movie and I found it worth the price of admission.