Michael Bay’s Pain And Gain is the bizarre true story of macho ‘roid heads who decided to kidnap and torture a wealthy business man until he signed over all his money. Surprisingly, the plan worked. So the criminals tried it again. This time, their incompetence led to complications – and several horrifically grisly murders. A rhapsody of spandex misogyny and homophobia, it’s Bay’s most personal film to date.
Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie star as the bungling and bulging criminals. There are fast cars, muscle tees and strippers. There’s also stylised surrealism and grotesque, played-for-laughs violence, backlit with garish cartoon graphics.
Bay may claim to be making a political commentary about consumerism, but he loves the dumb women/flashy cars lifestyle too much to critique it. His characters are stupid, but caricatured. Thus their crimes feel less serious. Bay doesn’t want to make a morality fable. He enjoys the protagonists’ cartoonish physiques, their sadism, their rape jokes.
I worry what it says about audiences that enjoy it too.