Pain & Gain

Caught this one on an advance preview weekend, and what with it being the end of the bank-holiday I figured why not. 

I'd seen the trailer and it did look funny. Luckily it was funny.. The story centres around Mark Wahlburgs character, a personal trainer who aspires to be better. Together with two other, equally dumb body builders he plans to extort money from a wealthy client. Naturally it goes horribly wrong (don't they always?) and much chaos ensues.. There were some genuinely 'laugh out loud' funny moments. There are also some dark moments that didn't always sit well in the movie. I felt a little uncomfortable at one point when they attempt to kill their kidnapped millionaire. The man in question, played by Tony Shalhoub, was an arse but you never felt like he deserved what he got. Having said that it is based on a true story.. Talking of which, I always took 'based on a true story' with a pinch of salt after the Coen brothers and their Fargo revelation, but in this film they included photo's of the actual protagonists and the incriminating evidence in end credits to add some gravitas..

Overall it was an entertaining and eye opening 2 hours.

Rating ***1/2

I'm sure somewhere out there, there are intelligent body builders its just that they're never portrayed in the movies.

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