Pain and Gain (2013) review

(Note: Though this film is based on true events, they will not affect my overall thoughts on the film as a whole)

Director Michael Bay has certainly had an interesting career. His films are huge successes at the box office, and yet usually all of them get a negative reception from both critics and audiences. Most tend to call him one of the worst directors working in Hollywood today, if not the worst. To that I say… not really. Sure, when you get down to it, he’s no Martin Scorsese but even his worst films are better than films from directors such as ‘Seltzerberg’ and Uwe Boll. For his latest film, Bay goes for something a little different than what he’s normally known for; a small-budget dark comedy, ‘Pain and Gain’. As the trailers keep reminding you, this film is based on a true story that was documented in a 3-part article written by Pete Collins for the Miami Sun Times. But does it all work, even when considering the horrific events that it’s based on? Well, for one thing, making it a comedy might not have been a good idea, but in the way that only Bay can do it, the film does manage to be entertaining despite some noticeable flaws.

The year is 1994. Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is a bodybuilder who works at the Sun Gym in Miami, Florida. Hopeful of achieving the American Dream, he soon becomes tired of being poor and decides to kidnap one of his clients, the rich and spoiled Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub), and have him sign over all of his money. With the help of his friend and fellow bodybuilder Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) and recently released convict Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson), the ‘Sun Gym Gang’ successfully capture Kershaw and has him sign away everything that he has to them. But, after Kershaw survives the gang’s attempt to murder him, he goes to private investigator Ed Du Bois (Ed Harris) for help when the Miami Police fail to do so.

There has been some controversy surrounding the film as to whether or not the film is making audiences sympathize with the Sun Gym gang, even when they really did commit kidnapping, extortion, torture, and murder. It is true that the members of the gang are the so-called ‘protagonists’ of the film and the movie is marketed as a comedy, but it really doesn’t try and make you sympathize with them because it does get across the fact that these people were greedy, mean and also, on another note, rather stupid, even when they are played here by three very likable actors. However, the film would have worked out better had the writers didn’t make the gang’s victims despicable as well when they’re the ones we should be sympathizing with.

That’s where the movie’s biggest problem lies in that in some areas, it’s rather uneven. Aside from having both the ‘protagonists’ and victims be pretty unlikable, the film’s tone falls victim to the true story that it’s based on. Perhaps doing this story as a comedy wasn’t such a good idea because as crazy as it may sound to anyone who has not read into this whole situation further, this really did happen. People were kidnapped, tortured, and even killed by the Sun Gym Gang and yet the whole film tries to be a comedy. To be fair, the comedy does actually kind of work in the first half of the film, which focuses around the Gang’s attempts to kidnap Victor Kershaw. The three leads work off each other very well and there are some very funny lines spread throughout the film. But then once the film gets to its second half, things get much darker and serious which doesn’t match well with what we were watching before.

So while the film suffers in terms of tone, everything else surprisingly works. Even by Bay’s film standards, this is one of the better scripts and casts that he has worked with in his whole career. Despite playing very unlikable people, Wahlberg, Johnson, and Mackie all do very good jobs, with Johnson being the standout of the three. He actually manages to make his character a bit sympathetic because he starts out as a reformed Christian before he goes back to his criminal ways. We also have solid performances from the supporting cast, which includes Tony Shalhoub as Victor Kershaw, Ed Harris as Ed Du Bois, and Rob Corddry as John Mese, the owner of Sun Gym. Finally, in the way that only Michael Bay can, the film is pretty entertaining in the sense that it is never boring and that’s the best way that I can describe most of Bay’s films.in that, good or bad, they are entertaining popcorn flicks.

‘Pain and Gain’ is a Michael Bay film in every sense of the term. It’s stupid, crazy, but also strangely entertaining despite the fact that Bay tries to make a comedy out of true events that are quite disturbing when you read about it. This film probably would have worked better as a drama because as a comedy, it’s pretty uneven. The second half takes a dramatically dark turn which contrasts with the film’s more lighthearted first half and there is not a single character we can sympathize with; not even the victims of the Sun Gym gang. But as a whole, this is perhaps one of Bay’s better efforts. It has one of the best casts he has ever worked with along with a pretty solid, though partially flawed, script that is self-aware about how ridiculous the story is. All in all, ‘Pain and Gain’ is a solid movie and it’s good to see Michael Bay do something that is not Transformers related for once.

Rating: 3.5/5



Oblivion (2013) review

It’s always nice to see a film with an original story in the current time of remakes, reboots, and films that are based on licensed properties. ‘Oblivion’ is one of those films. Well, actually, from a technical standpoint, it’s not entirely original because it’s based off of a graphic novel of the same name but from a story standpoint, it is an original story. The graphic novel in question was written by Joseph Kosinski and Arvid Nelson. Kosinski made his directorial debut three years ago with ‘Tron: Legacy’ and now he finally brings his graphic novel to the big screen. For the most part, his sophomore directorial effort is an improvement over ‘Legacy’ in areas such as visuals and even story/characters, even though the script does becomes problematic at a key point in the film.

In the year 2077, Earth has been decimated by a war sixty years earlier with alien scavengers, despite the fact that Earth ultimately ended up winning the war. While most of humanity has relocated to the Saturn moon Titan, some humans are still stationed on Earth with the mission of extracting the planet’s last resources. Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his communications officer Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are two of the humans stationed on Earth with Jack’s main job being the mechanic for the drones that patrol the planet and eliminate any remaining alien resistance. Sometime near the end of his mission, Jack investigates a spacecraft landing where he finds a woman named Julia (Olga Kurylenko) who had been a recurring element in his dreams of a time before the war. This leads Jack on a new path where he learns the truth about who the real enemy is.

For most of the film, the writing is actually really good in terms of both story and characters. The story is solid and keeps your interest throughout. It is a good idea to go into this film without knowing too much about it because it does pull some surprises. The characters are also engaging enough to follow and the relationships between some of the characters, like Jack and Victoria, are well-written. But while the writing doesn’t hit any roadblocks for the majority of the film, it does falls apart at the end of the film. You could say it’s either that the film throws too much at you but leaves some things unresolved or that it just gets a bit too confusing. There is good build-up here but the writing gets a bit too jumbled at the end which leaves you with some disappointing payoff.

But while the writing falls apart at the end of the film, the rest of the film is very solid. The visuals are breath-taking, drawing you into this futuristic world. The acting is solid all-around. Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, who plays the leader of a human resistance, both give solid performances as usual. However, Freeman’s character doesn’t play as big of a role in the film as much as the trailers want you to think. Olga Kurylenko does a good job too, but she’s really overshadowed by Andrea Riseborough, who just does a fantastic job here. The scenes between her and Cruise are some of the highlights of the film and she’s better at getting across the emotions of her character better than Kurylenko, even when considering the major connection that the latter’s character has to Cruise’s. Finally, for the second film in a row, Kosinski goes with a unique composer for the film’s score. In ‘Tron Legacy’ it was Daft Punk and here, it’s M83 who delivers a score that’s both epic and beautiful.

I was literally this close to giving ‘Oblivion’ a 5/5 rating because of the breathtaking visuals, interesting characters, and a solidly constructed story. However, the writing does fall apart at the end of the film. It throws a lot of ideas at you, but gets a bit too jumbled and a little confusing when it tries to put it all together. But the rest of the movie is good enough that it at least makes up for its shortcomings at the tail end of the film. With two films under his belt, Kosinski is a director on the rise in Hollywood. He really knows how to draw you in to the universes that he creates. He just needs to work a bit more on the writing but aside from that, I’m sure we’ll hear more from him in the future.

Rating: 4/5

'42' (2013) review (100th post!!)

When it comes to baseball legends, there are players like Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Ted Williams who have made their mark on the game of baseball. But, it can be argued that none have made quite an impact on not just the game but also the history of America quite like Jackie Robinson. It was in 1947 when Robinson, a shortstop first turned first baseman and later second baseman, made history by becoming the first African American player to play in Major League Baseball when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Even amidst all of the racism that he had to deal with, Robinson’s character and talent paved the way for future African American ballplayers and he played a key part in the Civil Rights movement. He has become such an icon that his number 42 was the first, and currently only, number to have been retired across the Major Leagues and every year on April 15^th (the same day Robinson made his big-league debut) since 2004 Major League Baseball honors him by holding ‘Jackie Robinson Day’, where all players wear 42 in honor of him. ‘42’ the movie, while not the first Robinson biopic (there was also a 1950 film which Robinson himself starred in), mainly focuses on Robinson’s groundbreaking rookie season.

In 1945, Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) makes the bold decision to sign an African-American player, the first in MLB history. He finds his man in Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), a shortstop from the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League. After a year with the Dodgers’ minor league affiliate, the Montreal Royals, Robinson makes history when he joins the Dodgers in 1947. Now faced with harsh racism from all over the country, from the other teams in the league to even some of his Dodger teammates, Robinson is instructed to keep his cool, because if he ever retaliated against it, then everyone would blame it on him and not those who provoked him. He would have to prove himself on the field to become the legend that we know him as today.

One of the best things that a filmmaker can do when making a biopic is to not glorify the person the movie is focused on. Recent films like ‘Lincoln’ and ‘My Week with Marilyn’ excelled at doing that, and for the most part this film also does a good job at doing that as well. However, while the respect towards Robinson is there, this leads to my sole problem with the film in that it plays it just a bit too safe. The movie doesn’t ignore the hostility that Robinson encountered and what it was like for any African American in this country during that time, but key aspects of Robinson’s struggles, which even included death threats directed towards Robinson and his wife (played here by Nicole Beharie), are mostly just glanced over. Really, the film just feels a bit too clean and would have benefitted from being a bit grittier, which probably means that Hollywood had a big hand in shaping the final product.

But that does not mean this is a bad movie; far from it in fact. While the movie doesn’t really do Robinson’s struggle full justice, it is a good ‘feel-good’ movie. It’s also one of the best-looking baseball films to date, with some top-notch cinematography and baseball action. The film also benefits from solid acting all around, most notably from Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford. Boseman, a relative newcomer when it comes to film, shines as Robinson, as he perfectly captures the attitude of the Dodgers’ star. As for Ford, he also does a fine job while chewing up the scenery as Branch Rickey. Overall, the acting is solid all-around, including Beharie as Rachel Robinson and Lucas Black as Pee-Wee Reese, who was perhaps the most supportive of Robinson’s teammates on the Dodgers.

In the end, ‘42’ is a really good baseball flick but as a biopic, it really doesn’t do Jackie Robinson full justice. The respect towards him is there, but the movie would have worked a whole lot better had the filmmakers done more in showing what Robinson really went through during his rookie year with the Dodgers because as is, it’s more of a ‘feel-good’ movie. One could only imagine what it was like for him, but this film really serves more of an introduction to Robinson. But while that may be the case, the movie is still a well-acted, well-shot, and overall well-made film that, for some, will serve as a good introduction as to who Jackie Robinson was and the impact that he made in the Major Leagues.

Rating: 4/5

The 'Copycat Films' Trend in Hollywood

These days, in Hollywood, it seems like most things come in two. What do I mean by that? Well, there has been a recent trend in the film industry where two films come out the same year and both of these films share similar plots. The only major difference between the two films, aside from the crews working on them, is usually just the overall tone and presentation of the films. Of course, only one can do better than the other, maybe either because it was the first film to come out that year or because that first film did not fare well with audiences while the second film had a much better result. That is why today, on Rhode Island Movie Corner, I'll be looking at six of the most notable pairs of what I like to call 'dueling films' that have hit theaters in the last few years. I will also be discussing which film ended as the 'winner' of the year, though I use that term very loosely because really you could say there will never be a winner. That's up for the audiences to decide.

1997: DANTE'S PEAK VS. VOLCANO

Apparently in the 90's, disaster movies seemed to be all the rage. One example of this was in 1997, a year that saw not only the romance/disaster film that would ultimately become the highest-grossing movie of all time (until 2009's 'Avatar') in James Cameron's 'Titanic', but two films based around volcanic eruptions. The first big volcano film of the year was 'Dante's Peak', which starred Pierce Brosnan as a volcanologist who is sent to the titular town of Dante's Peak, Washington to investigate volcanic activity, as the town is located right next to a dormant volcano. When the volcano does end up erupting, he must find a way out of the town along with the mayor (played by Linda Hamilton) and her two kids. Two months later, another volcano film, simply titled 'Volcano', hit theaters. This film starred Tommy Lee Jones as the head of a crisis agency who attempts to divert the path of flowing lava when a volcano erupts in downtown Los Angeles.

The Winner:

Neither film fared particularly well with critics. According to Rotten Tomatoes, Volcano's Tomatometer stands at 44% while Dante's Peak ended up with a lower score of 27%. Despite the fact that it got worse reviews, 'Dante's Peak' has been credited as being more accurate and it was the film that fared better at the box office, grossing over 178 million while 'Volcano' grossed only 122 million. The fact that Dante's Peak did star the current James Bond at the time probably helped.

1998: DEEP IMPACT VS. ARMAGEDDON

While 1997 was the year of the volcano, 1998 was the year for asteroids. The first asteroid related film to hit theaters that year was 'Deep Impact', which hit theaters in May. This film starred an ensemble cast, including Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman, and Robert Duvall. The other major asteroid film of the year was Armageddon, the July blockbuster from director Michael Bay ('Transformers, 'The Rock'). Like 'Deep Impact', it featured an ensemble cast, including Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and Steve Buscemi. Both films focused on efforts to stop a dangerous asteroid before it hit Earth and both movies had a team pilot a spacecraft to travel to the asteroid in order to destroy it. The crew of Deep Impact used nuclear weapons to destroy the asteroid while a team of drillers were sent up in Armageddon.



The Winner:

Like with the volcano films, neither film was a huge critical hit. Deep Impact was credited as being the more scientifically accurate film. While 'Armageddon' received worse reviews (as common in the majority of Michael Bay's filmography), it fared better at the box office (again, like most Michael Bay films do). In fact, it was the highest grossing film of 1998, even ahead of Steven Spielberg's 'Saving Private Ryan'. Armageddon grossed over half a billion dollars worldwide while Deep Impact only grossed about 350 million.

1998: ANTZ VS. A BUG'S LIFE

If disaster films weren't your thing, then 1998 also saw the release of two animated films from what are arguably the most well-known computer-animation studios working today, Pixar and Dreamworks. However, these two competing films have probably the most controversy surrounding them because it is believed that one of these films, both of which revolving around ants, was made after the idea was 'stolen' from the company that worked on the other film. Here's how the story goes. After Jeffrey Katzenberg left Disney and formed Dreamworks, his new company bought Pacific Data Images and their first project together would be the company's first computer animated film, 'Antz'. The only problem was that Pixar, fresh off of the success of the first 'Toy Story' film, was also working on a ant-related film, 'A Bug's Life'. So did Katzenberg really steal the idea from John Lasseter? According to Katzenberg, 'Antz' evolved from a 1991 story pitch by writer Tim Johnson (who was also the director of the film) so really, who knows?



The Winner:

Antz may have hit theaters first, but in the end, 'A Bug's Life' performed better at the box office, grossing over 360 million while Antz only grossed about 171 million. This may have been because 'Antz' was more adult-oriented than the more kid-friendly 'A Bug's Life'. Plus, while 'A Bug's Life' was Pixar's second film, 'Antz' was just Dreamworks' first. However, according to Rotten Tomatoes at least, Antz has received stronger ratings, though both films have been received pretty well by critics. This was just the beginning of the competition between Pixar and Dreamworks when it came to their work in computer-animated films.

2012: MIRROR MIRROR VS SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

2012 saw a battle between two films based on the Brothers Grimm's classic fairy tale, Snow White. The first Snow White film of the year was 'Mirror Mirror', a family film from visual director Tarsem Singh which came out in March. The film starred Lily Collins as Snow White and Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen. A much more mature Snow White film, 'Snow White and the Huntsman', hit theaters during the summer in June. This film starred Kristen Stewart (fresh off of her role as Bella Swan in the 'Twilight' franchise) as Snow White and Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen. It also starred Chris Hemsworth ('Thor') in the role of the Huntsman and a pretty notable cast of dwarves, played by actors like Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane, and Nick Frost. The dwarves in 'Mirror Mirror', on the other hand, were played by relatively unknown actors.

The Winner:

Both films received similar mixed reception from critics (according to Rotten Tomatoes, 'Mirror Mirror' has the slight edge at 50% while 'Snow White and the Huntsman' only stands at 48%). However, the winner at the box office was 'Snow White and the Huntsman', which grossed nearly 400 million at the box office and a sequel is currently in the works. Having the stars of 'Twilight' and 'Thor' in Stewart and Hemsworth, respectively, certainly must have helped along with its Summer release date. 'Mirror Mirror', on the other hand, only grossed about twice its reported 80 million dollar budget.

2012: ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER VS. LINCOLN

2012 also saw two films that were both based on our 16^th President, Abraham Lincoln. The first of these films, 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter', was a film that, as the title suggests, obviously wasn't really that historically accurate. Based on the 2010 mash-up novel of the same name by author Seth Grahame-Smith and produced by Tim Burton, this fantasy film followed Lincoln (played by Benjamin Walker) as he fought vampires who, in this universe, were slave owners where they utilized their workers as a food source. If you were looking for a much more historically accurate take on Lincoln, then later that year we saw the release of 'Lincoln', directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the President. This film took place during the final months of Lincoln's life as he worked to get the Thirteenth Amendment signed before the end of the Civil War. The ensemble cast also included Sally Field as First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones as Radical Republican leader Thaddeus Stevens.



The Winner:

'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' received mixed to negative reviews from critics and only grossed about 116 million worldwide. 'Lincoln', on the other hand, is another story. It received critical acclaim from critics and grossed more than 263 million worldwide. It also received 12 Academy Award nominations (the most that any film got that year), even though it only ended up with two awards; one for Best Production Design and the other a Best Actor win for Day-Lewis, who has also won pretty much every single major acting award for his performance as Lincoln.

2013: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN VS. WHITE HOUSE DOWN

This year sees the release of two films with plots revolving around takeovers of the White House. One of these films has already come out, 'Olympus Has Fallen'. That film, directed by Antoine Fuqua ('Training Day') stars Gerald Butler as a Secret Service agent who must rescue the President (played by Aaron Eckhart) when Korean guerrilla forces take over the White House. Later this year, we'll be seeing 'White House Down', another White House takeover film. This film is directed by Roland Chimeric ('Independence Day') and stars Channing Tatum in the lead role of a Capitol Policeman who also gets caught up in a takeover of the White House, done here by a group of paramilitary invaders led by Jason Clarke's character Stenz. Jamie Foxx plays the President in this film which, according to the trailer, will delve into our nation's 'darkest secrets'.

The Winner:

Well, we can't determine that just yet because 'White House Down' isn't out yet. We can only judge the performance of 'Olympus Has Fallen'. The film received mixed reviews but has actually performed pretty well at the box office. In its first weekend, it grossed over 30 million domestically. So now the pressure is on for Tatum and Emmerich to deliver with 'White House Down'.

And those are just a few of the many pairs of 'competing films' that have come out over the past few years. This is a trend that has certainly been big in recent years and will most likely still be happening in the future.

2013 Preview: April

Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner's Year-Long preview of the upcoming films. This is Part 4 of 12 and today we'll be looking at the April lineup. It's not really as big of a month as March was, but there are still some noteworthy films to talk about, including a remake of a horror classic produced by those who made the original and a biopic of one of baseball's most influential players.

*The month starts off with a bang on April 5^th with 'Evil Dead', the remake of the 1981 horror classic 'The Evil Dead', which was the directorial debut of Sam Raimi. Raimi produces the film along with the star of the original 'Evil Dead' trilogy, Bruce Campbell. This new film, like the original, focuses on a group of friends who go camping in the woods and run into trouble when they find a mysterious book. Jane Levy (TV's 'Suburgatory') stars in the lead role of Mia, who is apparently the female equivalent of Campbell's character Ash. But if you're not up for this remake, Sam Raimi is reportedly working on a sequel to 'Army of Darkness'.



*Another big film coming out on April 5^th is actually a re-release (the last re-release of the year (as far as we know')). 'Jurassic Park', the 1993 classic from Steven Spielberg and a film that was the highest grossing film of its time until James Cameron's 'Titanic'. This also comes out after the news that director Colin Trevorrow ('Safety Not Guaranteed') will helm 'Jurassic Park IV', a film that has been stuck in development hell since 2001's 'Jurassic Park III'.

*Another pair of films hit theaters on April 12^th. The first is '42', a baseball biopic about Jackie Robinson, the first African-American baseball player in the modern era of Major League Baseball. Relative newcomer Chadwick Boseman stars as the famous Brooklyn Dodgers' second baseman alongside Harrison Ford as Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey and Lucas Black as Dodgers' shortstop Pee Wee Reese.

*7 years after the last entry in the series, 'Scary Movie 5', the fifth entry in the long-running horror parody franchise, hits theaters. However, series regulars Anna Faris and Regina Hall do not return for this new film.



*'Oblivion' is the first new movie that opens on April 19^th and is the second film by director Joseph Kosinski (his first being 2010's 'Tron Legacy'). It is based off a graphic novel of the same name that was co-written by Kosinski (the graphic novel will hit store shelves to coincide with the release of the film). Tom Cruise stars as Jack, a drone repairman in the future who is stationed on Earth after it was nearly destroyed following a war. When he meets a mysterious woman (Olga Kurylenko) who apparently knows him, Jack starts to learn some secrets about the people he works for.



*The same weekend also sees the release of 'The Lords of Salem', a horror film from director Rob Zombie. In the film, the town of Salem, Massachusetts is visited by a ancient coven of witches. Zombie's wife Sheri Moon stars in the lead role of Heidi, a DJ at a local radio station.



*'Pain & Gain' is the first film from director Michael Bay since 2005's 'The Island' to not be associated with 'Transformers' (although Bay is set to direct the fourth Transformers movie in 2014). Also, at a budget of around 22 million, it is his smallest film since his directorial debut, 1995's 'Bad Boys'. Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson, and Anthony Mackie star as a trio of bodybuilders who resort to extortion when they kidnap a spoiled businessman (played by Tony Shalhoub) in their pursuit of the American Dream. However, when the plan goes wrong, they now find themselves on the run from the police and a private investigator (played by Ed Harris). 'Pain & Gain' hits theaters on April 26^th.



*The final major release of the month is 'The Big Wedding', an ensemble comedy where a divorced couple (played by Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton) must fake being married when their son is about to get married. Amanda Seyfried, Susan Sarandon, and Robin Williams co-star.

And that's the lineup for April 2013. Check back next month for Part 5, where we start getting into the year's summer blockbusters.