Movie Review : Pain and Gain

Body builders that kidnap a rich person and hold him hostage with one of them having a conscience? What kind of story would that make for a movie but the fun part of this is that it is a real story.

We meet Daniel ( Mark Walberg ) who is working at the gym as a fitness instructor that has turned around the facility from near bankruptcy to a thriving business with some shrewd business ideas. He ends up with a new client named Victor Kershaw who is a snotty, stuck up and more importantly very rich man. His mouth runs and never stops. He just loves showing off and talk about his riches. Daniel decides he will kidnap him and have him sign over everything to him but he needs help and in walks Paul ( Dwayne Johnson ne The Rock ). He is looking for a job since he just got out of jail and is now on a new path of new found religion and wants to be on the straight and narrow.

The duel plus one more recruit successfully kidnap Victor but that is when the plans start to fall apart. Paul only agreed to join the group if no one was to be hurt but he sees Victor getting hurt over and over to the point that he is put in the position of having to kill Victor himself. All this and he has a drug problem he needs to deal with. The group uses their newly acquired money in different ways as Daniel enjoys the home life and gives his girlfriend to Paul who promptly snorts the money off of her and loses it all. 

Paul needs more money so he hatches a new plan that is doomed to fail from the beginning and when he is back into a corner he drags Daniel into it. All this as Victor trys to figure out how to get his money back on his own as the Miami police don't believe a single thing he stated happened to him. He ends up hiring a private eye to help him out.

In the end Daniel is on his way to find a secret stash in an off shores account that Victor has to help out his friends. All this as the Victor and P.I. are in hot pursuit as well. As the movie ends we see in the credits what happens to the main characters. Again, this is a true story and like they say fact is stranger than fiction and this movie shows that in spades.

Verdict : This movie brings back Dwayne to his comfort zone. He is not a drama guy nor is he the best action hero which he does good enough in. This is The Rock from back in the days of WWF/E. He plays the role with great ease and sarcastic tones and makes the movie that much more enjoyable. Mark Walberg is over the top and is hilarious and is a great give and go buddy with Dwayne. Victor as the bad guy does his part and is great in being a true ass. All the supporting characters put enough in to add to the movie but not overwhelm it.

You have to go into this movie with no expectations and knowing that is not taking itself serious even though it is a true story. The movie is very non PC and I for one enjoy that fact as too many things nowadays have to be on the up and up. Two THUMBS UP to watching this.