The Super Network

I now have a strong candidate for Worst Film Of 2013, PAIN & GAIN is one of the most awful films I have seen recently. It was a task to sit through and that feels like a compliment.

Michael Bay is a very hit and miss director, I do believe his best days are very much behind him. The last film I genuinely enjoyed from him was TRANSFORMERS, despite its very apparent flaws and issues it was big and silly fun. This film was touted as a quieter film from Bay and a passion project, this gave me some hope that this would be different. It is different, it takes this very odd voice-over approach with its characters, yet still contains the terrible racist and sexist nature that Bay has become known for.

Basically the film gives us a group of unlikeable characters who kidnap an even worse character and extort money out of him. It takes forever to get started, it’s actually not even interesting because the care factor goes out the window with how awful the characters are and the voice-over is just grating. There was no investment here, Bay went for a hyper stylised film (something that the late great Tony Scott did far far better) and it just crumbled. The film is 2 hours long and its just an excruciating experience from beginning to end.

With a cast of such talented actors, who couldn’t even save this mess, this is a film I’d rather forget all about.

Rating: 0/5