Well I saw "Michael Bay's most thought-provoking film to date" in the Rotten Tomatoes critic consensus, so I thought, "maybe he actually made a good movie for once". Oh how dreadfully naive and silly I was. This is movie is awful. Absolutely awful. In this film, we see Sir Michael Bay attempt to tackle the dark comedy genre while seemingly having no knowledge about what makes these types of movies good. The characters in your movie have to commit despicable acts while still remaining likable. Characters in Tarantino movies come to mind. Jules Winnfeld, Vincent Vega, Mr. Blonde, Django, etc. Michael Bay got the despicable acts down, but he forgot to make the characters likable in any way. I hated every single one of them. I wanted them all to go to jail. Never once did I want them to succeed. You cannot make dark comedy work with terrible characters doing terrible things, thus making this film doomed from the start. Every time something is played for comedy, you cringe at just how bad it is. Not having good characters for this ruins your film. When they finally do get caught, I was cheering. That should never ever happen in a movie like this. This would probably end up on a list of my least favorite movies ever. Stay very far away.
Review of Pain & Gain
