The fumbling bad guys genre goes nonfiction. Successful director of action films Michael Bay tries his hand at a Guy Richie (Snatch, Two Smoking Barrels) style production with mixed results. Mark Wahlberg's pumped performance gives muscle to the film's momentum up until just about the third act where Ed Harris takes over as the film's anchor. Nicely paced, directed and edited, viewers will enjoy laughing at these dimwitted heavyweights right up to the point where somebody actually dies. Because these murders can't be written off as scripted fiction, the silly poke-funnery tone of the film takes an awkward turn. What was fun to watch becomes less so. The film would have likely self-destructed from there, but sharp screenwriters saved it by giving the audience (finally!) a likeable character to root for. This is where Ed Harris steps in and steers the film to some semblance of safety.

The film's ironic sense of humor (despite the tragedy) might have been salvaged had editors opted to minimize the murderous moments. While Ritchie and Tarantino, etc, have been successful pairing grizzly cinema with dark humor, it simply doesn't work here (possibly because "Pain and Gain" reminds us -even during the picture- that its story is true).

At the end of the day. This is a tragic, yet admittedly fascinating tale. Audiences will ogle it like a train wreck, then leave the theatre with festering pits in their stomachs as if they'd stayed home all day and watched the news.

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --