Pain & Gain

Pain & Gain - Dir. Michael Bay (2013)

I'm not sure what's more unbelievable about Pain & Gain, the true life story upon which it was based or the fact that this was Michael Bay's idea of a low-budget indie movie.

Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) has a great body, but not a lot of brains to go with his delusional view of the American dream or his staunch sense of entitlement. After doing time for a Ponzi scheme, Lugo goes to work as a personal trainer at the Sun Gym in Miami. Formerly a rundown spot for old folks, Lugo turns it into a haven for the built and beautiful. However, he's not satisfied and spots a big, fat payday in his obnoxious client Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub). Kershaw openly brags about his wealth, his offshore accounts, and the Schlotzsky's Deli he owns at the airport. Lugo hits on the idea to kidnap Kershaw and hold him hostage until he signs over all his assets. This ersatz mastermind recruits his best pal Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie), a fellow bodybuilder who has been rendered impotent by steroid abuse, and Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson), an ex-con who has traded his coke habit for Jesus. After several bumbling attempts, the muscle-bound trio snatches Kershaw and tortures him for nearly a month inside a warehouse full of sex toys. Lugo and his crew are able to enjoy their ill-gotten gains primarily because Kershaw is such a prick that the police have a hard time believing or sympathizing with him. When Doorbal and Doyle blow their newfound wealth on penile injections and cocaine, Lugo is forced to abduct a new mark with disastrous consequences.

Pain & Gain is unmistakably a Michael Bay film even without the widescreen mayhem and deafening explosions. His garish aesthetics are simpatico with the bizarre, true-life events adapted for the screen by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (Captain America, Chronicles of Narnia). For once, it actually makes sense for Bay to populate the backgrounds with buxom babes since the story involves strippers galore. The saturated orange and teal color palette accentuates the sun soaked paradise of Miami. The camera whips along at a frenzied pace with super slow motion employed to great effect during a SWAT team raid. When Doyle barbecues a pair of dismembered hands to destroy fingerprints, an intertitle is stamped onto the screen to remind you that this is still based on fact. The question remains: is Bay just doing what comes natural or has he developed a sense of awareness that allows him to lampoon his own style?

As Bay flirts with the notion of self-parody, he walks a thin line between glorifying and condemning the actions of his characters. There's no doubt that these men aren't the least bit sympathetic, not to mention aggressively stupid. The fact that their brutality was played for laughs has upset the real victims of the Sun Gym Gang. The dark humor eschews closely to the works of Guy Ritchie or the Crank films. Stomachs may turn when chainsaws are broken out to chop up corpses or when a severed toe comes into play.

The cast really sinks their teeth into their respective roles with Mark Wahlberg excelling as the archetypal meathead. His Daniel Lugo is definitely cut from the same cloth as Dirk Diggler with a more sinister side. Tony Shalhoub brings Victor Kershaw to odious life while Rebel Wilson, Michael Rispoli, and Peter Stormare fill out the colorful supporting cast. Ken Jeong is thankfully utilized in small doses as a motivational speaker ("Be a do'er, not a don't'er") that inspires Lugo.  Ed Harris portrays the straight man as a retired cop turned private investigator. He essentially takes on the Tommy Lee Jones role in No Country for Old Men as the one good man in an insane world. The best performance in Pain & Gain belongs to Dwayne Johnson, who bulked up to bigger proportions than he ever had in his WWE career. There's a naiveté initially displayed by Johnson that makes Doyle a gentle giant, then shows deft comedic timing when he reverts into a desperate coke head.

Pain & Gain is easily Michael Bay's best picture, which may be a backhanded compliment when his filmography includes Bad Boys 2 and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Rating: *** (*****)

Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies - Dir. Jonathan Levine (2013)

Summit Entertainment has done gonzo box office with their Twilight series. Now that the franchise is wrapping up, it's no surprise that they and other studios are looking to fill the void. Summit has already found a suitable and superior replacement in Isaac Marion's novel, Warm Bodies, which casts the zombie as an unlikely romantic interest while borrowing elements from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.

Warm Bodies might be the first film to take us inside the mind of the zombie. A shuffling and decaying corpse that craves human flesh could hardly be considered leading man material. Luckily, the protagonist is a handsome and introspective young zombie who goes by R (Nicholas Hoult) because he can only remember his first name began with the letter 'r.' He lives inside an old airliner and spends most of his days wandering around an abandoned airport with his fellow walking dead.

Julie (Teresa Palmer) lives with the survivors of humanity inside a walled city under the command of her father, Colonel Grigio (John Malkovich). Julie, her boyfriend Perry (Dave Franco), and best friend Nora (Analeigh Tipton) are sent out as part of a search party to bring back food and medical supplies. The kids are soon swarmed by zombies and R chows down on Perry's brains. Turns out, the reason zombies hunger for human brains is because it allows them to experience their victim's emotions and memories. It is the only way for a zombie to once again feel what it was like to be human. Spurred on by Perry's recollections, R is instantly smitten by the beautiful Julie and rescues her. At the same time, Julie is intrigued by this "corpse" that can talk, that doesn't act like the rest of his kind, and listens to vinyl records. Their romance not only stirs something within R, but the other zombies as well.

Writer/Director Jonathan Levine has a knack for capturing the heartfelt moments of youth as seen in his previous pictures, The Wackness and 50/50. Warm Bodies presents a far more interesting romance than anything from Summit's famed franchise though not without its faults. Levine's film doesn't turn the genre on its ear the way Shaun of the Dead did, which conveyed the idea that humanity was already zombified more succinctly. The soundtrack can sometimes be too hip for its own good when R tries to comfort Julie by spinning tunes like "Shelter from the Storm" by Bob Dylan, "Patience" by Guns 'N' Roses, and "Hungry Heart" By Bruce Springsteen. On the other hand, there is a cute gag using "Pretty Woman" when Levine fakes us out over an expected makeover montage. Because the zombies are the sympathetic protagonists, the movie needed a villain and Warm Bodies provides us with the Bonies, zombies who are so far gone that they have been reduced to desiccated corpses. Despite being charred and emaciated, they are somehow stronger and faster than anything living or undead. Plus, the CGI is never that convincing.

Warm Bodies is the first example of a meet cute that features mass murder and brain eating. Yet, Julie gets over the death of her boyfriend fairly quickly. The script chooses the easy route by revealing that Perry started becoming a bit of a jerk and it doesn't help that they cast Dave Franco, who has made a habit of playing douche-y characters. While someone like Emma Stone might have done more with the role, Teresa Palmer equates herself well as Julie. Despite bearing a resemblance to Kristen Stewart, Palmer has a bit wider acting range and has Nicholas Hoult to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Hoult is able to convey a great deal of emotion with the slightest change in his eyes. The best performance belongs to Rob Corddry as R's best friend Marcus. Corddry has generally been cast as loudmouth jerks, but as a zombie, he has to do a lot with very little and turns in something funny and surprisingly soulful.

Warm Bodies is a welcome change of pace from the dreary releases currently packing theaters.

Rating: *** (*****)

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - Dir. Lorene Scafaria (2012)

An apocalyptic love story is unique, but not an entirely new concept. There was 1988's Miracle Mile with Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham searching for one another in a chaotic Los Angeles under the threat of impending nuclear war. You could also count Don McKellar's Last Night, about intersecting lives in Toronto on their very last night on Earth. Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist), Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is a bit more bright and hopeful or as bright and hopeful as a movie can be when it's about Armageddon. Let's just say it's on the opposite spectrum of Lars von Trier's Melancholia.

Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck won't be saving anyone. The film opens with the dour announcement that a cataclysmic asteroid is about to collide with Earth and a last-ditch effort by NASA to divert it has failed. Insurance salesman Dodge Petersen (Steve Carell) gets another shock when his wife, Linda (played by Carell's real-life spouse Nancy) suddenly exits the car and runs off into the night without a word. Dodge stumbles into a numb daze while his friends throw wild parties. Eventually, he forms a friendship with Penny (Keira Knightley), the free-spirited girl next door. It turns out that Penny has been holding on to some of Dodge's mail for months, including a letter from an old flame.

As riots break out across the city, Penny agrees to help Dodge find his former high school sweetheart in exchange for getting her to England to be with her family. Accompanied by a scruffy little dog named Sorry, they embark on an epic road trip where they encounter an assortment of eccentric characters such as a trucker (William Peterson) who has decided to die via hired assassin and a military man (Derek Luke) fully stocked and prepared for the apocalypse.

It's a safe bet that no matter what Dodge and Penny will wind up together. The A-story may be a tad predicable, but Carell and Knightley make for a winning couple. They're likeable enough that you root for them on their cross-country adventure. Just as he's done in Little Miss Sunshine and Dan in Real Life, Carell gives an understated performance that mixes pathos with a dry wit. Knightley brings warmth to the role of Penny. Some critics have described her as the dreaded 'manic pixie dream girl,' perhaps because she totes around a collection of vinyl records like a safety blanket. Thankfully, Penny does not display the typical quirks of the archetype though she does resemble a pixie with her short hair and petite frame.

In addition to the leads, Scafaria has assembled a wonderful supporting cast that includes Rob Corddry, Connie Britton, Patton Oswalt, Melanie Lynskey, and Amy Schumer as Dodge's party pals. There's also Adam Brody as Penny's dim-witted musician boyfriend and Martin Sheen in an emotional turn as Dodge's estranged father. Gillian Jacobs and T.J. Miller cameo as the wait staff of a TGIFriday's type establishment that has descended into full-blown hedonism. But, some of the funniest scenes involve Dodge and his maid (Tonita Castro), who seems absolutely oblivious to the fact that all life on Earth is about to be wiped out.

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back, world is destroyed by massive rocks from outer space. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is a breezy and bittersweet romantic comedy bolstered by some terrific performances.

Rating: *** (*****)

Hot Tub Time Machine

Hot Tub Time Machine - Dir. Steve Pink (2010)


Not since Snakes on a Plane has there been such a high-concept premise for a film than Hot Tub Time Machine. It’s this year’s The Hangover, a comedy with low-brow laughs about overgrown man-children and male bonding.

The quartet of protagonists in Hot Tub Time Machine are Adam (John Cusack), the most successful of the bunch who has just been dumped by his girlfriend; Jacob (Clark Duke), Adam’s nerdy nephew who lives in his uncle’s basement playing internet video games; Nick (Craig Robinson), a former singer now working as a dog groomer; and the obnoxious Lou (Rob Corddry). Lou may be an asshole, but he’s their asshole.

After a drunken night of debauchery, Lou parks his car in the garage and rocks out to Motley Crue. He doesn’t notice the garage door has shut and is hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning. Lou’s pals believe he tried to commit suicide and decide to cheer him up. The gang goes on a trip to the Kodiak Valley Ski Resort where they partied as teenagers. However, the poor economy has struck and the popular hotspot has become a dilapidated mess of abandoned shop fronts. That doesn’t stop the boys from getting totally and utterly shitfaced in their hot tub. One dizzying montage later, they find themselves back in their younger bodies in 1986.

At first, they attempt to do everything exactly the way it happened so as not to disrupt the timestream. It’s Lou who decides to do all the things you aren’t supposed to do in a time travel movie. He wants to use his knowledge of the future to make himself rich while righting a few old wrongs, including a beating at the hands of a douchebag ski patrolman with the classic 80’s villain name of Blaine (Sebastian Stan). The others begin questioning their paths. Adam is conflicted between the girl (Lyndsy Fonseca) he regrets breaking up with and a free-spirited journalist (Lizzy Caplan) he bumps into.

Steve Pink, the co-writer of two other Cusack films, Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity, directs from a script by Josh Heald, Sean Anders, and John Morris. The latter two also penned She’s Out of My League and you can see their stamp on every scatological joke. They also make several nods to Back to the Future such as making time travel a secondary plotline. The real story lies with the relationships between the main characters. In another nod to those classic Michael J. Fox flicks, Jacob flickers in and out because he may or may not be conceived.

There are plenty of other 80’s references to be had in Hot Tub, including cameos by icons of the decade like Chevy Chase as the mystical hot tub repairman and William Zabka (you know, ”Put ‘em in a bodybag, Johnny” from Karate Kid). But, the best is reserved for Crispin Glover who is absolutely hilarious as a surly, one-armed bellhop. The running gag is you keep waiting for the moment when he lost that other arm. Not to be outshined is Craig Robinson whose mastery of the deadpan one-liners has made him one of today’s funniest character actors.

Sadly, most of the jokes are the easy ones about Michael Jackson’s skin color and legwarmers. You would think that putting John Cusack back in the 80’s at a ski lodge would have yielded some great meta-textual gags. Alas, nary a reference to Better Off Dead is made aside from a fleeting line about “two dollars” at the beginning.

Hot Tub Time Machine is loaded with vulgarities and sophomoric humor which will likely be a put-off to most. If you’re able to get past all that, you’ll find a raunchy, yet touching, comedy with a quartet of strong characters.

Rating: ** ½