Critics Consensus: Pain & Gain is Visceral But Uneven
Plus, The Big Wedding is a big misfire.
This week at the movies, we've got bodybuilding bad guys (Pain & Gain, starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) and matrimonial mishaps (The Big Wedding, starring Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton). What do the critics have to say?
Pain & Gain
49%
Michael Bay is not the kind of guy to tone things down just because he's working with a smaller budget. However, critics say the auteur behind Armageddon and the Transformers franchise has tempered the visceral impact of Pain & Gain with a fair amount of black comedy, and the result is uneven but often queasily compelling. Based on a bizarre true story, Pain & Gain is the tale of three bodybuilders who concoct a scheme to kidnap a wealthy businessman and wrest control of his riches. However, the plan quickly goes awry, with violent repercussions. The pundits say Pain & Gain's pitch-black sense of humor and charismatic leads can't quite make up for the movie's stylistic excess and lack of nuance. (Check out this week's 24 Frames for a gallery of films based on magazine and newspaper articles.)
The Big Wedding
7%
Critics say The Big Wedding is a comedy that audiences should decline with regrets; its all-star cast is stranded in a contrived, strained plot that features broad stabs at humor but few laughs. Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton star as a divorced couple who reunite for their son's wedding and pretend to be happily married for the sake of his bride-to-be's conservative mother; hilarity allegedly ensues. The pundits say The Big Wedding is a big misfire, with shopworn slapstick gags and stereotypical characters.Check out this week's Total Recall for a countdown of Keaton's best-reviewed movies.)
Also opening this week in limited release:
- Mud, starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon in a drama about a pair of teenagers who befriend a reclusive criminal, is Certified Fresh at 97 percent.
- Sun Don't Shine, a drama about a young couple on the run with a mysterious body in the trunk of their car, is at 92 percent.
- Best Foreign Language Film nominee Kon Tiki, which recounts ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl's epic journey from South America to Polynesia on a raft, is at 79 percent.
- Graceland, a thriller about a politician's chauffeur who becomes ensnared in a kidnapping plot, is at 78 percent.
- An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty, a live-action/animation hybrid that ruminates on unrequited love, is at 75 percent.
- Paradise: Love, a drama about a middle aged woman who travels to a Kenyan resort that caters to sex tourists, is at 65 percent.
- At Any Price, starring Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron in a drama about the tense relationship between a farmer and his aspiring racecar driver son, is at 63 percent.
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist, starring Kate Hudson and Liev Schreiber in a drama about a Pakistani-American professor suspected of having ties to radicalism, is at 53 percent.
- Midnight's Children, a drama about a two people who experience remarkably different lives after being switched at birth on the eve of India's independence from Britain, is at 46 percent
- Arthur Newman, starring Colin Firth and Emily Blunt in a romantic dramedy about a pair of disenchanted souls who find each other after assuming false identities, is at 22 percent (watch our interviews with the stars here.)
- The Numbers Station, starring John Cusack and Malin Akerman in a thriller about a CIA agent tasked with protection a code specialist, is at 14 percent.
Jay Catler
Mud has my interest. I've been in love with Matthew McCounhey movies a lot. Let's hope he doesn't go back to that romantic comedy bull shit again.
As for Pain & Gain, I guess it was doomed the second Michael Bay signed to direct it. Oh well, there's always the Rock (movie, not actor)
Anyways, I'm bored.
OH YEAH, SO TELL ME WHY I was on Wikipedia Iron Man 3 has the plot. I tried to avoid spoilers, but I saw it. NEVER USE WIKIPEDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Jay Cutler out
Apr 25 - 04:52 PM
David Tanny
I saw the spoiler here on the Iron Man forum yesterday. I have to say, I'm a little disappointed with that move.
Apr 25 - 07:18 PM
Joshua Henderson
I am glad I am not the only one who is.
Apr 26 - 06:51 AM
Joshua Henderson
Haha I am a Wikipedia editor and I could have told you this. There is a guideline that says you can't censor spoilers.
Apr 26 - 10:27 AM