Review by Bob
Ignizio
PAIN & GAIN
tells the more or less true story of how a group of bodybuilders in
Miami, Florida who decided to embark on a kidnapping and extortion
spree in the mid 1990s. Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is arguably the
brains of the group, a guy who feels he's owed a bigger slice of the
American Dream and isn't above breaking the law to get it.
Inspired
to become a “doer” by “Johnny Wu” (an obvious stand-in for
infomercial king Tom Vu), Daniel comes up with a get rich quick
scheme: He'll kidnap Jewish/Colubian deli magnate Victor Kershaw
(Tony Shaloub), one of his clients at the Sun Gym, and get him to
sign over everything he's got. To aid in his plot, Daniel drafts
fellow bodybuilders Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie), who works
part time at a taco stand and has “performance” issues due to his
steroid use, and Paul Doyle (Dwayne
Johnson), an ex-con, ex-cocaine addict turned born-again-Christian
who somehow manages to rationalize his crimes as being okay with the
Lord.
