I really enjoy Michael Bay's work when he's working on a much smaller budget, especially when he's not working on anything related to transforming robots.
Pain & Gain showed just how Bay can be good when he wants to, when he's not driven by huge franchise explosions or prodcut placement. By focusing on telling the story, Bay can deliver.
Though certainly not his best work, Pain And Gain still was entertaining. With the lead cast of Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Mackie and Dwayne Johnson, and a strong supporting performance from Tony Shalhoub, all portraying silly and stupid characters onscreen; there were quite a few times that I ended up laughing out loud. However, I do wonder why most of the marketing material did not feature Mackie as he shared almost equal or more screen time than Johnson.
I particularly enjoyed Johnson's performance because seldom do we get to see this side of him as Johnson is used to playing the tough action hero or leading the movie. Here, he's a complete goofball and totally fun to watch.
At times the movie took a slower turn as the story set up the next scene, but ultimately it's the camaraderie between the three that made the movie more enjoyable.
I'm looking forward to Bay's next actioner, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi; and he should just stick to these smaller movies and let others give the next Transformers movies a crack.
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