Best movie ever!

A Major Disappointment

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The only way I'd like this movie is if Charles Bronson showed-up and took out the trash. The trash being the main characters. I don't understand how anyone can root for murderers and torturers. It's sick to turn such horrible real-life events into a comedy.

Watching this movie I had a sudden insight, hitting me like a van driven by Dwayne Johnson: the Transformers are not bad movies because Michael Bay is a bad director. They are the way they are because that's what people pay to see and Michael Bay can make that kind of movie better than anyone else.Pain and Gain is a movie that Michael Bay wanted to make, and it's a great movie because he didn't need to make it a blockbuster and he didn't have to go for a lowest common denominator audience. Left to make a fun, small scale movie, he demonstrates just how good he can be.The story of Daniel Lugo and co. is horrifying and lurid, but also entertaining and fascinating. For the movie to work the protagonists can be portrayed as neither sympathetic nor repulsive. It's a demonstration of just how good Bay is that he nails this perfectly from start to finish.The events are not so much based on a true story, so much as it is a faithful re-telling of the actual events. They are already so crazy that there was no need to add anything - the main changes are some compression for dramatic tightness.Cast is game, very game. Ed Harris is particularly good in the role of Ed DuBois, the private detective who is our sole window of sanity in the film. Tony Shalhoub also hits just the right mix of abrasive jerk and sympathetic victim as Victor Kershaw.The camera work is lush, Miami Vice style, full of saturated and warm tones. Editing is tight. Soundtrack well chosen.All-in-all I can't knock a point off. It perfectly succeeds what it set out to do. The subject matter may not be to everyone's taste, the combination of fascination and horror, but no one should deny the skillful execution of the telling of it.

This was a fun dark movie. In the tradition of well organized crime movies, this took a great approach of a bunch of meat heads that just could not do anything right. I enjoyed this movie and find myself watching it again and again picking up things. From Lugo using an accent when they capture Kershaw telling him immigrants like him are the problem with this country to Lugo just being a typical meat head about everything. "I had to live in a tree with no food and water", ha! "What's your name?" "Tom Lawn" while he is mowing the grass. Even if the movie is not completely accurate of what happened, I love movie. It was like the three stooges meets Goodfellas.

I only picked this out of Netflix because of the cast, turned out to be a great film. Fully expected to see a 7+ rating but apparently reviews are crippled across the board by the "this shouldn't be a comedy/film" crowd. I scored it for what it is, well made, some really great performances, great music and amazing pacing; an easy 8.Guaranteed you'll hit Google after watching it, and that's another sign of a good movie. Only a handful of films worked the post credits Google dance for me, and this was one of them. You have to park your sensibilities up, but do that and you'll enjoy a well made film!