Every Michael Bay Movie Ranked Worst To Best

Based on the true story of three bodybuilders who kidnapped and extorted money from a rich businessman - and later killed another one - Pain and Gain is a somewhat difficult film to classify.

The story around it is bleak and tragic, and the real-life characters involved are all despicable people, but Bay being Bay decided to make the whole thing a comedy. And in a lot of ways, it works. The humour is ridiculous and typically gratuitous, but thanks to the genuinely hysterical performances of Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Mackie and Dwayne Johnson it's full of some effective comedy and character interactions.

There's an awful lot of violence which always seems out of place, numbing the humorous edge of the script, and it becomes clear quite quickly that the whole thing really shouldn't be funny. A dark, appalling story about truly horrible people, Pain and Gain, under any other director, would have been a compelling and more scathing crime-drama.

Under Bay, it's funny and twisted, but tough to fully enjoy knowing the truth of the very un-funny subject matter.