Captivating movie !

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is a true story that reads like dumb crook news. Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is a muscle headed body builder who is inspired in ironic fashion by unorthodox motivational speaker Johnny Wu (Ken Jeong). With the aid of two other body builders, Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson) and Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) they devise a plan to kidnap and extort money from Colombian businessman Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub).They fumble their way through the operation and become greedy. It is clear these guys were not bright. The writers created dialouge for these crooks in order to lighten the story and to keep them from looking like complete idiots. Fictional aspects such as making the nurse (Rebel Wilson) look heavy-set with portraying Doorbal as liking those type of women kept the story from becoming dry.The beginning of the film demonstrates some humor as Danny names fictional characters as his heroes..."There are no shortcuts to the American dream" he proclaims. In spite of the efforts made by the writers, the film somehow loses its hook and charm as you wait for it to end.Parental Guide: F-bombs, sex, and nudity. Porn star Nikki Benz is one of the unnamed strippers.

I've seen this movie because a friend recommended it and it was a pretty good movie. The director, Michael Bay is a well know director for his films and this one was different then the others. Michale is known for the explosions in his movies but there isn't many in this movie. This movie was based on a true story in Florida that happened in 1995. The three main actors Mark Walhberg, Dwayne Johnson, and Anthony Mackie came together to play a good role in the movie. The movie is based on a kidnapping, torture, and murder of several people by the body builders. They were tired of being who they were and tired of not being rich. They made a plan to kidnap a rich high class guy that didn't appreciate anything and torture him until he signs money over to them into their bank accounts. Mark was inspired in the movie by a motivational speaker and then got together with friends he made at the gym. They start running out of money in the movie and the cops are catching onto them especially with Dwanyes actor in the movie because he has a cocaine addiction. When mark tries to go to the bank and get his money out the cops are there and the downfall of the movie starts to begin where the cops start to catch onto them and there plan they had. Overall they movie was a good movie due to the great actors and they plot of the movie being based on a true story.

The film takes place in the year 1994-1995, which I'd imagine is Bay's favorite time period as we meet Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg), who is an ex-con who got a job at a body building gym as a personal trainer. The one thing Lugo desires and constantly reminds us about is that he wants to the American Dream and thinks that he deserves to be rich and famous because he has muscles. Instantly, we see that Wahlberg has an odd charm about him, but it's a hypnotic charm as he can easily be the worst scumbag on the planet.Lugo convinces his friend and work-out partner at the gym Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) that the both of them deserve better than being trainers in this world, and that they both indeed are worthy of riches. However, instead of going about it the right way, Lugo, who has a strange and powerful way in talking to his friends to get them to do what he wants, persuades Doorbal in a crime spree that when read on paper, seems to not be true, but after a bit of research on the case, every bit of it was true.Lugo and Doorbal figure out that they need the help of one other person for their crime to be carried out where they run into Paul Doyle (Duane 'The Rock' Johnson) at the gym. Doyle is a former prison inmate, former coke-head, but now has turned sober and to Jesus. The Rock's charisma follows him from picture to picture, and even though he is a bad guy here, you can't help but like the guy. Unfortunately for Doyle, it was a case of picking the wrong gym in Miami to work out in as he was persuaded by Lugo to join their team.Their brilliant idea was to become friends with one of Lugo's clients at the gym, who was always talking about how rich he was. It was a plan to kidnap him and force him to sign all of his money and assets away to Lugo. The plan was only supposed to last a day or so, but as the kidnapped client wasn't cooperating, the three bodybuilders resorted to torture and attempted murder for over a month. I say attempted murder, because they tried to kill him by blowing up his car with gasoline with him inside it and even running him over, but they guy still survived. And you can't have just one taste of the criminal world, so the three decide to do the same thing again to another rich guy in Miami, and again, things don't go as planned. However this time, the rich guy is with his wife and are brutally murdered amongst many other things that if I wrote them out, would be a rated 'X' article.The fatal flaw in these three characters is that they are all very dumb people who can't seem to think for themselves and will do whatever anyone tells them to do. There crime escapades play out like a slap stick version of 'Goodfellas' as they can never seem to get anything right and are constantly fumbling around. The other flaw in the film is that virtually, no character is likable in the film. Even the victims by the three are not likable in any way. The only two decent characters in this painful movie have very little screen time and don't add a lot to the story other than maybe a minor laugh or two.It's as if Michael Bay was tired of making kid's movies for a while, and decided to put all of his yearning over the past few years to make a hardcore, brutal action movie again. However, this is really an action film, but more of a character piece on three low-life idiots. Some might find this movie fun. I found it tedious, annoying, and stupid. In doing a character piece, especially a narrative, I'd imagine you have to have at least one redeemable character in your movie. One that is on screen for more than 5 minutes. I don't think Bay wanted to offend anyone involved in the real case here, but more that he wanted to just show us the series of events through the killer's eyes, who are on death row as you read this. Surprising enough for a Bay film, there is not one car chase, and only one tiny car explosion. But there are plenty of other moments that will leave you covering your eyes or looking the other way. And don't fret, Bay's signature camera swoops and pans are in there plenty of times as well as his quick editing style. I bet you can't count to 6 before a camera cuts in any of his movies. It's no different here.Wahlberg and Mackie do great jobs here as amped up roided out bodybuilders who are clueless in life. The Rock is the true star of the show here as he struggles with a life of crime and a life of good. He just lights up the screen every time he is on it. They are surrounded by a strange comedic cast with Rob Corddry, Rebel Wilson, and Ken Jeong. And this might just be Tony Shaloub's best performance as he plays Lugo's first victim. Look out for Ed Harris here as well, as he turns in a short, but solid performance as well.At one point during the film, you'll see The Rock BBQ'ing something and you'll think "This is completely insane, this didn't happen." That's when the picture freezes and a title comes up on the screen and says "This is still a true story." It's that kind of movie that I think could have been better executed with a different director. Instead, we get a brutal and unlikable film that once it ends, we feel like we gained nothing and were caused a lot of pain.

This comic caper movie is based on a true story of some Miami criminals who kidnap a rich man and steal his money then murder another couple. It's a stranger than fiction story that is fascinating to watch. Here's the main problem. Any reasonable viewer would after a while realize that the criminal/heroes of this movie are doing some pretty dreadful things to the victims. Making them bumbling comical people may be funny on screen but trivializes what they did. I'm sure the victims and families of the victims must be appalled.It's unusual to see the main actors take on the role of villains because they usually are the heroes. Mark Wahlberg looks very short and stocky when he's overbuilt. The Rock acts quite funny as usual. Anthony Mackie looks relatively puny. Director Michael Bay shows a bit more style and humor than usual in the way the dialog and events unfold.