Posts tagged Miami

“Redeems Itself”

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

Pain & Gain is a wacky comedy based on a true story, it was directed by Michael “Blockbuster” Bay, and it is definitely not a blockbuster in either size or scope.

And by “scope” I mean the range of operation, not the mouthwash.

The story takes place in 1995 in Miami, Florida, and it is going to result in what is called “the longest and most complicated trial in Dade County history.”

Mark Wahlberg stars as Daniel Lugo, and he is the senior fitness coordinator at a gym, but he believes he deserves better, and he doesn’t want to spend the next 40 years wearing sweatpants to work.

One customer who comes to the gym is named Victor Kershaw, played by Tony Shalhoub, he is a wealthy businessman, and Daniel comes up with the idea to kidnap Victor and rob him of all his wealth.

Daniel gets his fellow gym-rat buddy Adrian to join without any convincing at all, and then for a third partner in crime, Daniel enlists Paul, played by Dwayne Johnson, an ex-con who is also a born-again Christian.

Paul doesn’t need much convincing, either, but to seal the deal, Daniel tells him, “I watch a lot of movies, Paul, I know what I’m doing.”

Well, by this time the audience can tell that Daniel really doesn’t know what he is doing, and what was intended to be a straight-up kidnaping in which they would persuade Victor to sign over all his assets to them becomes–with all apologies to Shakespeare–a comedy of errors.

All of the following comes into play: Adrian has steroid-induced impotence, Paul is so naive that he doesn’t realize that Victor is using whatever Paul tells him about himself to bond with him, and Daniel is just, well, Daniel is just dumb.

Even though Victor is kept blindfolded the whole time while the three stumblebums try to get him to sign the necessary papers, Victor is able to identify Daniel by not exactly the oldest trick in the book, but at least as old as cologne has been around.

Also, whenever Daniel believes that he has been insulted, he flies into a rage that gets him into more trouble than he was to begin with.

Pain & Gain also has Ed Harris, which helps redeem this movie.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”

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