Pain & Gain (2013)

[E5CAP3 ART15T]

Originally Posted by Buzz201

My understanding was that people were offended by the treatment of the victim, Victor Kershaw, with the film apparently strongly arguing he "deserves" it (with some stuff being altered to play that up) and the way in which it trivialized their assault and kidnap of who was essentially an innocent man, rather than the fact it follows the bad guys...

Although I have heard some complaints about a shot directed upskirt of a dead woman...

Well I would say the part of the main characters you admire is that they are "Do-ers". Then Daniel Lugo justifies his reason for going after Kershaw by saying "Victor Kershaw is a criminal prick, who deserves bad stuff to happen to him!" At this point you're sort of with them because it's just interesting until they try to kill him. At that point you're not sure if you should keep rooting for them and then they "accidently" kill the porn guy and his wife and chop their bodies up. At that point you realize these guys were real and only a psycho would do that and by then you're rooting for Ed Harris' character to catch these guys. So as a film, yes I do think it works because its entertaining on many levels even when it's mostly a true story.

Comparing with Wolf of Wall Street (yes, I know there really is no comparison), but they both showcase bad guys trying to justify why they do what they do. They're not glorifying criminals but its the viewers choice to believe what they want. Of course people think Bay is sleazy and that he condones what they did... blah blah blah. He knew the story could translate well onto screen and I personally think it did. That being said, when it shows the real photos at the end of the crime scene and bodies in barrels it does kind of make you sick to your stomach.