Logging

Film:  Pain and Gain

What does it mean for a film to be bad but still enjoyable?  Does this mean a film gets some big things right and screws up the details?  Does it mean there is something "objective" about quality?  Or is filmgoing experience is inherently subjective and based on mood and company and all sorts of other factors?

Who knows.

But I'll start off by saying this:  Pain and Gain is a comedy made by a group of people with a lousy sense of humor.  Many things that are meant to be funny aren't even close and have the element of the annoying dude at the party telling joke after joke after joke hoping one will eventually land.

The storytelling is weak and repetitive to begin with and then goes on endlessly toward the end.  But something hit me about 1.5 hours into the movie -- when it starts to go totally off the rails -- I wasn't annoyed by the movie and was beginning to somewhat enjoy the feeling of holy-crap-this-has-no-idea-where-it's-going-element.  Do not construe this as praise for the artist.  It is not.  It is a subjective movie-going enjoyment that finds pleasure in small elements and watching what the actors and writers and director are trying to do...an outside the movie enjoyment.  But enjoyment still.  And enjoyment talking about the movie afterwards.  An appreciation of how Michael Bay uses the frame.  The guy fills it up, man.  And shit is always going on.  There's something to be said for this kind of filmmaking, probably what you would call "maximalist."

The film bears some similarities to Spring Breakers.  Normal people who turn to crime and get in over their heads.  An extreme depiction of the human body.  But I'll say this, I enjoyed Pain and Gain a whole lot more than Spring Breakers and am dubious about the claims of any more artistic merit to the latter.