This week at the movies, we’ve got bodybuilding bad guys (Pain & Gain, starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and matrimonial mishaps (The Big Wedding, starring Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton). What do the critics have to say?
Michael Bay is not the kind of guy to tone things down just because he’s working with a smaller budget. However, critics say the auteur behind Armageddon and the Transformers franchise has tempered the visceral impact of Pain & Gain with a fair amount of black comedy, and the result is uneven but often queasily compelling. Based on a bizarre true story, Pain & Gain is the tale of three bodybuilders who concoct a scheme to kidnap a wealthy businessman and wrest control of his riches. However, the plan quickly goes awry, with violent repercussions. The pundits say Pain & Gain‘s pitch-black sense of humor and charismatic leads can’t quite make up for the movie’s stylistic excess and lack of nuance. (Check out this week’s 24 Frames for a gallery of films based on magazine and newspaper articles.)
Critics say The Big Wedding is a comedy that audiences should decline with regrets; its all-star cast is stranded in a contrived, strained plot that features broad stabs at humor but few laughs. Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton star as a divorced couple who reunite for their son’s wedding and pretend to be happily married for the sake of his bride-to-be’s conservative mother; hilarity allegedly ensues. The pundits say The Big Wedding is a big misfire, with shopworn slapstick gags and stereotypical characters.Check out this week’s Total Recall for a countdown of Keaton’s best-reviewed movies.)
Mud, starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon in a drama about a pair of teenagers who befriend a reclusive criminal, is Certified Fresh at 97 percent.
Sun Don’t Shine, a drama about a young couple on the run with a mysterious body in the trunk of their car, is at 92 percent.
Best Foreign Language Film nominee Kon Tiki, which recounts ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl’s epic journey from South America to Polynesia on a raft, is at 79 percent.
Graceland, a thriller about a politician’s chauffeur who becomes ensnared in a kidnapping plot, is at 78 percent.
An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty, a live-action/animation hybrid that ruminates on unrequited love, is at 75 percent.
Paradise: Love, a drama about a middle aged woman who travels to a Kenyan resort that caters to sex tourists, is at 65 percent.
At Any Price, starring Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron in a drama about the tense relationship between a farmer and his aspiring racecar driver son, is at 63 percent.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, starring Kate Hudson and Liev Schreiber in a drama about a Pakistani-American professor suspected of having ties to radicalism, is at 53 percent.
Midnight’s Children, a drama about a two people who experience remarkably different lives after being switched at birth on the eve of India’s independence from Britain, is at 46 percent
Arthur Newman, starring Colin Firth and Emily Blunt in a romantic dramedy about a pair of disenchanted souls who find each other after assuming false identities, is at 22 percent (watch our interviews with the stars here.)
The Numbers Station, starring John Cusack and Malin Akerman in a thriller about a CIA agent tasked with protection a code specialist, is at 14 percent.
