The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is directed by Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Tobey Maguire.   What mostly stood out for me is the very visceral and surreal beauty in the cinematography and detail of the Roaring 20's era.  Obviously, there was a lot of money spent on the production and the lead characters do a decent enough job.  Overall, that's about all I can say, as there was nothing exactly jutting out at me, except for the exceptional performances in Mulligan as Daisy and Joel Edgerton as her husband Tom.  Maguire, though a good actor, is just being his usual wide-eyed self essentially serving as the audience's witness and narrator to the enigmatic Gatsby and Daisy.  DiCaprio is now notorious for these type of roles, whether they are classic, period, etc. What I didn't like was how the lush production value overwhelmed the actual heart of the story, including brief soundtrack insertions by Jay Z. 

Pain & Gain

You would think that a crime drama based on real life events starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub, and Ed Harris; and directed by Michael Bay would at the very least be watchable.   The bizarre crime spree of 3 bodybuilders and a host of other accomplices is turned into a black comedy-drama that doesn't work on any level.  This is one film that I was sadly unable to even finish.  It didn't even satisfy on a cheap level. What little humor I saw was barely palatable, and there was not enough interesting character development, star charisma, or chemistry to push the story along.  I don't know why the fuck they even made this movie, less it was just a chance for these stars to work together, get jacked in the gym, have fun in their criminal portrayal, and.... Hey, wait a minute.   I get it now.  This is sort of like Wahlberg's film The Big Hit fifteen years ago, a testosterone injected cast with stylized action and humor.  No, shit wait again. That was at least actually entertaining and watchable and enjoyable on certain levels.  On the surface, Pain & Gain would understandably have some sort of interest and certainly it did on the initial box office draw.  But for me, it was just pain and no gain.  Normally, one would say save your money.  In this case, save your free time.