Suicide Squad (2016)
Everyone was talking like this was awful, but I really really enjoyed this. I was the only one laughing at the jokes, but I think everyone was positive about it. I especially liked the way they made sure everybody had something to do in the final fight. It could have done with more backstory though, and it did feel like they had perhaps tried to do a little too much within the opening sequences, as well as some of the bits like Deadshot being tested prior to his commissioning felt like they were crowbarred in without purpose. It does do a fantastic job of depressing me about the choices Will Smith has made in recent years.
I don't think it's Jared Leto's fault, but I was not especially impressed with the Joker. The whole thing about the Joker is about the irony and dark comedy behind his actions, like dressing up as a nurse to attack people in The Dark Knight. This Joker was just a little bit unhinged. Talking about it to a mutual acquaintance afterwards, it sounds like they perhaps shortchanged Captain Boomerang in comparison to the comic books too. Which is interesting as he's the only Suicide Squad member who harms another member and does anything especially dark on-screen (with everyone else's it's talked around or not entirely shown, his massively evil moment is completely shown), and he's actually quite annoying.
This is the only summer blockbuster I wanted to see this year, but it does make me slightly less hesistant to watch the Man of Steel/Batman v. Superman combo pack I brought a while back.
3.5/5
Pain & Gain (2013)
This film is actually very interesting, and spectacularly grim in a way most people will not be able to stomach (especially given it's actively asking you to sympathise with characters based on real-life murderers). Pain & Gain is Michael Bay's attempt at satirising the aggressive belief in the American dream. It's interesting in that involves Michael Bay flipping some of his more questionable quirks on their head and playing them for comedy, and for the first half hour what we get is actually a really good and funny attempt at that. Mark Whalberg, The Rock and Anthony Mackie all do surprisingly well in more overly comedic roles than usual, and a lot of the film is carried by them and their chemistry. Unfortunately, Rebel Wilson is stuck with a character that is more comedic and fantasist in tone, and she is unfortunately under served by it. However, the film kinda runs into problems that are conceptual. It seems to be playing brutal violence towards innocent people for laughs, yet it still wants the audience to acknowledge that it is a true story, so as a film it's actively inviting you to laugh at somebody else's misery. I do wonder if this is an intentional decision to try and get the audience on edge and perhaps make the audience question their reaction to violence in fiction. After this it does become harder and harder to laugh, even at stuff I still kinda found funny. Unlike the perhaps similar in concept, The Wolf of Wall Street, Pain & Gain does have some attempts at making us feel for and like the victims of the crimes depicted. This film seems to imply a degree of self-awareness and filmmaking talent that I did not previously believe Michael Bay had, and it is really interesting to see an unusual film of this type given the visual and directorial stylisation Bay brings.
There is also this whole running theme through the film about hard work and cheating, and how cheating at hard work leads to corruption of all of the work completed. I think it's interesting that parts of it are brought to the front of the film, but it's also playing in the background. Paul Doyle's attempts at recovery fail because he "cheats" and just resorts to violence instead of putting hard work in. Adrian develops impotency because he cheats at bodybuilding and injects steroids instead. Daniel develops huge self-doubt because he tries to cheat his way to the success he craves, rather than earning it. At several moments throughout the film to try and sort of clear their head several characters work out, which to me seemed to correlate actual hard work with getting them "back on track". There is an interesting reference to the consuming a significant amount of protein just before things go past the point of no return, that suggested to me that maybe the film wasn't trying to suggest their belief in the American dream was not their downfall, but their desire to cheat at it instead.
I will say that as much as I enjoyed this film (in somewhat perverse sense of the word, obviously the film has clear conceptual immorality but I guiltily enjoyed it despite that) and there's interesting stuff in it for the audience to go through, it's clearly not for everyone. I think you need to have a very dark sense of humour, an open mind and a willingness to tolerate Michael Bay's eccentricities. I would suggest that unless you're really curious, you wait until it gets a TV broadcast or something, as it's clearly a film that isn't going to work for a lot of people and is probably actively offend and upset a lot of people.
3/5.
