I might go the risk of a quite broad or subjective question here, but I was surprised by how the story of Pain & Gain actually developed. From the trailer I expected a light-hearted action comedy about some simple-minded yet likable guys trying to kidnap a rich as**ole to get their share of the American Dream.
But while it started this way, it certainy developed into a rather unexpected direction. The three supposed heros completely lost their base for identification (and with it their role as heros) no later than when they decided to kill Kershaw (and while they weren't successful, the cold-bloodedness with which especially Lugo acted was quite a turn, even if maybe slightly foreshadowed already). And the focusing on the trio was also faltered as soon as they employed the same technique of inner monologues for Kershaw and DuBois.
From this point on it was unclear to me what the primary tone of the movie actually was. As the story and the trio's actions grew darker and darker it still remained rather comedic, with the humour ranging from simple to absurd to misplaced. Even for a black comedy the three protagonists (well, especially Lugo and Doorbal) turned out very evil in the end. And while I don't generally say Ed Harris cannot play in a comedy, his character DuBois and the scenes he was in were very sincere and made a strange contrast to the rest of the movie.
In retrospective it seemed more like an odd Coen brothers-movie than a Michael Bay-movie. So what I would like to know after all those ramblings is, what was the primary message or target audience of this movie? Were there any distortions to the story's tone during the transfer of the script into the actual movie (or maybe just during the transfer of the movie into my admittedly subjective impression)? Or was this just a case of an inappropriate trailer (but maybe there's a reason for this, too).
