Tats are forever unless you’re a filthy rich celebrity with thousands to blow on painful laser removal sessions like everyone on this list. Here are ten celebs who had tattoos removed. Take a look. Continue reading →
Pain and Gain is like if a Coen Brothers movie and a Scorsese movie had a baby and that baby disappointed its parents and went into porn. At its core, the film is about a trio of hapless men just trying to get ahead in life, but who end up getting in way over their heads. The difference between Pain and Gain and every Coen Brothers movie with that premise is that Michael Bay’s hapless men aren’t timid and pathetic. They’re not looking for recompense or justice. They’re just greedy meatheads. Mark Wahlberg stars as Daniel Lugo, a bodybuilder not satisfied with his decent job doing literally the only thing he knows how to do: personal training. When a rich sandwich magnate named Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub) who’s less of an “asshole,” as Lugo describes him, and more of an annoying weirdo, becomes his client, he decides to twist the advice of a hack motivational speaker played by Ken Jeong ( The Hangover Part III ), and extort him for all he’s worth. To help him, Lugo enlists fellow bodybuilders Adrian Doorbal, played by Anthony Mackie, and ex-con Paul Doyle, played by Dwayne Johnson. As you would expect, the three have no clue what they’re doing, and after a series of failed attempts thought up on the fly, they finally capture Kershaw. The only problem? He won’t sign away all of his material possessions willingly. What follows is a frenetic mess of half-baked ideas to make their plan happen. It’s at times hilarious, and at times truly terrifying in its misguided, unnecessary violence. Bay is the most unapologetically showy director working today. His films are notoriously devoid of character development and plot, and Pain and Gain is really no different. Everything is surface. Characters straight up say what they’re thinking to each other. Voiceovers are given to every major player, in a way that is much less charming and plot-serving than in Casino or Goodfellas . Scenes freeze and captions are thrown up reminding us that yes, this is a true story. The color pallet is bright and saturated. Nothing much remains unseen. And American flags litter the frame. We get it, American dream, yadda yadda. With all its brazenness, though, Pain and Gain actually works. Bay’s style of roided-out Hollywood blatancy fits the story, and given that Bay began in the 90s and has seemed to long for them ever since, he seems comfortable making a movie set in that decade. Pain and Gain would be hard to truly love as a film, though. Not because its characters are idiots, or because their motivations are extremely under-defined (when did that drug addiction come back?? Meh, who cares), but the film, like most of Bay’s works, seems entirely built to make a cool trailer. Trailers are flashy. They say very little. They’re meant to draw you to the theater. But once you’re there, you’re supposed to get more. Well, with Pain and Gain , you don’t get more. In fact, if you’ve seen the trailers, you could probably show up an hour late to the film and know everything the audience knows. That’s a problem. RATING: 2.5/5
Pain and Gain is like if a Coen Brothers movie and a Scorsese movie had a baby and that baby disappointed its parents and went into porn. At its core, the film is about a trio of hapless men just trying to get ahead in life, but who end up getting in way over their heads. The difference between Pain and Gain and every Coen Brothers movie with that premise is that Michael Bay’s hapless men aren’t timid and pathetic. They’re not looking for recompense or justice. They’re just greedy meatheads. Mark Wahlberg stars as Daniel Lugo, a bodybuilder not satisfied with his decent job doing literally the only thing he knows how to do: personal training. When a rich sandwich magnate named Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub) who’s less of an “asshole,” as Lugo describes him, and more of an annoying weirdo, becomes his client, he decides to twist the advice of a hack motivational speaker played by Ken Jeong ( The Hangover Part III ), and extort him for all he’s worth. To help him, Lugo enlists fellow bodybuilders Adrian Doorbal, played by Anthony Mackie, and ex-con Paul Doyle, played by Dwayne Johnson. As you would expect, the three have no clue what they’re doing, and after a series of failed attempts thought up on the fly, they finally capture Kershaw. The only problem? He won’t sign away all of his material possessions willingly. What follows is a frenetic mess of half-baked ideas to make their plan happen. It’s at times hilarious, and at times truly terrifying in its misguided, unnecessary violence. Bay is the most unapologetically showy director working today. His films are notoriously devoid of character development and plot, and Pain and Gain is really no different. Everything is surface. Characters straight up say what they’re thinking to each other. Voiceovers are given to every major player, in a way that is much less charming and plot-serving than in Casino or Goodfellas . Scenes freeze and captions are thrown up reminding us that yes, this is a true story. The color pallet is bright and saturated. Nothing much remains unseen. And American flags litter the frame. We get it, American dream, yadda yadda. With all its brazenness, though, Pain and Gain actually works. Bay’s style of roided-out Hollywood blatancy fits the story, and given that Bay began in the 90s and has seemed to long for them ever since, he seems comfortable making a movie set in that decade. Pain and Gain would be hard to truly love as a film, though. Not because its characters are idiots, or because their motivations are extremely under-defined (when did that drug addiction come back?? Meh, who cares), but the film, like most of Bay’s works, seems entirely built to make a cool trailer. Trailers are flashy. They say very little. They’re meant to draw you to the theater. But once you’re there, you’re supposed to get more. Well, with Pain and Gain , you don’t get more. In fact, if you’ve seen the trailers, you could probably show up an hour late to the film and know everything the audience knows. That’s a problem. RATING: 2.5/5
Justin Bieber has a pair of major celebrities in his corner. At last night’s premiere of Pain & Gain , both 50 Cent and Mark Wahlberg responded to the controversy surrounding Bieber and his recent Anne Frank comments , with the rapper echoing the sentiment that has landed Bieber in trouble: “She probably would have been [a belieber],” Fiddy said of the Holocaust victim. Wahlberg, meanwhile, thinks JB just needs a break. “I think it’s best to put down the phone and Twitter and all that stuff, and just be a little more low-key right now,” the actor said. “Because they’re watching every move he makes, everything he says, and less is more. Go take a vacation.” This advice comes on the heels of Bieber Tweeting an odd cartoon photo of himself and a fan in bed . He really might wanna turn the phone and computer off for awhile.
Imagine you’re a successful actor whose appeared in Oscar nominated films and worked with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood and people barely know…
If you loathe Transformers – Michael Bay but have a soft spot for the Bay who made not one, but two Bad Boys es, then the first trailer for his true crime pic Pain & Gain is going to push all the right buttons: Beefy macho men, fast cars, a slick Miami setting, Mark Wahlberg hitting that Dirk Diggler sweet spot of dumb overconfidence, and everyone’s favorite muscleman, The Rock… it’s enough to make the truly disturbing real life saga of a gang of bodybuilding thugs-turned-killers who bungled their way through unspeakable acts of torture and murder into a feelgood American Dream antihero tale! Wahlberg stars as real life ringleader Daniel Lugo, a small time Florida dreamer/ short shorts enthusiast who tapped his workout buddies to pull the most inept — and, don’t get it twisted, unforgivably violent — extortion attempt in recent history. Things didn’t turn out so well for the Sun Gym gang, and things certainly didn’t shake out in slo-motion hero shots and hilarious sound bite quips for their victims. The trailer is CSI Miami -slick and stuffed with all the usual Bay signatures that made him the commercially successful bombast-specialist auteur that he is, but I can’t help but wonder if, after making relatable Lugo & Co.’s yearning for more, and glorifying the bromantic shenanigans that unfold as they cook up a scheme to steal money from Monk, Bay will flip the table on his audience and shine a harsher light on the crimes that put these “heroes” on death row in real life. Since this is Michael Freaking Bay we’re talking about here, I have no idea what to expect on the moral ambiguity tip, but best case scenario, this could be his most mature and complex look at modern machismo yet. (Maybe that’s not saying much.) Pain & Gain is based on Miami New Times writer Pete Collins’ fascinating report on the Sun Gym gang and the Fargo -esque trajectory of their eventual downfall and arrest. The full saga is a must-read: Find it archived here . Pain & Gain hits theaters April 26. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die won the Gand Jury Award, at AFI Fest Thursday afternoon, while A Royal Affair by Nikolaj Arcel won the Audience Award in the World Cinema section. Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm won the Audience Award among the fest’s list of New Auteurs and Only the Young by Jason Tippet received the audience prize among its “Young Americans.” David Tosh Gitonga took the Audience nod for “Breakthrough” for Nairobi Half Life . “It has been an incredible year in film and we’re grateful for having had the opportunity to showcase so many wonderful films,” said Jacqueline Lyanga, Director of AFI Fest in a statement. “Our desire is to have these films reach an even wider audience after these eight festival days, and that our jury and audience awards contribute to building an audience for these films.” AFI Fest closes out Thursday night with the World Premiere of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln . AFI Fest 2012 Winners Jury Awards, New Auteurs (with descriptions provided by AFI Fest): Grand Jury Award: Eat Sleep Die by Gabriela Pichler Description: A Montenegrin-born young woman living in rural Sweden, Raša is laid off from her job at a food-packing plant. Her ensuing job search pulls us through the maze of limited prospects and frustrating bureaucracy facing the country’s working immigrant population. Affable, resilient, street smart and soft-hearted, Raša’s natural magnetism draws us in completely. We feel every ounce of her disappointment, fear and elation as she soldiers on, looking for work. An Audience Award winner at the Venice Film Festival, Eat Sleep Die ‘s assured naturalism and political conviction single out Pichler as a bold, exciting new cinematic voice. Special Mention for Performance: Simon Killer ‘s (DIR Antonio Campos) Mati Diop for “her contribution to Simon Killer as both an actress and screenwriter.” Description: follows recent graduate Simon as he travels to Paris to escape the fallout from a former relationship. No matter how hard he tries, Simon can’t seem to shake the past and feelings of lost love. Instead, he fills his days traveling the streets and taking in the sites, while composing letters to his ex-girlfriend, engaging in chat room sex and hitting on girls in the streets. When he meets a beautiful prostitute and falls in love, everything begins to unravel and we discover that Simon is harboring some dark secrets. Special Mention: Here and There by Antonio Mendez Esparza Description: After many years in New York, Pedro returns home to Guerrero, Mexico, to an overwhelmed wife and daughters he barely knows. Pedro struggles to secure a job in town and establish his place as the head of the household. Just as the family begins to regain their balance, Pedro and his wife Teresa are thrown into turmoil, facing a difficult pregnancy and the prospect of a new child. Audience Awards (with descriptions provided by the festival) World Cinema: A Royal Affair . DIR Nikolaj Arcel. Denmark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany. Description: In the age of enlightenment, a young woman becomes Queen of Denmark via an arranged marriage, but shortly after the ceremony it becomes clear that the young king suffers from mental illness. German physician and philosopher Johan Struensee is called to attend the unstable King and an epic romance results between the doctor and the queen, giving Johan the power to make transformational social changes within the Danish kingdom. Based on a true story, A Royal Affair is Denmark’s official submission for Academy Award consideration. New Auteurs: A Hijacking . DIR Tobias Lindholm. Denmark. Description: One mistake can mean life or death to the crew on board a Danish ship taken hostage by Somali pirates. In Denmark, the shipping company’s CEO boldly ignores advice from a hostage negotiator and speaks on the phone directly with the pirate’s translator, Omar. Conditions worsen on the claustrophobic ship as the psychological pressure intensifies and months pass while negotiations continue. Shifting from the chaotic conditions onboard to the offices of the Danish shipping company, A Hijacking skillfully examines the art of bargaining in this fraught, high-pressure drama. Young Americans: Only The Young . DIR Jason Tippet, Elizabeth Mims. USA. Description: North of Los Angeles stands the city of Santa Clarita, where once-affluent neighborhoods now buckle under the strain of economic recession. Inside one of the town’s vacant houses, teenagers Garrison Saenz and Kevin Conway build a skateboard ramp in an empty room. The two best friends — punkish and no strangers to rowdy behavior — are as devoted to preaching the Gospel as they are to the half-pipe. Add to the mix Garrison’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Skye, a whip-smart, devout Christian facing a devastating foreclosure on her home; and Kristen, Garrison’s liberal-thinking, hip-hop dancing possible new paramour and you’ve got enough teen love, happiness and heartache to fill a deeply affecting screenplay. Breakthrough: Nairobi Half Life . DIR David Tosh Gitonga. Kenya/Germany. Description: Despite his parents’ wishes, Mwas leaves his small village and embarks on a journey to Kenya’s capital in order to pursue a career in acting. Naïve and filled with hope, he quickly learns why the city is nicknamed “Nairobbery.” A few innocent mistakes land him in jail, which eventually leads Mwas to connect with a gang. Although he learns how to survive in the dangerous and sprawling urban center, Mwas is torn between his new lifestyle of theft and violence and his dream of becoming an actor. Grand Jury Awards, Live Action and Animated Short – AFI Fest Grand Jury Award winners in the Live Action and Animated Shorts categories as qualifiers for the annual Academy Awards Short Film category. Grand Jury Award, Live Action Short: Introducing Bobby by Roger Hayn “for crafting an honest vision of America by making an insightful portrayal of a single man.” Grand Jury Award, Animated Short: Oh Willy… by Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels “for melding a dynamic narrative with innovative animation style that leads the viewer to pure wonderment.” Special Jury Award for Animation: Belly by Julia Pott “for its personal touch to technique and playful storytelling that is a welcome addition to the pantheon of animation.” Special Jury Award for Documentary Filmmaking: Whateverest by Kristoffer Borgli “for constructing a film that contextualizes the digital generation and reflects on what happens when we turn the camera onto ourselves.” Honorable Mention for Performance: Narcocorrido (DIR Ryan Prows) for Raul Castillo’s “penetrating lead performance that conveys a sense of loss that leaves a lasting mark on the audience.” Honorable Mention for Promising Vision: Dogs Are Said to See Things by Guto Parente “for pulling together social criticism with a pool party and actually making something fresh and smart.”
Mark Wahlberg : The new Shia LaBeouf ? Michael Bay and Paramount announced Thursday that Wahlberg, who stars in Bay’s real life crime pic Pain & Gain , will lead the franchise sequel Transformers 4 . “An actor of his caliber is the perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers ’ legacy,” said Bay in a statement. LaBeouf’s run as the squirrelly-scrappy lead of the Transformers franchise ended with Transformers: Dark of The Moon (he’s moving onward to more artsy fare, anyway — Von Trier ahoy !), but casting someone like Wahlberg changes the game considerably. He’s got the star power of Shia LaBeouf and Josh Duhamel in one. He was nominated twice for the Oscar. He is Mark Wahlberg . I imagine this deal going down one day on the Pain & Gain set over beers, Wahlberg in his Pain & Gain tracksuit ( or maybe this short shorts outfit ) and Bay in a smoking jacket, because for some reason I always picture Michael Bay in a smoking jacket. Feel the vibration! Full press release follows; weigh in on the casting move below. Does it change your feelings on Bay’s mega-blockbuster robot franchise at all? Can we now conceivably picture Transformers and Pain & Gain as connected worlds in the Michael Bay multiverse? HOLLYWOOD, CA (November 8, 2012) – After an exceptionally successful collaboration on the upcoming “Pain and Gain,” Michael Bay has cast Academy Award®-nominee Mark Wahlberg in the highly anticipated “TRANSFORMERS 4.” The film will hit theaters June 27th, 2014. “Mark is awesome. We had a blast working on “Pain and Gain” and I’m so fired up to be back working with him. An actor of his caliber is the perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers’ legacy,” said Bay. Bay will direct the next installment in the “TRANSFORMERS” series, which begins shooting next spring. From Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom, Inc., in association with Hasbro, the film will be produced by Don Murphy & Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Ian Bryce, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Bay, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian. Bay’s first “TRANSFORMERS” film was a box office sensation in 2007, opening at #1 and earning more than $700 million worldwide. His second installment “TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN” in 2009 grossed more than $830 million worldwide. In 2011, “TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON” was an even bigger hit worldwide, grossing more than a billion dollars to become the 5th highest grossing film of all time. To date, the franchise has earned more than $2.6 billion worldwide. From acclaimed director Michael Bay comes “Pain and Gain,” a new action comedy starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie. Based on the unbelievable true story of three personal trainers in 1990s Miami who, in pursuit of the American Dream, get caught up in a criminal enterprise that goes horribly wrong. Ed Harris, Tony Shalhoub, Rob Corddry, Rebel Wilson, and Bar Paly also star. The film is based on magazine articles by Pete Collins, with a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely and produced by Donald DeLine, Michael Bay and Ian Bryce. “PAIN AND GAIN” opens in theaters everywhere April 26th, 2013.
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