My favourite performance by the legendary wrestler-turned-actor still happens to be Dwayne Johnson’s darkly humorous part in the action-packed Michael Bay satire Pain & Gain, which was released more than ten years ago. Johnson isn’t seen as a particularly exceptional actor, despite his captivating on-screen persona and tremendous star power. It’s improbable that he will ever be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actor category. But that doesn’t always imply he’s a horrible actor like Tommy Wiseau, just because he’s not as good as Marlon Brando.
Johnson merely needs to find the perfect role in the right production under the right director in order to perform to the best of his abilities. He had unmemorable roles in films such as Skyscraper, Baywatch, and Rampage, but none of those films had a compelling storyline, a distinct style, or an auteur filmmaker’s vision. In Pain & Gain, which blends a compelling true-crime narrative with a unique, brilliantly pitch-black comedic style by Michael Bay, Johnson delivers what I believe to be his best performance.
Dwayne Johnson May Have Had His Best Performance Yet in Pain & Gain
Johnson gave the bit his all.Johnson is frequently attacked for portraying the same character in every film, but Dave Bautista and John Cena are constantly pushing themselves to take new roles, experiment with different approaches, and explore character types they haven’t played before. However, The Rock excels in his field. He won over millions of admirers with his delightful voiceover performance as Maui in Moana; he brought an endearing genuineness to his portrayal as rescue chopper pilot Ray Gaines in the gripping disaster thriller San Andreas; and he gave his all to passion-project roles like Hercules and Black Adam.
However, his role as bodybuilder, ex-con, and born-again Christian Paul Doyle in Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain is maybe his best performance to date. Pain & Gain is a deliciously dark comedy that takes its cues from the activities of the Sun Gym gang, a bunch of bodybuilding criminals who kidnapped, tortured, and murdered people in Miami in the mid-1990s. Pain & Gain offered more evidence that Bay performs best on a lower budget. From Bad Boys to Ambulance to 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, all of the best films starring Michael Bay were produced for far less than $100 million.
The Michael Bay comedy Pain & Gain Fit The Rock The Rock’s comedy skills and Bay’s blatant, theatrical mockery complemented each other flawlessly.Bay’s ostentatious, flamboyant brand of humour was a wonderful fit for Johnson’s comic skills. Johnson is not the type of funny actor who has the sensitivity of a Jason Bateman, Fred Willard, or Catherine O’Hara to convey the gentle awkwardness of human contact. Rather, the absurdity of his personas makes him giggle. In The Fate of the Furious, Johnson made a lot of people chuckle when he used his hands to divert a missile. He received a lot of laughter in The Other Guys when he leaped from a skyscraper’s roof and “aimed for the bushes.”
This sense of humour and Bay’s handling of the antics of the muscular killers in Pain & Gain went hand in hand. Johnson was put in ridiculous scenarios in Pain & Gain, such as using a charcoal grill to burn the fingerprints off the severed hands of the murder victims. Johnson gave the role his all, as do all the greatest comic actors, and the outcome may have been the best performance of his career.
