In 2013, Michael Bay's next film, the black comedy Blood and Sweat: Anabolics, was released on the big screens. He paid off at the box office and had decent fees, but caused a lot of controversy. Spectators and critics were divided into two camps: some called the film the worst in Bay's filmography, others called his best, most provocative and ambitious project. Could one of the Hollywood box office directors make a frankly mediocre film - judge you.
The plot of the film "Blood and Sweat: Anabolics" (2013)
The actors approved in the project certainly decide a lot. However, in a bad scenario, even they are not able to “pull” it. The famous American duet of producers and scriptwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Marcus worked on the script for this film. It seems that the fact that they worked on many films about the Marvel universe, the series Agent Carter and the film franchise The Chronicles of Narnia will not make you doubt their professionalism.
The plot is based on real events. Fitness trainer Daniel Lugo and bodybuilders Adrian Dorbal and Paul Doyle are the main characters of the film “Blood and Sweat: Anabolics” (2013). Actors Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Mackie and Dwayne Johnson embodied these images on the screen. Once an ambitious coach decides to radically change his life and abducts a well-known businessman, using the services of his two wards. The victim recognizes his abductors, but after torture, transcribes all the property to them. Newfound criminals try to kill him, but the man survives and secretly hires a private detective.
At this time, the trinity lives for pleasure, until it falls into another mess. Lugo kills his new companion, and Dorbal - his wife. They get rid of the bodies, but the police are already following them.
Mark Wahlberg
The slogan of the film is: "Dream big." That's exactly what the main character of the picture Daniel Lugo did, the role of which was performed by Mark Wahlberg. “Blood and sweat: Anabolics” is a project that required an actor to have a certain physical form. In order to convincingly look like a bodybuilder, Wahlberg brought his weight to 96 kg. According to him, during the filming, he was engaged in his own line of food products for bodybuilders. He used them for effective weight gain.
Dwayne Johnson
In the film “Blood and Sweat: Anabolics,” Dwayne Johnson was not by chance. Who, if not a well-known American wrestler nicknamed Scala, will most convincingly manage to play a bodybuilder? In the movie, Johnson began acting in 2000. A year later, he received his first major role in The King of Scorpions and immediately ended up in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest fee of $ 5.5 million. The unthinkable amount for the first leading role.
His character is Paul Doyle. He is the only one of the three who goes to cooperate with the investigation and thereby saves his life. The image is collective, it embodies the features of individual members of the group that took part at different stages of the real crime that took place in Miami in 1994-1995.
Anthony Mackie
In the film “Blood and Sweat: Anabolics,” Anthony Mackie played the role of Adrian Dorbal - ally and close friend of Daniel Lugo. An American actor from New Orleans became famous after his role in the movie "8 Mile" and the drama "Like Brother to Brother." Specially for the film, Maki, like Wahlberg, gained muscle mass and approached a weight of 100 kg.
Reviews of foreign film critics
The camp of critics and journalists was split in two after the movie was released. The former poured mud over the director and claimed that the Anabolics were even worse than the exceptionally profitable but thoughtless Transformers franchise, and Bay once again proved that the director's talent was alien to him. And even the famous actors “Blood and sweat: Anabolics” (2013) could not be saved.
The second group of critics claimed that this is the best film in Bay's career over the past eight years. He is absurd, provocative and ambitious. The New York Times, The Village Voice weekly, and Vanity Fair magazine included him in the list of best paintings of 2013.
“Two hours of sweat, blood and fun, followed by thoughts of Jesus in pursuit of the American dream. Bay certainly does not glorify the crimes of the Sun Gum gang, but does not condemn them either. All this will make you think. The film is deeper than it might seem at first glance, it is a brilliant story about the nature and consequences of stupidity, ”noted The New York Times.
The Anabolics rating on the popular Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic sites is 50% and 45%, respectively.
Reviews of Russian film critics
Russian critics were slightly more supportive of the film. According to the popular cinema portal Kinopoisk, its rating is 6.4 out of 10. Those who liked it noted that the film pleases the audience with good humor (albeit black), which brutally ridicules the habits and lifestyle of steroid lovers. Critics praised the talent of the actors in the film “Blood and Sweat: Anabolics” (2013) and their game. According to them, this is one of the outstanding films about the collapse of the American dream, not only about how it collapses easily, but also about its illusory nature. The dashing satire turns fools into monsters before your eyes.
On the other hand, there were those who noticed that Bay was using the good old joke that if there is power, then the mind is not required. That's just monstrous and funny, unlike real comedians, the director sees not simultaneously, but sequentially.
“Meat transformers. The protagonist of the film says that in the chaos you need to find something funny, but Bay seems to have neglected this advice. Chaos reigns on the screen, that's just a little humor. It is noticeable that the director is bored without his "transformers", and no matter how hard he tries to do something modest and worthwhile, it is noticeable that Bay "overeaten" cinematic steroids and "pumped" on blockbusters "- critics of the Kommersant newspaper spoke quite sharply. .