Turning a gym around is all well and good, but that’s not enough for Lugo and his friend Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie), a fellow bodybuilder who is feeling the repercussions of years of steroid abuse. To treat his erectile dysfunction, he needs money. Lugo needs money, too. Fortunately, they have an appropriate mark in the obnoxiously rich half-Colombian half-Jewish Victor Kershaw (a delightfully slimy Tony Shaloub). The plan: take Kershaw for all he’s worth, with the help of Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson), a recently paroled ex-con who has turned to AA and religion to temper his penchant for incredible violence. You have to give Michael Bay credit. For all his flaws, which we’re all familiar with, the man still knows how to do a fast-paced action comedy film. The Rock might be one of the best modern action movies ever. Bad Boys is a well-regarded cult classic. Even with a quarter of the budget of his usual giant explosionfests, Bay manages to create a good-looking film. Stripped of spectacle, Bay still knows how to make fast-driving cars and speeding boats look awesome visually, and he manages to capture the feel of early 90’s Miami without falling into the Miami Vice trap or the period piece trap. There’s a definite excess he’s reaching for, and he’s pretty successful for about half of the movie. The other half of the movie shifts from madcap, almost slapstick comedy to some very brutal scenes of outright torture. When you taser someone once, it’s funny. When you taser them four or five times, beat them into submission, and keep them chained up for days at a time, it’s not quite as funny anymore, even if you are beating the kidnap victim with giant dildos. The comic tones of the first and third sections are kind of abandoned in the second and fourth sections of the film. In a sense, it’s two different films kind of pushed together. I think it’s just a casualty of Michael Bay’s aggressive style; everything is so in-your-face the whole time that it’s tough to not feel uneasy. The screenplay, from the writing team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, actually seems like a pretty good script. It’s funny, the supporting players (Rebel Wilson, Ken Jeong, a brilliantly understated Ed Harris) get some good stuff to do during their limited screen time, and every major character seems to be pretty well defined. It also has the benefit of being based on a fascinating real-life story (which it follows pretty closely, and I recommend checking out the Miami New Times articles on the case by Pete Collins). The problem, I think, is in the execution rather than the source. These are very good writers, and while the movie could definitely use a bit of a pruning at 130 minutes, it’s not as bloated as every Transformers movie has been. Ultimately, I think it falls into the lap of the director, who ultimately makes all the decisions on tone. US Correspondent Ron Hogan had a trial membership at a gym for 3 months, but didn’t get anywhere near pumped. On the plus side, he also didn’t get involved in any crime rings, so at least there’s that. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here