( CNN ) -- Here is the question : Can it be called a Michael Bay film if there are no explosions ? With `` Pain & Gain , '' the director best known for action-packed films such as the `` Transformers '' franchise and `` Armageddon '' goes decidedly smaller , though no less hefty in the over-the-top nature . The film -- which opens Friday -- stars Mark Wahlberg , Dwayne `` The Rock '' Johnson and Anthony Mackie as a trio of hapless bodybuilders who launch a harebrained kidnapping scheme . An action-comedy , it 's based on the true story of a murderous gang in Florida in the 1990s , which included a group of bodybuilders . Unlike Bay 's other projects that have found him alternately hailed and crucified ( he appears on both an Internet Movie Database list of all-time worst and best movie directors ) , there is a dearth of stylized car chases , massive guns and things blowing up . `` Pain & Gain '' was not conceived as a massively budgeted , summer blockbuster . `` I wanted to do a quirky movie , '' Bay told The New York Times . `` I wanted to do something small , just actors acting . It was almost like film school again for me . '' Film school ? For the man who brought the world `` Bad Boys '' and `` Bad Boys II '' ? Perhaps that is why Jack Giroux at the Film School Rejects site penned `` The Case for Michael Bay as Visionary Auteur . '' `` A Michael Bay picture is many , many things , '' Giroux writes . `` The global showman has made his career off shiny money shots , a broad sense of humor , solid on-screen pairings , well-orchestrated chaos , and much more . '' Despite the fact the new film is n't like most of his other movies , Giroux sees elements of Bay in in it . `` The director 's newest movie , the abrasively entertaining 'Pain & Gain , ' carries on those trademark signatures in many ways , '' he says . `` It 's not the explosions which make him an auteur , it 's the little things that make his human stories more meaningful than what we see from most blockbuster directors . '' Bay probably agrees . He told CNN his latest project reminds him of another of his summer films from many years ago . `` I do like releasing films in summer , but this is a small little movie , but it 's got a little of that 'Bad Boys ' vibe to it , '' Bay said . `` So this kind of goes back to my roots . I like low-budget movies , and this is a character piece . '' Forbes contributor Scott Mendelson notes that `` it 's no secret that films like 'Pearl Harbor ' ( an epic romantic drama set during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ) and 'The Island ' ( a science-fiction thriller that serves as a parable for the perils of genetic science and/or abortion ) were Michael Bay 's attempts at artistic legitimacy . `` They did n't quite work out , leading Bay to somewhat surrender and helm a big budget trilogy based on a toy line about cars/planes that turn into robots and fight each other , '' Mendelson writes . `` So here in 'Pain & Gain ' we see the return of 'serious ' Michael Bay . '' Wahlberg told The New York Times he had full faith in Bay -- who has also cast the star in his next `` Transformers '' film . `` You get the artsy-fartsy guys of the world who do these little quirky comedies or dramas , that think they 're cool and they 're the artists , '' the actor told the paper . `` But he can do the stuff that other guys ca n't do . '' Co-star Ken Jeong , who is best known for `` The Hangover '' films , told The Hollywood Reporter that `` Pain & Gain '' is `` one of best Michael Bay 's films ever . '' For his part , Bay seemed to have enjoyed the respite that came with being scaled down . He told CNN he tried to keep things intimate on the set . `` It 's really refreshing just to have actors act , you know ? On 'Transformers ' you are dealing with 2,000 people . This is much smaller , intimate , like a 100-person crew ! ''
`` Pain & Gain '' is not your usual Michael Bay fare . It's a very different kind of film, and it has some really interesting ideas about the future of technology. His new dark comedy had a smaller budget and crew .