Baywatch (2017)

Baywatch (2017)

IMDB Rating : 5.6 (as on 31.05.2017)

Devoted lifeguard Mitch Buchanan butts heads with a brash new recruit. Together, they uncover a local criminal plot that threatens the future of the Bay.

R | 1h 56min | Action, Comedy, Drama

Director: Seth Gordon

Writers: Michael Berk (based on the series "Baywatch" created by), Douglas Schwartz (based on the series "Baywatch" created by) | 7 more credits »

Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario

IMDB link Here

Not waving, but drowning

Andy Warhol got it wrong. It’s not that everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes; it's that all moderately successful, mediocre television shows are destined to be reborn as feature films. The latest example of the distressing trend attempts to wink knowingly at its inspiration. But a character acknowledging that the proceedings resemble an “entertaining but far-fetched TV show” isn’t enough to make Baywatch anything more than the cynical cash grab that it is.

That the film’s guiding creative ethos was apparently to push the envelope and go for an “R” rating becomes painfully clear. The endless profusion of F-bombs seems to indicate that the screenwriters must have thought they would be paid per use. The raunchy humor extends to gay-panic gags strangely similar to the ones found in the recent, similarly misbegotten CHIPS; Baywatch strains for a vulgarity that never comes remotely close to being funny. Unless, that is, you find the idea of Zac Efron manipulating a dead man’s genitals hysterical.

Dwayne Johnson plays Mitch (David Hasselhoff in the original series), the no-nonsense leader of the Baywatch team, which also includes two newbies: Matt Brody (Efron), a two-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer whose irresponsible, hedonistic ways instantly rub Mitch the wrong way; and Ronnie (Jon Bass), the pudgy lifeguard-in-training whose helpless crush on a gorgeous colleague becomes improbably reciprocated.

The fact that one of the film’s extended comic set-pieces involves Ronnie becoming involved in a “stuck junk” emergency when his genitals get trapped in a beach chair should tell you all you need to know about its level of humor. The causal throwaway gags are actually far funnier, such as Mitch’s belittlingly addressing Matt with a series of nicknames including “Malibu Ken” and, most amusingly, “High School Musical.”

Johnson and Efron possess impressive muscles, but the performers have never done as much heavy lifting as they do here. And to their credit, they succeed to some degree. Johnson employs his big toothy grin, effortless charm and surprising comic gifts to make the film almost watchable. And Efron — who has come to rely on his obnoxious frat-boy shtick far too often — takes off his shirt … a lot.

Of course, you would expect nothing else from this movie based on a TV series that became famous for slow-motion shots of star Pamela Anderson jiggling down a beach in her bikini. That naturally inspires one of the film’s running gags, with swimsuit model Kelly Rohrbach, playing CJ Parker, effectively filling in Anderson’s shoes (or lack thereof). But while the female form is on ample display here — courtesy of not only the comely Rohrbach, but also Alexandra Daddario (San Andreas) and Ilfenesh Hadera (Billions) as CJ’s female colleagues at Emerald Bay — Johnson’s massive physique and Efron’s washboards abs receive equally generous exposure.

Similarly, the film, directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, Identity Thief), shows off its big budget with large-scale action sequences — including the team rescuing several scantily clad women from a burning yacht, a Jet Ski chase and Efron causing havoc on a pier while riding a motorcycle — but none of them has much impact.

Naturally, there are brief appearances by original stars Hasselhoff (who seems to be making ironic cameos his late-career specialty) and Anderson, but those, too, are underwhelming. Anderson’s is so fleeting, in fact, that you wonder why it was even included.

A big-screen reboot so lifeless and mechanical that even its end-credits outtakes are not amusing, Baywatch proves much less than the sum of its undeniably attractive body parts.

Read full review at Hollywood reporter

 Movie rating ★★✬☆☆

Equal opportunity voyeurism, gross-out comedy and frank stupidity

Jake Wilson

Winter is here in the southern hemisphere, which means the start of the summer blockbuster season in Hollywood – and they don't get any more summery than this action-comedy reboot of Baywatch, in its 1990s heyday one of the most popular TV shows in the world.

Even as a non-aficionado, I can confirm certain things have changed since the original show, best-known for its leering shots of Pamela Anderson as a bikini-clad lifeguard running in slow motion along a Los Angeles beach. While that image gets rehashed here, the setting has switched to Florida, and Anderson's character CJ, now played by Alexandra Daddario, has been pushed to the sidelines along with her fellow babes.

This time round, it's primarily the men who are asked to show off their bodies – specifically Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron who play, respectively, the fatherly head of the lifeguard team and the cocky newcomer. While both have proven their acting talent many times over, it's a fair bet that preparation for these roles involved more time spent in the gym than pondering the nuances of character.

The director Seth Gordon seems to be aiming for the audience that made a hit out of Steven Soderbergh's male stripping drama Magic Mike – and it's tempting to wonder what the project would have gained from the enigmatic professionalism of Soderbergh, perhaps the one director in Hollywood who could have made it an artistic success.

In his absence, the film shuttles between many approaches. The feeble plot about crooked developers is mocked in the manner of the 21 Jump Street films, with Efron's character pointing out the weirdness of a group of lifeguards taking it upon themselves to solve crimes.

There are echoes of the Fast and the Furious series in the depiction of the Baywatch gang as a surrogate family. There's also an element of gross-out comedy, notably in some gay-panic hijinks at a morgue: if the central duo have to get up close and personal with a corpse, they'd evidently prefer a female one.

From scene to scene, it's never quite clear whether this Baywatch is paying tribute to its model or sending it up. Even to pose the question may be giving the matter more thought than Gordon did. Still, in the right mood it's possible to enjoy the dawdling pace, the equal-opportunity voyeurism, even the frank stupidity – in more or less the spirit of a lazy day at the beach.

Read full review at Sydney morning herald

 Movie rating ★★☆☆☆

There’s no saving this meat-headed caper  

Patrick Smith

As a TV show in the Nineties, Baywatch became a worldwide phenomenon, a kitsch classic serving up sun, semi-naked beauties and very silly storylines. It was the stuff of teenage fantasies, so fixated was it with bums and boobs, jiggling away in sleazy slow-mo. As a film, it takes all these elements and jacks them up with steroids and machismo. Everything about Baywatch the movie is big, brash and bombastic.

Take its star, Dwayne Johnson. Radiating power and aggression, Forbes's highest-paid actor of 2016 is preposterously buff in the role of chief lifeguard Mitch Buchannon, a part made famous by David Hasselhoff. Same goes for Zac Efron, whose frat-boy shtick is distinctly at odds with his physique here – no way could someone be that chiselled and still love a brewski. As new recruit Matt Brody, a disgraced Olympic swimmer, Efron is inevitably in full Efron-idiot mode: selfish, arrogant... drunk.

Directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses), this reboot is a straight-up action-comedy bromance, which aims for the self-aware hi-jinks of 2012's 21 Jump Street but misses its mark. Indeed, listing the film's virtues isn't going to detain us for long. Any alchemy it has stems from a tongue-in-cheek Johnson and the way his character routinely belittles Brody with a stream of nicknames including "One Direction", "High School Musical" and "Malibu Ken". There's also a pleasingly wry acknowledgement of the absurdity of the original series' premise. "Everything you guys were talking about sounds like a really entertaining, but far-fetched TV show," ironises Brody, on hearing that the Baywatch lifeguards intend to pursue a gang of hardened criminals.

The Hoff's cameo will pick up a few laughs, appearing as he does to the strains of Jimi Jamison's Baywatch theme I'll Be Ready, and yes, some viewers will feel a prickle of nostalgia during a super-slow-mo of Pamela Anderson. But, ultimately, this film should have been left in the beach hut, and certainly not encouraged to step on to the sand.

 Read  full review at Telegraph