Baywatch (2017)

One of my all time favorites.

Better Late Then Never

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

In sun-kissed Emerald Bay, the vigorous Lieutenant Mitch Buchannon and Baywatch, his elite team of hand-picked and perfectly tanned lifeguards, protect the bay, keeping both sunbathers and beach lovers safe. However, this summer, two new eager trainees will join the demanding life-saving program, as well as an insubordinate former Olympic swimmer, who are all called to prove their worth on the lifeguard towers just on time when a new synthetic street drug begins to infest the Emerald Bay: the flakka. Without a doubt, this calls for some serious undercover teamwork action, as the badgeless heroes in spandex comb the beach for shady newcomers and nefarious entrepreneurs with hidden agendas of their own. Can Mitch's band save the bay?

I went to see this movie because it was rated 5.6! I did not ask myself how bad this can be? 5.6 is pretty decent score, isn't it? If you are looking for a parody of Baywatch then this just might be the right movie for you.

Mitch Buchannon (Dwayne Johnson) is a head lifeguard who is devoted to his work and takes a serious and professional approach to his job. He soon finds his patience tested when cocky gung-ho new recruit Matt Brody (Zac Efron) joins the programme and he clashes with Mitch as they have very differing attitudes to what being a lifeguard is actually about; however the 2 men find that they must work together when they learn that real estate magnate Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra) is taking unethical measures in order to create a monopoly on the bay.Let's all be honest with each other here; this film never had a chance of being brilliant and anyone who was actually expecting this to be an amazing film either doesn't live in the real world or perhaps hasn't seen the original TV Series upon which this film was based on - which I can understand with younger viewers as it must be close to 20 years since Baywatch was last on TV. Having said that the film did work on a very basic level for me; the banter (mainly between Johnson and Efron is amusing - even if Efron being compared to every solo male singer or boy-band member in the last 20 years was a one-note joke it was a fairly effective joke for the most part). Sure it's a shallow film, but in some ways it's amusingly shallow as it does at least have a degree of self-awareness about it; there are a number of slow-motion scenes which are obviously an in-joke about the original TV Series (which perhaps won't work for those who haven't seen the TV Series), but for someone like me who was a teenager at the time and remembers the TV series I did find some of these references to be quite funny.Although there is a plot here, it is rather weak and with all the focus being on the cast members perfectly toned bodies or wonderful breasts - like Efron himself I found Daddario's assets something of a distraction, and I also thought that Kelly Rohrbach was pretty hot as well. But this forms part of a problem in the fact that these are the things that you remember about the film and the story takes second place and almost feels inconsequential. Like I say it is the fairly amusing banter between Johnson and Efron that prevents me from completely hating this film.The acting is pretty much as bad as could be expected with, rather unsurprisingly, the 2 people in the film who seemingly haven't been selected for their looks (Johnson and Bass) giving the most engaging performances and it is these 2 actors that come across as being the most believable and 'real' people out of the cast. Efron isn't very good when he's on his own and only works well when he plays off against Johnson. Daddario and Rohrbach are both hot, but they are fairly vapid characters who add very little (apart from the obvious) and the same extends to Hadera who I felt could have been used better. There are a couple of lazy and rather meaningless cameos from ex-stars of the TV Series which add nothing to the film (which strikes as desperation from the producers and with Johnson being one of the producers I thing he should hang his head in shame). I get that the film isn't meant to be taken seriously and I liked the way it made fun of itself a bit, but there's this underlying feeling that Baywatch the film is far too in love with itself and for me this took some of the enjoyment away from my overall viewing experience.

I normally like Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, and Priyanka Chopra but this was straight out poorly written with some ok moments. The first scenes seemed like it had the making of something interesting show and I really liked the names Dwayne called Zac's character. Sadly the small name calling in the front was the only funny parts. It seemed like most of the "humor" was only the cringey awkward moments from Jon Bass's character or how disgusted you feel about what happens to Zac's character. Honestly if they took Jon Bass's character out completely the show would have been a lot better. I also think they should have made the reason they went after the bad guys more organic instead of straight up looking for them right off the bat. I feel so embarrassed for the actors and actresses involved in this film and I hope the lesser known ones get a second chance after this movie.