Baywatch

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Mitch Buchanan (played by Dwanye Johnson) and Matt Brody (played by Zac Efron) have to work together when a businesswoman (played by Priyanka Chopra) begins smuggling drugs on the beach. Meanwhile Mitch and Matt don’t get along and have to learn how to tolerate each other. The two also have to deal with their under-developed love interests. Baywatch has been stuck in development hell for years, with the project passing from writer to writer and director to director. The original idea was for the movie to star Bill Hader, but that didn’t come to pass. Yeah, it can be pretty obvious at times that this was handed down over the years. Sometimes it feels like it genuinely wants to satire the Baywatch series. Other times it feels like a cynical cash-grab trying to replicate the success of 21 and 22 Jump Street. The movie actually had a decently promising start. I was laughing during the first ten minutes of the movie. Then, a stretch of twenty minutes went by before I laughed again. That was the first time in the movie I practically burst out loud. I wasn’t busting a gut or anything like that but I was laughing. The three leads of the movie (Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, and Alexandra Daddario) are clearly trying, and I actually do display a solid level of chemistry when they have to bounce off of people. One performance really sticks out to me as just plain awful. Priyanka Chopra as the movie’s villain. I think she’s really good in the show Quantico. She feels incredibly miscast in this role, however. Some of the music placement doesn’t really work. There’s a point in the movie where the heroes go to put out a fire. The song playing in the background is Everyday by A$AP Rocky, and it’s just not a song I picture going with an action scene. Hannibal Burress is talented comedian, but he’s wasted in this movie. The biggest problem the movie suffers from however, is its length. The movie is two hours long. I feel like the movie could’ve been a little stronger if they shaved off a total of 20 minutes. Overall, Bauwatch was just kind of disappointing. It wasn’t as bad as it was made out to be, but it still wasn’t good either. The movie had some laughs, but not enough. The movie had a couple of good performances, one awful performance, and a bunch that were just kind of in the middle.

4 / 10