Review of Baywatch (2017) by Daniel S — 11 Dec 2018

The Baywatch TV show is a good example of good stupid. It's over the top, it's campy, but it's only for half an hour and everyone is attractive. And so the makers of this film had the challenge of how to triple the running time of an episode and not lose the simple charm of the show.

They decided to do that with self referential jokes, an overly serious tone in parts, and bad language. It just comes across as trying too hard to be cool, which the original show never did. The story is ostensibly about Zac Efron's character, a cocky, disgraced Olympic swimmer, but his journey from douche to good guy is too quick and unbelievable.

The Rock's character is too flawless to care about. And the women in the film aren't given anything resembling characters, so it's difficult to get behind them either (EXCEPT FOR THE VIEW AMIRITE?).

It seems weird to criticise Baywatch for a lack of characters, but you can get away with things in a TV show that you can't over 90 minutes (or the 116 minutes the films decides it needs). There's a couple of funny moments, but they're padded out with so much nothing that a film I had assumed would be a fun slice of nonsense (as The Rock has shown many times he can provide) was instead a frustrating waste of time.

Also, if you're an action film that doesn't have the budget to have realistic flame special effects, DON'T HAVE AN ACTION SCENE WITH A BOAT ON FIRE. YOU CAN JUST CHOOSE TO HAVE A DIFFERENT SCENE.