Many a movie have sprung from the television series of past to become successful one offs or outright franchises. From the 21 Jump Street franchise to The Adams Family the formula of making old new again never seems to fail. But those two, and a handful of others, knew how to approach the source material. Either you play it straight all the way through or you send-it-up for its ludicrous plot and over-the-top stories. Both ways work when done properly and Baywatch would have too if it would have just picked a side of the fence to land on.
Baywatch, unlike the previous mentioned films, doesn't know what it wants to do. It spends half its runtime trying to play it funny like Starsky and Hutch and the other half dead serious like Bad Boys. It's this identity split that makes the movie very distracting and makes you ponder why you decided to watch this and not Wonder Woman.
The cast, for the most part, is pretty good. There are a few exceptions though, but the most glaring is Priyanka Chopra. She phones in a performance that would only work on a daytime soap opera. She is a unsuccessful villain to say the least. However, The Rock and Zack Efron have pretty good chemistry on screen and had this been a straight-up buddy movie this would have worked extremely well, but their talent cannot over come the lack of direction the movie has as a whole.
The most off putting thing though about the whole movie is its odd nods to the series. From the slow-mo running to the brief cameos it makes no sense as to why they would do that in one scene then try and play it straight the next.
If you liked Baywatch the series then go rewatch those episodes because there is nothing here that you will enjoy. And if you are in the mood for a funny rehash of an older TV show then watch CHIPS. Seriously, it's funny and better than this failed attempt at a movie.
Rating: 5/10 Stars
Rich Stile @TheDevilsEyes1