BAYWATCH ■ Okay-watch
Hollywood loves to chase its own tail in pursuit of the next money-making trend. In terms of superheroes, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has created a standard of (mostly) loosely interconnected storytelling in a shared universe that culminates with an AVENGERS movie every few years. Now every franchisable property is seemingly doing that. When it comes to old-school TV series receiving the contemporary movie-adaptation treatment, 21 JUMP STREET and its just-as-funny-sequel, 22 JUMP STREET, set the gold standard.
CHIPS recently showed how adding foul language and dick jokes isn’t enough to make for compelling adult reimagining of a historically (and comparatively) clean series. And while BAYWATCH drifts closer to 21 JUMP STREET than CHIPS (at least in terms of laugh potentiality), its nowhere near as memorable than the better example. Let’s swim into the bad stuff first. BAYWATCH is too long. There’s no reason why what’s ultimately a comedy should be more than 90 minutes.
BAYWATCH copies the 22 JUMP STREET formula so closely that it adds both action and drama to the mix, but those two don’t work anywhere near as well as the comedy. When BAYWATCH is trying to be dramatic or an action movie, it falls short and plods along. When it tries to be funny, it mostly works. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has proven he has the comedic chops to carry a movie more than once before, as has Zac Efron (most notably in BAD NEIGHBOURS) in a supporting semi-antagonistic role. The leading duo riff well off each other, and there’s a lot to like when they dominate the screen.
The supporting cast don’t fare as well, and there seems to be an odd ensemble of ‘straight man’ characters, which just feel like they’re unnecessarily occupying screen time. The attempted beach cop story is laughably bad, and despite its thinness, it still manages to somehow have holes. There’s no point paying attention to that, though. You’re really watching this movie for the laughs, and while it has its fair share if you’re willing to ignore the other stuff, BAYWATCH still could have been a lot funnier.
PS –Try and ignore the cast credits at the beginning of the movie, because it gives away some of the cameos.