Baywatch Review

     I'll kick off this review by saying that I am a HUGE fan of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I also really enjoy Zac Efron when he's in the right roles. Both of these guys are incredibly charismatic and have really solid comedic timing. So when Paramount announced they were doing a big screen adaptation of the hit TV show, Baywatch, I was actually very intrigued when they started casting. The trailers didn't do much for me but I thought The Rock and Efron would have great chemistry and make the film work. Although The Rock, Efron, and the rest of the group have good chemistry, this movie completely falls flat on all fronts due to the juvenile writing.
     The plot for this movie is pretty straight forward. The Baywatch lifeguard crew is led by Mitch Buchanan (Dwayne Johnson) who has to train hot-head, Matt Brody (Zac Efron) and a bunch of new recruits. They soon learn that there is a local drug quickly spreading throughout the beach and they will do what they can to uncover the mystery.

     I'll open by saying I wasn't expecting an award winning movie. I went in hoping to get a few good laughs. The trailers really gave me a 21 Jump Street vibe and unfortunately, that's one of the problems with this movie. It tries so hard to replicate that type of comedy with running gags that don't land and very juvenile humor. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy juvenile humor when it's done right. 21 Jump Street has plenty of juvenile or low brow humor but it's cleverly done and the setup is executed very well. Baywatch not so much. It's just constant dick and boob (pardon the language) jokes that a 7th grader could think of. Also, this movie loves to acknowledge how meta it is (much like 21 Jump Street) yet the writing is done in such a messy manner.
     There's one scene in particular that caused me to laugh and that was because of how poorly done the visual effects were. The Rock is saving passengers aboard a ship that has caught on fire and eventually explodes. The only problem with this is the fire is all done via CGI and looks like something a kid would make with an iPhone app. It's incredibly painful to watch. Part of the problem with this particular scene and the movie as a whole is the editing.
     The editing for this movie is flat out bad. There's really no continuity whatsoever and character motivations change more then LeBron James picking teams in free agency. It relies heavily on club music that all sounds the same and you feel like you're watching the same exact scene over and over again.

     The one positive aspect of this movie is the group as a whole seems to have good chemistry. However, all the chemistry that they is completely ruined by the terrible jokes. The silver lining is at least they got paid after this disaster of a movie. Audiences can certainly skip this one in the theater.

Rating: 2.0 out of 10