On the surface, there is no reason that the Baywatch movie (remake?) should fail.
Dwayne Johnson is the embodiment of star power at this point in his career, and is the perfect combination of action hero and comedy goofball for a project like this. Zac Efron certainly has an action star’s body and has proven his comedy chops in the two Neighbors films. Plus, he appears to have the right amount of vanity to play a shallow, narcissistic lifeguard. Playing co-star to Johnson is probably the ideal position for him. And Alexandra Daddario? Well, that’s just clever casting for obvious reasons.
But the 1990s TV show is so well suited for a humorous remake that pokes fun at the original show, as well as the audience that made the original Baywatch a TV staple and pop culture phenomenon. It’s not like anyone ever took that show seriously. In fact, it was better when David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson and crew embraced Baywatch‘s absurdity.
So the bar isn’t particularly high for a Baywatch movie. Just do what you do, Dwayne Johnson. Make us laugh and do some amazing things that require lifting, jumping and punching. Does the first trailer hit the right note? You make the call.
This definitely has a Hollywood budget attached to it. Dedicated Baywatch fans can correct us if we’re wrong, but did we ever see Hasselhoff’s Mitch Buchannon dive and swim under fiery accident scenes? Did he ever jump onto a flaming boat to rescue someone in jeopardy? But a movie with The Rock in it has to have that kind of big-screen action. Efron looks like he plays his role of Matt Brody as well as anyone else could have. Just what kind of Olympian was he? (OK, two gold medals, but what if he’s a moron?) Maybe that’s something that will be played for laughs. (Do we miss Seth Rogen’s doughy physique next to Efron’s chiseled perfection, though?)
Besides “the Avengers of the beach,” as Johnson called his cast, a Baywatch movie needs to have gorgeous women in swimsuits. But at least it appears that the script by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (with four other credited writers, according to IMDB) tries to address the objectification of women head-on with Daddario’s character calling out Efron for looking at her boobs.
Will that be the only joke of its kind, however? Director Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) might be trying to have it both ways, with the obligatory filming of women running on the beach. Kelly Rohrbach’s C.J. Parker (taking Pamela Anderson’s famous role) gives the camera everything the audience could want, but the script also tries to make fun of it.
Really, the only note that seems to miss in this trailer is Buchannon and Brody’s superior officer, Sgt. Ellerbee, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Get Down). That scene felt like the filmmakers trying just a bit too hard to emulate Ice Cube’s angry Captain Dickson in the 21 Jump Street films. And that character was already derivative to begin with, surely inspired (at least somewhat) by Gil Hill’s foul-mouthed Inspector Todd in the Beverly Hills Cop movies. Does this mean that Johnson and Efron will essentially be playing Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill on the beach? That’s a successful formula to emulate, but also means Baywatch could feel like something we’ve already seen.
Baywatch will be available for your ogling in theaters on May 19, 2017.
