Will the revamp of this 90s show be as predictable as the turning of the tide or can it surprise us more pleasantly than a jellyfish in the sand?
Seth Gordon’s direction begins with a changing of the guard at Emerald Bay. Led by Lt. Mitch Buchannon (Dwayne Johnson) the Baywatch team begins its annual recruitment tryouts. Showing from the get go that everything will be as subtle as the ‘Rock’ being an undercover agent, or for that matter that there are hidden depths to the double Olympic gold winning, party boy, Zac Effron. It is this backhanded way of continually highlighting absurdity that pulls this film by the underwear into borderline acceptability.
As the trainees are introduced to the day to day life of the bay they begin to realise the gravity of their job. A good degree of professionalism can be seen by the experienced lifeguards, CJ, Stephanie and Mitch, they do not joke around when public lives are at stake. Once this is established however the more extravagant plot of drug running rings does take the foreground. While this does create a much more exciting set of events and a license to use as much budget as possible it does not translate into a better half of the movie.
Lofty villainess Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra) makes for a very flippant and sloppy adversary, in this way she never really instills a great sense of threat to the main characters. The characters that disappear are never given much chance to make us care about them, this is a shame as the film does not change its tone even for death which should be a major issue in a film about lifeguards.
Dwayne Johnson is easily the stand out actor, his particular blend of taking his role seriously, even when it is abundantly clear of it’s absurdity works well. He presents a character that is believable in his drive to secure the well-being of people under his care, limited only by physical capacity rather than his authority. Zac Effron stars as a great swingball for Johnson and the others to abuse throughout the film, without this he would have offered very little past a shiny six pack.
There are a number of smaller details that contributed to the film’s charm, the obvious references to its past makes it accessible to even those who may never have seen an episode of Baywatch. One throw away comment couldn’t be more obvious mentioning to the effect, ‘this is all like some 90s TV show’. Another small detail that struck me was the tiny Mitch statue that lives in the fish tank. This tiny figure displays a remarkable reflection of Mitch’s personality as it changes posture throughout the film, unexplained and random it always amused me and caught my attention.
As a big budget Hollywood title and remake of a tenuous classic 90s TV series Baywatch it has all the hallmarks of a terrible idea, thankfully due to some stand out acting, clever directing and a lack of Adam Sandler it is not a complete write off. While this is definitely not a must see it is very watchable if you want something untaxing or were a fan of the original TV series.
Author: Joe, Bath store
