The trailers for Baywatch might lead you to believe that this film is a funny, meta send-up of the original TV series. Yet when the movie begins with a tepid ocean rescue played straight, it immediately confuses the tone of the film. That sums up Baywatch. This movie doesn't know what it wants to be.
There's a running gag in this film about the Baywatch lifeguards refusing to understand that they're not law enforcement. It's hilarious satire of the original show and the entire premise, and the film almost starts to sound smart in these moments. The script keeps returning to this joke and it remains humorous, but there's no real payoff.
Other humor in the movie is sporadic. The Rock and Zac Efron have chemistry as rivals. Efron is especially funny and the highlight of the film. Aside from that, there is some gross-out humor that doesn't work, and the rest of the story is played as a straight and dark action piece. There was potential for the action sequences to be played for comedy, but they're strangely earnest. Even when an action sequence strives for humor (in particular a tussle between Dwayne Johnson's Mitch and a henchman), it feels like a weak attempt.
In the end, this film doesn't gel. It wouldn't have worked at all if it was just a self-serious action spectacle. But the comedy that's there is lazy and occasional. There was probably a better version of this film that went further into Police Academy-level absurdity. What we got was a mish-mosh of a movie that feels unfinished.
There's a running gag in this film about the Baywatch lifeguards refusing to understand that they're not law enforcement. It's hilarious satire of the original show and the entire premise, and the film almost starts to sound smart in these moments. The script keeps returning to this joke and it remains humorous, but there's no real payoff.
Other humor in the movie is sporadic. The Rock and Zac Efron have chemistry as rivals. Efron is especially funny and the highlight of the film. Aside from that, there is some gross-out humor that doesn't work, and the rest of the story is played as a straight and dark action piece. There was potential for the action sequences to be played for comedy, but they're strangely earnest. Even when an action sequence strives for humor (in particular a tussle between Dwayne Johnson's Mitch and a henchman), it feels like a weak attempt.
In the end, this film doesn't gel. It wouldn't have worked at all if it was just a self-serious action spectacle. But the comedy that's there is lazy and occasional. There was probably a better version of this film that went further into Police Academy-level absurdity. What we got was a mish-mosh of a movie that feels unfinished.
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