Directed by: Seth Gordon

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra, Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach, Ilfenesh Hadera, Jon Bass

Rating: 15

Running Time: 116 minutes

Release Date: May 29th 2017

BAYWATCH is a modern day remake of the 80’s cheesefest of the same name we all know and love. We follow protagonist Mitch (Dwayne Johnson), new recruit Matt Brody (Zac Efron) and the rest of the Baywatch team, as they discover a drug smuggling plot on their beach and are the only ones capable of stopping it. From the description and even the trailers of this movie, I thought I knew exactly what I was getting going in. Much to my pleasure, I was wrong. This movie went above and beyond all of my expectations. 

The main plot of the movie does let it down a bit, however. Action comedy cliches coming at you left, right and centre, it takes predictable, overused steps to bring the audience from point A to B. This leaves me in a strange place when it comes to talking about the writing. With the plot being so basic and generic, you would have thought that it’d be simple and that the writing was bad. However the characters and character development, the jokes and the set pieces were all a joy to behold. Dwayne Johnson brought everything you’d want from him to this movie. He is extremely charming, witty, loveable and yet overtly intimidating. Zac Efron was much the same, although rather than intimidating, he brought a much needed vulnerability to the crew and both of them together bring muscles. So. Many. Muscles. 

This film is very nice to look at, from the cinematography, the beach side locales and the beautiful people. This includes the action set pieces. With each action scene that comes on the screen, you can feel that they were thought out and planned instead of just, this would be cool, and that’s a breath of fresh air from this genre of movie. Too often do we get the same thing over and over again because the studio doesn’t think the audience will notice. Well now that the formula has been changed just enough, we will start to notice, creating change within the rest of the genre. 

There isn’t much to say when it comes to the musical score. I forgot all of it before I had even left the screening, but to be honest, that didn’t matter because the soundtrack was phenomenal. Heart pounding club and summer anthems, pumping the adrenaline both on and off screen. Each song built a rush for the audience whether it be for an on screen party or for an upcoming beat down of bad guys, the music always had you hyped up for more. This is a trend appearing more and more in cinema as of late with such films as FAST AND FURIOUS and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. While replacing score with soundtrack doesn’t always work, I am thankful to say that in BAYWATCH, it definitely did. 

Now to talk about the most important part of this action comedy thrill ride. The comedy. I was extremely surprised with how much I, and the rest of the screening, audibly laughed throughout the entire 2 hour runtime. Every actor had time to shine in the joke department and all delivered more often than not. Each character brought a different personality to the table making for a large variety of comedic styles, ranging from your standard locker room humour to more reference or call out based and even jokes you had to think about for a short while. The man sitting in front of me was very lucky I never sprayed my drink in laughter, because I was close. 

Adding another layer of enjoyment to the film, there are several moments that I won’t spoil that had me smiling from ear to ear, and when you see this film, you will do the same. These moments will make you both happy and make you laugh. They have me smiling to this day as I think back over the film to write this review. 

Overall BAYWATCH is an absolute joy. Hilarious from beginning to end with some great action set pieces to bring you through the journey. While the main plot is a bit too generic, I feel it changes up the formula enough in other departments to more than make up for it. Charming and witty performances from the beautiful cast, incredible looking shots from the beautiful scenery and pure exhilaration from the beautiful soundtrack, this is definitely a film to catch in cinemas.  

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