BAYWATCH movie review

Baywatch is an iconic series during the nineties. I remember watching this series when most doesn’t have cable yet but it was broadcast on air through a local station. It was popularized by David Hasselhoff as the lead character Mitch Buchannon. It was so iconic that it beat his Knight Rider image from driving the roads with a high-tech Trans-Am wearing a leather jacket, jeans and cowboy boots to swimming the shores of Emerald Bay and running the sands in slow-motion wearing standard lifeguard shorts and holding a rescue buoy.

 

Photo credit: UIP

It was broadcast longer than Knight Rider with changing cast and two spin-off series Baywatch Nights and Baywatch Hawaii. I am glad it took this long to make a Baywatch movie because it needs to separate itself from the series. It has to be branded to a newer audience. If they made a movie during in the height of its popularity, it may be risky.

The rebranding of this Baywatch movie is good for the millennial audiences and the producers should take advantage of making more effort in the movie in what the series was too limited to do which is make it more R-16.  It is funnier and made more antics than the series was not able to do. But the lifeguard action is still there.

As for the story, it started with the original Baywatch team that started it all.  Hasselhoff may be a lone wolf in Knight Rider, but it was good to make his character a team leader to make him more different from his action hero image. He is still an action hero in Baywatch. Not bad for an actor his age who can still do action in Baywatch.

That is why it probably took long after the series to make a Baywatch movie. It needs someone with the same stature The Hoff has as Mitch. They made a good choice for Dwayne Johnson to succeed as Mitch. Just like The Hoff, The Rock is also not just a muscle. Johnson is also a team leader but he can also do the job done. He also looks like he’s been in the beach his whole life thanks to his Samoan roots.

As for his co-Baywatchers, Zac Efron, Allesandra Daddario and Kelly Rohrbach are good choices for the dream team of lifeguards as Brody, Summer and C.J. respectively.  In addition to this, Ilfenesh Hadera is also a good choice to play Stephanie Holden, the second in command in Baywatch lifeguards. She has this sphinx-like stature that gives her an authoritative look. You may say she is the female version of Mitch.

This line-up of Baywatch lifeguards is inclusive and diverse. Inclusive because there is a new lifeguard who does not have a body like a Greek god or goddess in the character of Ronnie. He may be a comic relief but he also prove his worth. I also describe it as diverse because Zac Efron’s Brody is also funny and a troublemaker.

The story combined what kind of character is Mitch in the series. He may be a lifeguard by day but he is also an aspiring to be a private detective. Mitch also appears in Baywatch Nights when he is not doing “lifeguard pursuit” and doing another job as a private investigator.

I highly recommend this movie for those who watch it and for newer audience and David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson made a cameo appearance. Not spoiler because their names are mentioned in the start of the movie. My only concern in this movie is, it was shown simultaneously on the same week as Wonder Woman.

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