However, when it works, it works . Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron have genuine, hilarious chemistry. The film’s willingness to be relentlessly stupid and profane is oddly charming. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a wave crashing over you—unexpected, a little disorienting, but ultimately harmless and fun.
Directed by Seth Gordon ( Horrible Bosses ), the film takes the premise of the iconic TV series and injects it with the DNA of 21 Jump Street and Bad Boys . It’s less about saving drowning tourists and more about uncovering a conspiracy involving a shady businesswoman (a perfectly cast Priyanka Chopra), corrupt city officials, and a lot of dead bodies washing ashore.
5.5/10 — Watch it for the buddy comedy, skip it for the plot. Best viewed on a lazy Sunday with your brain firmly on the shore.
In 2017, Paramount Pictures dove headfirst into the nostalgia pool, dragging the most famous lifeguards in television history onto the big screen. The result? Baywatch — a raunchy, R-rated, self-aware action-comedy that trades the slow-motion jiggle of the 1990s for dick jokes, extreme violence, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson flexing his way through a murder investigation.
Logline: When a dangerous new synthetic drug threatens the pristine beaches of Emerald Bay, a by-the-book, elite lifeguard must team up with a hot-headed, rule-breaking former Olympian to take down a mysterious drug lord.
