baywatch

What came first, the raunchy beach comedy or the Baywatch movie adaptation? Hollywood seems to have discovered in recent years that it can take an existing license  —  typically one associated with a semi-popular television series  —  and give it new life as a profane comedy for adults. Sure, there are probably a handful of Baywatch purists out there who have watched the sophomoric humor in the trailers with horror, but for everyone else? A vague recollection of the Baywatch brand and an appetite for 21 Jump Street-esque humor is all they need to be enticed.

Memorial Day weekend is coming a day early for fans of people running on beaches in slow motion: Paramount announced today that Baywatch is opening in theaters a day early, on Thursday, May 25 (so technically that Wednesday night), instead of the 26th.

It’s weird — with every new trailer, the upcoming big-screen reboot of beloved ‘90s TV series Baywatch appears to get a little bit better. The first trailer promised a lightly amusing clone of the smart-alecky 21 Jump Street reboot, the second trailer advertised a competently-produced action tentpole with a healthy sprinkling of meta humor, and now, the so-called “official” trailer (does that make the first two unofficial?) teases what appears to be a sincerely funny comedy. At the very least, whoever cut this thing made it abundantly clear that stars Zac Efron and Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson have more chemistry than an eighth-grade science class.

Some people stand in the darkness. Some people make movie versions of campy ’90s television series about lifeguards. It’s gonna be all right. They’re always ready, they won’t let you out of their sight, etc.

Baywatch continues its advertising campaign with a new set of motion posters to showcase each character that include Dwayne Johnson giving us the finger, Zac Efron getting his tongue stuck to the glass, and Priyanka Chopra being an ice queen.

Much like the warmer seasons, that Baywatch movie continues to come at us right on schedule. A new series of character posters copies one very well-known Game of Thrones phrase almost verbatim, but tweaks it juuust a little bit. Dwayne Johnson and his lifeguard crew are here to assure us that “summer is coming,” and Baywatch is coming right along with it.

“Everything that you guys are talking about sounds like a really entertaining but far-fetched TV show” — so says Zac Efron in the new international trailer for Baywatch, which combines the self-awareness of 21 Jump Street (or seems to be trying to do that) with the ridiculous action of your average Dwayne Johnson movie. The latest trailer for the comedic retread of the classic ’90s TV series drops the green-band pleasantries for a profanity-laden, NSFW sneak peek at the upcoming film, and though we’re not 100 percent sold on it just yet, Baywatch looks pretty darn watchable, at the very least.

It’s the holiday season, which means cozying up with family to It’s a Wonderful Life for the umpteenth year in a row, or giving and receiving presents from loved ones, or trawling the internet looking for “Happy Holidays!” tweets from your favorite Hollywood celebrities. Yesterday, the cast of the new Baywatch movie, all decked out in seasonally appropriate Santa hats and mistletoe accessories, posted a special Christmas message to their fans.

It has become increasingly apparent that the best thing a revival of a tired ‘80s pop-culture artifact can be is the neo-21 Jump Street, judging by the new trailer for the Dwayne Johnson-fronted Baywatch. The parallels are striking: we’ve got the central odd couple in the Rock’s bombastic beach hero and Zac Efron’s hard-partying young gun, light meta touches about “reviving the brand,” some playful winks to the core goofiness of the source material (the “why does she always look like she’s running in slow motion?” line may be the best of the clip), even a scene where our heroes are dressed down by a furious black cop. You may call it derivative, but I call it a good start.

Zac Efron, Dwayne Johnson and Alexandra Daddario reinvent characters from the '90s TV series in the first teaser trailer for the film.

2016 has already been a bastard of a year: beloved public figures died, Nazis became a thing again, America began its slow skid into fascism, and Bones got cancelled. When do the hits stop coming? Is there no respite from the barrage of tragedies that this monstrous year has heaped upon us? No, no there is not. Because throughout the seemingly unending cluster-F-word of 2016, one light on the horizon has held us up, both as a nation and as a human species. From indignity to indignity, we’ve always been able to pin our hopes on the glorious day of May 19, 2017 — known to you and I, of course, as the release date for the Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson-led reboot of beloved ‘90s lifeguard soap opera Baywatch. But even after this year’s parade of tragedies, [Don LaFontaine voice] there is one tragedy more.

One more reason to love The Rock, Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan meet again, Hunter Hayes pays his respects and more!