When one thinks about Baywatch, the first image that pops to mind is surely Pamela Anderson running on the beach in slow motion, immediately followed by Pamela Anderson’s grainy sextape with Tommy Lee. That’s just the way our mind works.
One day, a Hollywood executive, just chilling at home viewing Anderson’s sextape got a bright idea. He thought, “You know what the world needs? Baywatch on the big screen!” And with that, they launched into production. Let’s face it, it’s probably the closest version to the truth you’ll find anywhere online.
Hollywood is a place where original ideas are like wounded animals (meaning they eventually die) so adapting TV shows for the silver screen and ruining our childhood memories isn’t a new trend. Sometimes, it’s for the better with films like Michael Mann’s Miami Vice (still one of the best endings ever), Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible or The Untouchables and 21 Jump Street directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (the duo behind The Lego Movie and the future Han Solo spinoff) just to name a few.
Mostly though, it’s for the worst with terrible films like Bewitched (what the hell Will Ferrell did there we’ll never know), Lost in Space with Gary “everyone” Oldman and Joey from Friends, and of course Sex and the City. In the coming years, the trend is set to move the other way, with 35 movies being adapted for television. Who said Hollywood doesn’t have any original ideas?
So what to expect from the Baywatch movie? Well, it thankfully appears it’s getting the Jump Street treatment. They took a cheesy TV show from the 90’s, cast two very likeable actors as the leads and made it funny. Or rather tried to, considering some jokes in the trailer land pretty flat. At least it looks entertaining and somewhat amusing, which is already much more than we expected. It probably won’t end up being Jump Street funny but we never thought it would. Let’s just say that if we get one or two chuckles we’ll be plenty happy.
The film is directed by Seth Gordon, a man who got his start with the amazing documentary King of Kong (life really is stranger than fiction), and then went on to direct the hilarious Horrible Bosses followed by the unwatchable Identity Thief. The leads in the film are The Rock, Zac Efron (he looks nothing like Matthew Perry) and Alexandra Daddario (Baked in Brooklyn). It’s been confirmed that both Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff will a cameo in the film, but no word on Tommy Lee…yet. Guess we’ll just have till May 19, 2017 to find out!
Watch the Baywatch trailer here.
