Out Of Time Part III (Back To the Future Part III, 1990)

“The Future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!” These are the words of wisdom Doc Brown chooses to give Marty after three films bouncing around time. Spoilers occur throughout…

Made back to back with Part Two, the third film takes Doc and Marty to a time most appealing to Doc Brown. Why the old West is so appealing to Brown, a scientist, always seems weird to me. But anyways, Marty goes to 1955 Doc Brown for help. Future Doc Brown hid the Delorean away, so Marty and 1955 Doc dig it out so they can fix it and Marty can return to 1985. However, in spite of Doc’s comfort with remaining in the old west, Marty realizes there is a danger when they discover a tombstone for Brown from the 1800s. And so he goes back to get Doc.

In the old West, Marty finds himself meeting the relatives of both his family and Biff Tannen. Biff apparently comes from a long line of bullies. The film brings back the gag of Marty giving a false name, this time around he calls himself Clint Eastwood (which is met by laughter from locals for being a non-masculine name). Marty and Doc must figure out how to get back to 1985 before Doc is killed.

Things are complicated by the arrival of Clara, a schoolteacher. Doc saves her from falling off a horse. As Doc falls for her, they realize that she should have died, and Marty and Doc have altered history.

Back to the Future Part III avoids the complications of the previous film, keeping everything in a single time for most of the film. It repeats the motifs of the original film, and it takes three films for Marty to learn not to be set of by being called chicken. But while it is less creative than Part II, it is more tonally consistant and therefore more satisfying for the audience, I suspect.

I do find the “moral” imparted by Doc odd. We have spent three movies with Doc declaring how dangerous time travel is and how they need to stop jumping through time…only for Doc to decide to run around the time continuum with his family.

But still, this is a pretty enjoyable close to the series, and really, feels like a decent high note to end on.

January 6, 2018 0

Out of Time Part II (Back to the Future Part II, 1989)

Spoilers occur throughout…Back to the Future had one of those endings that worked both as a setup for future films, as well as just a cute way to end a time travel movie. Marty’s life looks awesome and then Doc Brown shows up saying they need to fix the future. I suspect that the reality is, it was just meant to be a cute little throw away ending. But then, Back to the Future was a big hit…and both the film makers and audiences wanted to see more. And so they set forward with plans for two sequels.

Back to the future begins right where the first film left off, Doc Brown urgently telling Marty they have to go into the future to do something about Marty’s kid. They bring along Jennifer for the trip to the future, but she becomes so excited by the notion of being able to see her future, the Doc opts to knock her out, telling Marty she will just think it is a dream. Doc tells Marty to go to a local hang out, meet Griff (grandson of Biff) and simply tell him “no”. It turns out that if Marty Jr. goes along with Griff’s peer pressure, he will end up in jail.

But after fixing that potential future, other things go awry. The police find Jennifer and bring her to her future home. Meanwhile, Marty gets the idea to buy a sports almanac so he can go back to the present and make bets based on future knowledge. Doc puts the idea to bed, but someone overheard the idea…and while Doc and Marty go to get Jennifer? Old Man Biff seeks to reverse his fortune.

They return to the present and leave the unconscious Jennifer on her porch. Marty slips in through his bedroom window, only to discover a whole new family is living in the house. After being chased off by an angry father, Marty comes across a newspaper. Certain they came back to the wrong time, Marty discovers that, indeed, they returned to 1985…but everything is off.

Marty is knocked out, and when he awakens (in a scene mimicking the sequence from the first film where he awakens to find his teen mother watching over him) he is startled by a mother who looks very different from before. He is horrified to discover that Biff is his step-father…and Biff is the richest man in America. Biff tries to kill Marty based on a warning from the man who gave him the sports almanac. Doc Brown intervenes and explains to Marty that an alternate timeline has been created.

To fix the timeline, they must go back to 1955 and steal the almanac from young Biff. Then, hijinks ensue. Marty has to get the almanac from Biff, while avoiding Biff’s thugs, yet also save his other self from those thugs. It is a crazy last act, filled with alternative views of sequences from the original film.

The most memorable part of the film for audiences was the future of 2015, where Marty rides a hover board, is wearing self drying clothes and everything is super technologically advanced. And apparently Gale and Zemeckis believed the height of future technology would be TV screen communications, swiping credits cards and…fax machines all over the house, built into walls.

It is a fun sequence though, for my money alternate 1985 is an interesting idea. Biff’s rich and famous routine is absurdly entertaining in it’s obvious allusions to the Donald Trump of the 80’s. And the notion of 80’s nostalgia is certainly not inaccurate.

The film ends on a cliff hanger, with it seeming that they solved the problem of the Dark 1985 timeline, but the Delorean is hit by lightning, causing it to appear as if Doc Brown was incinerated…but it is all a set up for the third chapter. A Western Union guy arrives with a letter addressed to Marty from 70 years earlier.

They introduce a a variation on the photo gimmick from the first film, instead using newspaper clippings. As they make changes, the paper headlines and photos change.

This is a flawed film, mainly because halfway through it just starts to seem endlessly complicated. But, in some ways, I really like it for daring to mess around with it’s formula.

January 5, 2018 0

Out of Time (Back To The Future, 1985)

Spoilers occur throughout…Marty McFly has big dreams but lacks any of the confidence to reach for them. His high school principal is convinced every generation of the McFly family are losers. And it is not hard to see why Marty may struggle with that. His parents are meek. His father is pushed around by his boss Biff. Biff has George McFly writing up his reports as well as supplying him with his car. His mother is uncomfortable with the notion of a girl calling a boy. His sister and brother are unemployed layabouts. And his uncle pretty much lives in prison, failing to get parole at the beginning of the film.

Marty’s only bright spot is his girlfriend Jennifer. She is confident Marty should be successful, especially as a musician. One evening, Marty is asked by his friend, eclectic inventor Doc Brown, to help him with a top secret project. The project turns out to be a Delorean car that Doc converted to… A TIME MACHINE. After an attack from rogue Libyans (it makes sense, trust me) forces Marty to jump into the Delorean and race off, triggering the time travel. Marty finds himself in 1955. Marty runs into his father, who turns out to be just as as weak willed as his grown up self.

But it is when he saves his father from being hit by a car that everything goes wrong. He discovers the act prevents his father and mother from starting their relationship, instead, young Loraine falls for Marty. Marty Tracks down Doc Brown for help and they set out to fix Marty’s parental relationship (discovering that he and his siblings will be erased from the timeline if his parents fail to fall in love).

As bizarre and outlandish as the plot may seem (and even creepy, what with the subplot that Marty’s mom has a crush on him), everything fits together nicely. The film establishes all the town’s important monuments in about two minutes. Each character is quickly defined in brief dialog. And the film presents the science of time travel in ways that seem complex, but easy to suspend disbelief for. Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale also have a simple gimmick for communicating to the audience the severity of the situation. Marty has a photograph of he and his siblings, each of whom fade from the photograph through the course of the movie.

Back to the Future was Michael J. Foxes first big starring feature film role. A role that almost never happened, the film began shooting with Eric Stoltz, but after awhile, it was felt he was just not right in the role. Up until this point Fox had been a rising television star. But Back to the Future pushed him into the next level.

Crispin Glover brings a likable and sweet nerdiness to the role of George McFly. This is important, both for George and Marty. While Marty is a “cooler” kid, a lot of his insecurities are mirrored in his father. When George makes his third act turnaround, Glover does so with a great performance. Lea Thompson is sweet, with a hint of rebellion, as Marty’s mom. A lot of the fun for her character is the juxtaposition of the woman she is in the future and the teen she was.

As Doc Brown, Christopher Lloyd brings his signature manic style, making for an entertaining performance Thomas F. Wilson will probably be forever tied to Biff Tannen, but he is extremely memorable in the role.

While the old age makeup for all the actors certainly looks like “Old People” makeup, it is not so distracting as to damage the enjoyment of the film. A lot of the effects still hold up for the film.

The tone of the film is light, with plenty of humor. And the jokes, for the most part, have withstood the test of time. There is one gag that has not held up so well, because, looking back, it is an image issue. The gag on it’s face is not remotely malicious, and the filmmakers probably never once had it occur to them that they were basically attributing a form of music created by black musicians to a white kid from the future.

Decades later, Back to the Future is every bit as entertaining as it was in 1985.

January 4, 2018 0

My Top Ten Films of 2017

Here is my top ~~ten~~… top ~~eleven~~… top ~~twelve~~ … wait… top ~~THIRTEEN~~… no, no…Top FOURTEEN films of 2017. Before anyone asks? I have not seen Ladybird, Blade Runner 2049, Call Me By Your Name, Dunkirk, Murder on the Orient Express, Wind River, Hostiles, the Shape of Water or Mother!

1. Logan
Logan is the swan song for both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart in their memorable runs as Wolverine and Professor X. Set in a time where most of the X-Men are gone and Wolverine’s health is failing, Logan was a gutsy move. It earns it’s ‘R’ rating in the first five minutes, but what really makes it stand out is the emotion that is packed into it. Stewart gives a wonderful performance here.

2. Land of Mine
I know this was released in Denmark in 2015, but technically, it is a 2017 film for the U.S. So I am calling it as “this year”. After all, the director’s next film is due out in 2018.

3. War For the Planet of the Apes
Matt Reeves managed to make the most consistent trilogy of films. All three of his Apes movies have been top notch. Emotional and exciting, Reeve shows a real understanding of the balance of action and drama.

4. Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman was everything I wanted to see from the DC film universe. Wonder Woman is hopeful and filled with excitement. It was a bright spot for Super-Hero films in general, the DC Cinematic Universe quite specifically.

5. Get Out
Jordan Peele, best known as part of the comedy duo Key and Peele, wrote and directed this smart dark social satire thriller that skewers liberal attitudes towards black Americans. It has great writing and some really good performances.

6. The Big Sick
A wonderful and personal story from husband and wife creative team Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, the Big Sick mines humor and heartbreak from their real life experience. In what seems like the ultimate Rom Com movie plot, Emily had fallen into a coma early in their relationship. The Big Sick does not approach this from a glossy sense of “isn’t it romantic”. It is messy and gut wrenching at times. It is also endearing and joyful. They explore the issues of cultural differences, the pressures those can bring on relationships. Really, the Big Sick is a wonderful little movie.

7. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Unexpectedly one of the most controversial films of the year… and one of the rare reversals for Star Wars where the critics largely love it, while the general audience is more sharply divided…The Last Jedi is kind of the Unforgiven of Star Wars. It also has one of Mark Hamill’s best live action performances ever.

8. Atomic Blonde
This film was not what was advertised. This is not a James Bond Spy Action flick. This is an Espionage Thriller, and a very, very good one at that.

9. Edge of Seventeen
I thought this was a real good “coming of age” film, full of wit and heart.

10. It
It (Chapter One) is a pretty solid fright film. Dramatic with some of the strongest kid actor performances I have seen in a long time, this was a real intense scare film and one of the best adaptions of King to date.

11. Logan Lucky
I suppose this is really just “White Trash Ocean’s Eleven”…but it is full of great performances, and held together emotionally by Channing Tatum and young Farrah Mackenzie. Really, this was a lot of fun.

12. Baby Driver
Baby Driver is not a deep film. It is not even all that emotionally engaging. It is the simple story of a getaway driver trying to get out of his job for the girl he loves. But Edgar Wright does not give the film any such pretense of being more than just a really good noir action flick with a killer soundtrack.

13. Thor: Ragnarok
Ragnarok is a lot of fun. I simply had a terrific amount of fun. The Hulk has evolved, Cate Blanchett’s Hela is a good villain and Taika Waititi managed what seemed to be looking impossible…a Thor film that rose above, “I guess it was okay.”

14. Spider-Man: Homecoming
Sam Raimi had a decent run with Spider-Man, but ended on a flawed note. Marc Webb made Spider-Man films with some good points, but still did not quite connect for audiences. Sony’s deal with Marvel to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe paid off. Skipping over the origin story, we get a Spider-Man months into his role. Peter Parker wants to be an A-List Super-Hero badly, but he is stuck on a neighborhood level, and his connections to Tony Stark are not boosting him forward like he hoped. Between good arcs for both Spider-Man and his nemesis the Vulture, I am excited to see where Peter goes next.

Honorable Mentions:

John Wick 2. Somehow, these John Wick movies have me wanting to see more. I mean, they are really enjoyable. Kong: Skull Island was fun, much in the same way as Baby Driver. A Cure For Wellness was just such a weird film, but I really liked it. Also really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy 2. While not perfect, it is a lot of fun.

January 2, 2018 1

It’s Still A Jungle Out There (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, 2017)

Every so often, someone decides it is time to start up a franchise. Rather than a reboot or a remake, when they announced Jumanji (starring that Robin Willims-esque Dwayne the Rock Johnson) it was decided that they would make a sequel. The film clearly establishes itself as set in the same universe as the Robin Williams movie late in the film.

The film opens with a jogger finding the board game on a beach. He gives it to his teenage son Alex. The young man sets it aside. That night he is awoken by beating drums. He opens up the box to find, instead of a board-game, a video game cartridge. He puts it in and disappears. The film picks up 22 years later. Alex is the town legend, his father and house the stuff of scary stories.

Spencer is a nerd who gets in trouble for doing football player classmate Fridge’s homework. Their teacher recognizes that Spencer has plagiarized themselves. At the same time, popular and pretty Bethany is in trouble for talking on her cell phone during a test and Martha is in trouble for talking back to her gym teacher. The four get assigned to detention, which will involve them cleaning up a mess in the school basement.

The kids stumble upon an old video game system and decide to give the game Jumanji a try. They find themselves transported into the game, which they then find out that they must play to the end if they want to get out. This is a reversal of the first film, where the game broke out into the real world. Here not only are they in the video game world, they are video game avatars. Spencer finds himself as the muscular and heroic Smolder Bravestone. Fridge is the diminutive zoologist Mouse Finbar. Martha is shocked to find herself looking a bit like Laura Croft fighter Ruby Roundhouse. And Bethany gets the huge shock of being the middle aged Dr. Shelly Oberon (which she assumed a woman, only to find she is a man).

The film has a lot of fun with the new video game approach. Everybody has three bars on their arms representing lives, resulting in some amusing moments when they end up regenerating. There is also the sendups of video game tropes. Most notably, one people have somehow been missing because they have been reacting to single still photos and ignoring the context. Karen Gillan’s Ruby Roundhouse is a sendup of the hot female fighter video game characters. She questions very quickly what is up with such a ridiculous outfit. Admittedly, they could have had her change, as at least one scene shows her putting a shirt on to cover herself. But the film is on the side of the folks who jumped on how she is dressed.

The plot is thin…they literally are just trying to get a jewel to a statue to lift the curse of Jumanji. Which puts the focus squarely on the characters. And thankfully, Johnson, Gillan, Black and Hart are all entertaining in their roles. Fridge is frustrated by the reversal to a character who is not very athletic and has the weakness of cake.

Bethany, of course, is pained both by her appearance and lack of access to a phone. All four have lessons to learn, but it is mostly the spectacle of events and jokes that makes this film fun.

I admit, I was not expecting a lot out of this one, but I really had a good time. This is a bit more aimed at older audiences with some juvenile humor. But it still works pretty well to be amusing and exciting.

December 31, 2017 0

It’s a Jungle Out There (Jumanji, 1995)

A tale of standing up to your fears via games, Jumanji tells the adventurous tale of Alan Parrish, a bullied young man with a domineering father, who finds the magical game. He starts a game with his friend Sarah, but before she can role the dice, he disappears into the game and the room fills with bats. Sarah runs away and the film leaps ahead twenty six years.

Judy and Peter Shepherd move into the Parrish house with their aunt. They discover the game and free Alan. But the game is not over, as the house and soon the neighborhood start to fill with jungle creatures. And to top it off, there is the hunter Van Pelt, who is chasing after Alan.

They track down the grown up Sarah and coerce her into helping finish the game, all while their world gets turned more and more upside down. Their only hope to set things back to normal is to finish the game.

Williams is fun as the grown Alan Parrish, and the film sets him up as a kid in need of a reality check. David Alan Grier plays an employee of Alan’s father who is fired because he covers for a screwup of Alan’s at his father’s factory. It is not that Alan lacks reasons to be a bit selfish and bitter. But the film shows he needs to grow. In an interesting choice, the villain Van Pelt (an evil big game hunter within the Jumanji game) is played by Jonathan Hyde, who also plays Alan’s father. He actually brings warmth to Alan’s stern father towards the end, allowing the viewer to see why Alan still loves him. Part of that is played out when the adult Alan learns his father actually pretty much gave up on everything else in the effort to find his son.

Jumanji is dragged down a bit by it’s dated 1990’s digital effects, most distracting in the digital monkeys. However, this is still a pretty enjoyable and light film.

December 30, 2017 0

Killer Halloween Party (The Funhouse Massacre, 2015)

On Halloween Night some of the most vile serial killers the world has ever seen are freed from a top secret prison facility. They hide out in a funhouse and start to kill off the patrons. A group of friends attends the event, discovering they are trapped with the homicidal maniacs and try to get out alive.

At times, the film is pretty fun. This is one of those horror comedies where the characters are slightly wittier than one would likely be in such a situation, and seem to be very aware when they say something that means they are about to die.

But on the other hand, the film spends a lot of time on build up and yet delivering very little. We are introduced to a set of serial killers based in pretty standard horror movie iconography. There is the cannibal, the evil dentist, the diabolical cult leader, the killer clown…and yet, the film never really gives the characters much life. Outside of Jere Burns’ evil cult leader, the characters show little spark, because we only see them in brief introductions. There is not a lot to work with, and this is unfortunate, because this film has solid character actors like Clint Howard and Robert Englund (who only has a small role).

Much of the mayhem takes place off camera, with our lead characters stumbling on the killers in progress. And the set up takes long enough that once the leads start running into the killers, they get dispatched rather quickly…and not very imaginatively. Horror Comedy tends to work best when it becomes cartoonish, but the film stays pretty low key in that regard.

While some of the early attempts at humor fall flat, the comedy does get stronger once in the Funhouse. The gore effects are pretty strong through the film. But the pacing of the film really hinders it from being a classic of horror comedy. And the lack of defined characters means the viewer cannot really connect and engage with the story.

October 15, 2017 0

Adventures In Babysitting (the Babysitter, 2017)

Cole is in Junior High. Almost everyone picks on him and seem determined to make his life hell. His two lights in the darkness? His friend Melanie and his Babysitter. Bee is the toughest, funniest, sexiest and all around coolest girl in school. She also stands up for Cole and is able to interact with him on his geeky level.

One night, he sneaks out of his room to spy on Bee and her friends. Except what he thinks is some exciting fun turns out to be murder and satanic rituals. Bee and her friends sacrifice another young man. When they realize Cole knows what they have done, it becomes a battle for survival.

At no point is the film scary, with a heavier focus on humor and action. The film does a great job of playing up why Cole is into Bee. She never seems deceitful, and Samara Weaving comes across as both likable and attractive. The film definitely plays up some of it’s campier elements (the deaths are over the top).

The Babysitter is an entertaining horror comedy in the vein of Tucker and Dale vs Evil. It stays focused on the goofiness of it’s concept (never succumbing to pretentious ideas that it is more meaningful than it is).

October 14, 2017 0

Love Is Illness (The Big Sick, 2017)

The Big Sick is a fictionalized account of the beginning of the relationship of comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, writer/producer Emily V. Gordon. Kumail plays himself while Zoe Kazan takes on the fictional version of Emily.

Kumail grew up in Pakistan and his family wants him to marry a nice young Muslim Pakistani woman. He is not really sure what he wants or even believes. But he humors his mothers attempts at introducing him to women, tossing their pictures into a cigar box. And when he meets Emily, they initially agree that there will be no relationship beyond their first night. It is clear Kumail would like to continue the relationship, only declaring he is not looking for a commitment after Emily states she does not have room for a relationship right now.

But they are terrible at not dating and their relationship grows. As they get closer, Emily wants to introduce him to her parents. When she discovers he has never told his parents about her, the relationship hits a huge roadblock. Here is the thing…Emily’s anger is totally justified. And yet, it is hard not to understand Kumail’s reasoning. He knows he risks losing his family over Emily. The film is very careful about this. The family is not portrayed as villains in this regard. And that is a pretty tricky feat when your family is “standing in the way of love”. But I felt for his parents, especially as they are shut out from a lot of Kumail’s life. But early on it is established that one of his cousins was shunned by the family.

So, after they break up, Kumail tries to get on with his life. But one night he gets a call from Emily’s roommate. Emily is in the hospital and nobody is able to stay with her. She is less than pleased to see him, but when she is put into a coma, Kumail finds himself being drawn deeper into her life.

In a standard rom com, Emily would wake up and be super touched and they run off together. The Big Sick does not do this. After all, when she went into her coma, she still was angry. At one point, Emily tells Kumail that it great he had this awaking…but she was unconscious that whole time.

The Big Sick straddles that line of emotional drama and comedy better than some. And there are scenes that ripped my heart out. Kumail gets a call right as he is about to take the stage…and bombs in a fiercely awkward way. He stumbles through his jokes before giving into sorrow and the sense of powerlessness in the situation. I can tell you this, knowing something terrible has happened with someone you love and being stuck in your job? It is mind numbing.

The scenes between Kumail, Holly Hunter and Ray Romano (as Emily’s parents) are very good. They all connect and grow. There is one scene, when Hunter and Romano have gone to watch Kumail’s standup (much to his chagrin). At this point, her mother still does not trust him. She resents how he hurt her daughter. But when a frat boy starts heckling Kumail (in a most racist fashion), you see a new perspective growing within Hunter. She is ferocious in this scene.

Kumail and Emily make for a good writing team here, finding both humor in their experiences as well as raw emotion.

Big_Sick_Kumail_Emily — Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon

Maybe the film just connected with me in a way that I find it way better than it is. But I found the film both fun and heart wrenching.

September 25, 2017 0

Back to the Beach (Baywatch, 2017)

Honestly, of all the “Drama TV Show Made as a Comedy Movie” options? Baywatch seemed like the best option. Even at its most earnest (and Baywatch saw itself as a serious adventure drama), it was pretty hilarious.

So, opting to go the route of comedy, made sense. I would have not given Baywatch a chance, were it not for some of its casting choices. Most specifically Dwayne Johnson and Alexandra Daddario.

One of the weirdest things to me about the original show was it apparently had a 65% female viewership. A show known for slow motion shots of Pam Anderson (and a series of Playboy Playmates that followed her) had a large female audience. Maybe it was David Hasselhoff? So, just how well does the Baywatch movie translate?

The short answer would be “Okay”. The whole cast is pretty good and clearly get their roles. The film opens with beautiful beach shots leading up to a big rescue by Mitch Buchanon (Johnson), leaping into the ocean to save an unconscious swimmer. The guy asks Mitch if he is Batman, and Mitch replies, “Sure am…just browner.” We see Mitch is rather beloved, one guy making daily sand sculptures of Mitch because he saved the life of the guy’s sister.

We are introduced quickly to the rest of the cast. Ronnie is an aspiring lifeguard with a massive crush on gorgeous C.J. A running gag is how flustered he gets around her and uh…an enthusiastic response in his pants. Summer (Daddario) is another aspiring lifeguard who catches the attention of Matt Brody, an infamous gold medalist swimmer who joins the crew for community service. Stephanie is Mitch’s second in command.

The central plot is the discovery of drugs on the beach, leading to the team’s efforts to expose a drug ring. The plot is very simple but overly easy to sustain as the story hits the typical beats as many stumbling blocks impede their investigation. Primarily, they are not cops.

The humor and language are more ‘R’ rated than the original show, though only one sequence goes overboard. There is a sequence in the morgue that goes for gross out humor that oddly enough feels a bit out of place. A lot of the humor is based in poking fun at the source material. At one point, everyone is throwing crime scenarios at Brody. He is arguing that they should be going to the police, rather than solve the case themselves. He points out that the scenarios all sound like some unrealistic TV show. I am pretty sure these scenarios all were from the original series.

There is a moment when Summer and Ronnie are discussing how C.J. seems to move in slow motion. And here is where it gets to be a fine line. Because if you are poking fun at the show’s “jiggle” factor? You really run the risk of perpetuating it. This cast is all attractive, and especially the women. We are treated to all the women in sexy swimsuits, sexy gowns, sexy…well, you get the point.Of the central cast? The only average looking characters are guys. I am a bit torn on the Ronnie and C.J. plot line. It is a pretty tired “Average Guy and Hot Girl” scenario. On the other hand, both characters are likable and the relationship develops somewhat organically.

The jokes tend to be hit or miss, though there are a fair number of good laugh moments. The action sequences are actually quite nicely done and look great. There are some awesome underwater shots.

In the end, though, what works best in the film is its ensemble cast. They all have a certain charm that carries the film in a way the plot and humor do not. Like I said, Baywatch is okay and even enjoyable. But it never gets above its source material enough to feel fresh.

September 8, 2017 0