Confessions of a Baywatchaholic

Predictably, it has everything that we would expect from a Baywatch movie: the sun, sea, sand, bikinis and buff dudes.

Oh dayum! The international trailer of Baywatch just dropped and boy am I, erm … nostalgic. Okay, and admittedly a little excited too *sheepish grin*. Guys like myself of a certain age would totally relate with the feeling and also agree when I say Baywatch was arguably the perfect TV antidote for a pubescent kid in the 90s with raging hormones.

All those secret sessions, watching Baywatch episodes away from the prying eyes of your parents. And you can rest assured, it wasn’t our fascination with David Hasselhoff and his red swimming trunks that we were trying to be discreet about.

Know what the funny part is? Despite being an avid Baywatch follower, I can hardly recall a single episode. All I can remember is CJ Parker, the infamous Pamela Anderson, the uninitiated. Arguably the sole reason why boys all across the globe were so hooked on to the show.

That was the 90s and all the young lads (including yours truly) are now fully grown men, but what hasn’t changed is our love for Baywatch. The moment anyone mentions the show our eyes light up like a thousand watt bulb.

So yeah, I personally believe the Baywatch trailer dropping is a big thing. Predictably it has everything that we would expect from a Baywatch movie: the sun, sea, sand, buff dudes and bikini clad gals, obviously, because Baywatch, duh!

The plot is pretty evident from the trailer. Taking over the swoon-inducing powers of David Hasselhoff, we have got Dwayne Johnson starring as the devoted lead lifeguard, Mitch Buchannon, who is forced to hire a gold medalist rule-breaking hotshot, Zac Efron, as a PR stunt in order to drum up more interest in the teams work. The mismatched duo then buds-up to uncover a local criminal plot that threatens the future of the Bay when a dead body is found on their beach.

By the looks of it, the seaside-set action buddy comedy shares an uncanny likeness with the relatively recent 21 Jump Street; something which was serious as a TV show but not as sober as a full length feature. Similar to the Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum starrer – updated zipper swimsuits aside – instead of simply modernising itself, this reboot has also gone for the route of making fun of themselves. It definitely helps that Johnson, the highest paid actor in tinseltown, is a hilarious bunch of muscles and he seems to be having a lot of fun with Zac Efron, who also has a few comedic chops to rely upon.

But it appears not everyone is having such a great time in the Baywatchverse. Priyanka Chopra, who with a fleeting appearance during the trailer, marks her Hollywood debut as the baddie-in-chief. For her own sake, I sincerely hope Piggy Chops’ presence in the movie is not as brief as the one we saw in the promo.

These days it’s just not enough to be an adaptation of a known brand to be a success at the box-office. But this Baywatch reboot trailer manages to engage, in spite of the original entity.

I say bring it on!

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