Baywatch
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: May 25, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
22
Negative:
22
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMay 23, 2017
The actors are what save it. Not only does Johnson build on his subversive 
persona of hulking, dim-witted likability, 
but he’s joined by Neighbors’ Zac Efron, today’s reigning king of the hazy one-liner. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJen YamatoMay 24, 2017
Baywatch...is for those fans who couldn’t resist the show’s soapy charms. New ones who crave a summer blockbuster comedy might enjoy how much it not only owns its dumbness but hurtles itself all the way back around through a flurry of genitalia jokes and F-bombs to splash unapologetically in an R-rated surf of winking postmodernism. Read full review
67
IndieWireJude DryMay 23, 2017
Baywatch won’t blow anything out of the water (except for the boat it sets on fire), but it will certainly make a splash. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 30, 2017
It’s the smart-ass nerd’s Baywatch. The movie is okay, though, if you don’t mind manic pacing and icky dick jokes. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 24, 2017
Like its source material, Baywatch is sleazy and wholesome, silly and earnest, dumb as a box of sand and slyly self-aware. It’s soft-serve ice cream. Crinkle-cut fries. A hot car and a skin rash. Tacky and phony and nasty and also kind of fun. Read full review
50
Village VoiceCraig D. LindseyMay 31, 2017
Like the show, it’s about an insanely attractive lifeguard crew whose members really throw themselves into their work. But the product teeters between absurdity and earnestness. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 25, 2017
Baywatch is a running gag in slow motion, a thong-in-cheek TV retread swapping wholesome jiggles for dirty giggles. There are places for such humor but beaches don't have gutters. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoMay 25, 2017
You’ll find laughs, zaniness and plenty of signature slow-motion jiggling, but it’s buried under a burdensome two-hour procedural. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiMay 24, 2017
For the most part, Baywatch resembles a scarce amount of its origin and relies on a none-too-arch humor that misses more than it hits. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 24, 2017
Baywatch should have been a lot more fun. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoMay 24, 2017
The result is a scattershot comedy that only intermittently nails either tone, finally just bogging down in flatly choreographed mayhem in the late going. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 24, 2017
No cliché is left unturned, and Gordon compensates with slick action. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 24, 2017
Honestly, I’ve seen more narratively ambitious Mad Libs. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty May 23, 2017
After a sharp, satiric opening, though, Baywatch slowly sinks. The scenery is pretty, including the actors, but Johnson and Efron are better at making fun of themselves than landing zingers. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittMay 23, 2017
This Baywatch has its share of hilarious moments but never fully commits to the absurd, and even the cleverest jokes get so many callbacks, they’re beating a dead seahorse. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonMay 23, 2017
In terms of body objectification, Baywatch is an equal-opportunity exploiter, but when it comes to comedy, it's a total boys' club. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 23, 2017
The trouble is that the movie plays it boringly straight. Read full review
48
IGNGav MurphyJun 1, 2017
Baywatch wastes its attractive cast on tired jokes and nothing. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubSean O'NealMay 23, 2017
In spoofing something so forgettable, they’ve made something even less memorable. Read full review
42
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezMay 23, 2017
Its insistence on trying to balance wannabe sincerity and earnest actions with laughs is a tonally misconceived idea. Ultimately more forgettable then deplorable, Baywatch isn’t so much a disastrous spill in the ocean as it is disposable garbage making a mess. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 30, 2017
Thank heaven for Dwayne Johnson, whose foot-wide smile will not be switched off, and who saves the life of the movie. Whether it deserves to be saved is another matter. Read full review
40
NPRBob MondelloMay 27, 2017
The plot doesn't quite sink Baywatch, but it sure slows it down. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 23, 2017
As with any movie of this sort, there are a few laughs. Johnson is as likable an actor as there is, and it’s to the actors’ credit that they buy in to the stupidity. But there aren’t enough laughs and not nearly enough story. Read full review
40
The TelegraphPatrick SmithMay 23, 2017
Everything about Baywatch the movie is big, brash and bombastic. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMay 23, 2017
Johnson and Efron possess impressive muscles, but the performers have never done as much heavy lifting as they do here. And to their credit, they succeed to some degree. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorMay 25, 2017
As it giggles away at its campy self, at least you can groan along with it. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenMay 25, 2017
It’s all just a day at the beach, harmlessly fun and instantly forgettable. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 24, 2017
When you make films from junk TV, more often than not you’re going to wind up with a junk movie. Read full review
38
New York PostReed TuckerMay 24, 2017
Baywatch is not nearly as good as this genre’s best entries, like 2012’s “21 Jump Street.” It washes up on the beach like a dead whale. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 24, 2017
The movie is all preening and very few laughs, though Daddario and Efron have a few moments, and Johnson remains a supremely likable slab of movie star. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMay 24, 2017
If you saw the trailer, you got the best the movie has to offer. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 23, 2017
It’s a goof that isn’t goofy enough, a romp that doesn’t, and a tone-deaf riff on a show that was already a parody, in and of itself. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 25, 2017
The movie is a minor crime, a meandering misdemeanor that’s neither soft-core nor hardcore but no core, with no consistent style and minimal content. Read full review
30
SlateDana StevensMay 25, 2017
Baywatch is surprisingly without sexism or condescension: It’s equal-opportunity stupid. Read full review
30
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMay 25, 2017
Baywatch’s comedy (credited to six different writers) is second-rate and its action is even worse, with special effects that rank among the absolute worst I’ve seen in a big summer movie in many years. Read full review
30
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 23, 2017
The film may pretend it’s more sophisticated than the show that spawned it, but its comedic stylings are alarmingly regressive. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 27, 2017
What little plot there is involves drug-running and is just about as disposable as everything in this paltry excuse for a movie. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 25, 2017
The waterlogged end product is an example of lazy writing and direction with the vague hope that perhaps the involvement of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will attract viewers. Read full review
25
Washington PostStephanie MerryMay 25, 2017
If anything, Baywatch is a litmus test for how low Johnson can sink while still winning us over. Read full review
25
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonMay 24, 2017
When it comes down to it, Baywatch’s central sin is that it’s just…not funny. Read full review
25
The Film StageDan MeccaMay 24, 2017
There’s a severe tonal problem this movie never reconciles. It wants to be a self-aware, R-rated comedy and a straightforward action picture. At any moment, it’s one or the other but never both. Read full review
25
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 23, 2017
A summer franchise movie that can’t decide if it wants to be a hard-R bawdy comedy, a d-bag-comes-of-age tale or a fairly unironic reboot of the glossy TV show (which ran from 1989-2001), Baywatch fails at all three, despite the best efforts of the perennially game Johnson and Zac Efron. Read full review
20
CineVueJamie NeishJun 8, 2017
What the director and writers have done is turn something that's considered by many to be dumb-but-fun into an overlong, unfunny film that's just plain dumb. Read full review
20
Paste MagazineOktay Ege Kozak Jun 1, 2017
Baywatch is a tonal mess of epic proportions. Read full review
20
Total FilmMatthew LeylandMay 23, 2017
Unfunny, unthrilling and unsexy, this doesn’t even reach the low bar set by the source material. Read full review
20
EmpireNick de SemlyenMay 23, 2017
Tonally, Baywatch veers all over the place like a drunk on a speedboat, making for one of the most lacklustre comedies of the year so far. Read full review
20
The GuardianSteve RoseMay 23, 2017
By about halfway in, the gags dry up and the story sinks like an overweight tourist who took a dip too early after the all-you-can-eat surf ’n’ turf buffet. Read full review
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