Missed Opportunities... "Baywatch"

Baywatch (2017)

Rated R

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra, Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach, Jon Bass, Ilfenesh Hadera

Directed by Seth Gordon

The Story:

Lt. Mitch Buchannon (Johnson) leads his elite Baywatch squad to protect Emerald Bay from any and all dangers. This summer will be most trying though as they are training 3 rookies to join the team at the same time a dangerous synthetic drug keeps washing up onshore. When the police seem unwilling or unable to handle it, it's up to the lifeguards to save the day.

As with many of the relaunched "used to be a TV show, let's turn it into a movie!" ideas, Hollywood seems to never know what to do with these properties.

Quick, throw the f-bomb every 2 minutes to make sure we get an R rating!

Joke after joke, either situational or dialogue. Some of them will work, some won't!

Are they homages to what came before or parodies of the same material?

It seems like nobody knows for sure, or they keep changing their minds every 5 pages of script.

Here too is the downfall of Baywatch.

There are moments when it's a fun action comedy, then it tries to get too serious.

There are moments when it's madcap zaniness, R rated raunch-com.

It's just whirling around in a blender, and you're never entirely sure what's going to pour out onto the screen next.

It seems that going forward, if these movies are going to be made, pick a tone and stick to it.

The cast does everything they can, and then some, to make the material work.

Efron and Johnson have these parts down to where they can simply go on autopilot and it works, but they need a stronger, more consistent script to make us actually care to see it.

Thankfully it wasn't a huge waste of time like I feared, but if you saw the trailer, you pretty much saw the movie.


 Final Grade: C

These Boys Can Party..."Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates"

Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

Rated R

Starring Zac Efron, Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Stephen Root, Stephanie Faracy, Sugar Lyn Beard, Sam Richardson, Alice Wetterlund,

Directed by Jake Szymanski

The Story:

Mike (Devine) and Dave (Efron) have driven their parents (Root & Faracy) to the edge. Tired of their antics at family functions by showing up single, and drunk, they have an ultimatum for their sister Jeanie's (Beard) wedding in Hawaii. Show up with dates, or don't show up at all. So naturally, the boys do what anyone else would do in this day and age: post an ad on Craigslist.

What could possibly go wrong?

Naturally, this R-rated comedy is rude, crude, silly, stupid, obnoxious...

and funny.

Some of the gags misfire, but more work than don't.

And if you take the crudeness out of the jokes, and they still are funny, then you know it's a pretty good comedy.

This one definitely got more right than Efron's previous, yet similar film this year, Dirty Grandpa.

Much of that credit has to go to Efron and Devine who make a great comedy team. The sleaze is dialed way back in this one, and much of the humor is Mike and Dave's relationship with each other, the rest of their family, and of course, their final selections of Craigslist candidates (Kendrick and Plaza).

The girls have their own skeletons that they are trying to keep hidden from the boys in hopes of an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii, so it's fun as they are tripped up over their lies as well.

It's a great cast, and a whole lot more fun than I was expecting.

Naturally, with all movies, and comedies especially, there were things that could have been better, but overall, it was much better than I had hoped for.

I'm not sure if, or how, they would pull off a sequel, but with this cast of characters, I'd come back for another round.

Final Grade: B-

They're Baaaaaaaack..."Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising"

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016)  

Rated R

Starring Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Chloe Grace Moretz,

Directed by Nicholas Stoller

The Story:

Mac and Kelly (Rogen & Byrne) are moving out of the neighborhood and into a new house. They just need to wait 30 days for their current house to close.  And that's when Shelby (Moretz) rents the place next door. She starts her own sorority where the girls are allowed to party and have fun. And if you're going to start a sorority and throw a party, who better to have as your consultant than Teddy (Efron), the guy who made life miserable for Mac and Kelly a few years earlier?

If you watched and enjoyed the first Neighbors film 2 years ago, you pretty much know what to expect this go round.

It pretty much stays right on path with parents against college students, until decisions are made that cause Teddy to switch allegiances.

It's not high art, but the artists will get high.

A lot.

That's what they do.

This is Seth Rogen after all.

:)

However, his chemistry with Efron is fun to enjoy, and if you had a good time with the original, you're likely to have as good of a time this go round as well.

I found it to be just about as good as the first one, with a new mix of old and new cast members and a satisfying conclusion to the story.

Will there be a 3rd movie?

There shouldn't be, but if they do, or if Efron and Rogen team up again in something else, I'll swing by and check it out.

Final Grade: C+

The Odd Couple... "Dirty Grandpa"

Dirty Grandpa (2016)

Rated R

Starring Zac Efron, Robert DeNiro, Zoey Deutch, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Mantzoukas, Julianne Hough,

Directed by Dan Mazer

The Story:

Dick (DeNiro) is in mourning after his wife has passed. He guilts his favorite grandson, Jason (Efron) into taking him on a road trip to Florida to spread the ashes. Ah, but what Jason will soon come to realize, is that Grandpa is itching to use his newfound freedom to get busy with the ladies in Florida. Lenore (Plaza) is willing, and her best friend Shadia (Deutch) just happens to be an ex-classmate of Jason's. The biggest problem, Jason has life-plans that don't include helping his grandpa get laid.

So, going with that explanation and the title of the film, you know what to expect going into this one.

If you dare to enter!

What you'll find is people moaning and lamenting the decline of DeNiro as a serious actor.

Bah.

What you'll find is DeNiro doing his job as an actor in a part that was probably made for him. The man has got to work, and unless they're lining up GoodFellas, Raging Bulls or the like demanding that DeNiro be in their films, well, sorry, clearly he enjoys working and his legacy on film is secure enough that he can pretty much do whatever he wants to do at this point in his career.

Sure, we can always hope the film will be worthy of more artistic merit, but don't begrudge DeNiro a living.

Whatever work he does now, whether in comedies or direct to DVD fare, doesn't diminish what he's done before.

So too with Efron, as he continues to stay as far away from his Disney Channel roots as possible. As the uptight grandson, he doesn't get to be the party-boy like his character in Neighbors, but like DeNiro, he's willing to put his all into the project, even if it means being the butt of most of the jokes.

That said, as the title implies it's filthy, with language and situations flying a mile a minute for the "shock and awe" factor but there's enough actual comedy to make this one worth a viewing.

If for no other reason than Jason Mantzoukas who is quickly becoming one of my favorite supporting actors. Whenever he shows up in a film, the scenes he appears in are of such manic energy, they begin to support the entire film and make everything just a little bit better.

If you're going to go for raunchy humor, while you can do better, you can almost definitely do a lot worse than this one.

Final Grade: C+

You'll Never Forget The Events Of "Parkland"

Parkland (2013)

Rated PG-13

Starring Zac Efron, Marcia Gay Harden, Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton, Ron Livingston, James Badge Dale,

Written and Directed by Peter Landesman

The Story:

November 22nd, 1963. Dallas Texas. A chilling date in history shown from the perspectives of the many lives that were woven together over the course of the next few days in the most harrowing fashion. One day changed the course of America, and these people were all first-hand witnesses as it happened.

There is a lot to cram into 90 minutes of movie.

You know how you can complain that a movie was too long, or felt like it took forever?

The opposite could be held true here.

Apparently it was planned as a miniseries for HBO, but alas, that didn't pan out, and what's left is made up as Parkland.

The movie takes its name from Parkland Hospital, where they took Kennedy after he was shot.  It was here that the medical staff (Efron, Harden and many more) work frantically to save his life. Then they are tasked just days later with trying to save another gunshot victim.

Then there is Mr. Zaprudar (Giamatti) who goes out to record the President and winds up with the footage of a lifetime that takes such a huge toll on his life.

There's the Dallas FBI Agent (Livingston) who learns that Oswald was in the bureau very recently.

Speaking of Oswald, his brother's (Dale) story is perhaps the most tragic of the whole group.

Finally there is Agent Sorrells (Thornton) who realizes he is the first Secret Service head to lose a President.

Taking a sad true story, and adding a layer of lives that were profoundly affected by that tragedy makes for a harrowing experience that should have been extended, but for what they managed to create, well done.

Final Grade: B

With "Neighbors" Like These, It Might Be Time To Move!

Neighbors (2014)

Rated R

Starring Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco

Directed by Nicholas Stoller

The Story:

Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Byrne) have just bought their first house and are raising their (really adorable) baby. The house next door is for sale, and they wonder who will move in. Cue the bad boy fraternity of the local college that just happened to have burned their last home down! The President (Efron) and Vice President (Franco) seem nice enough at first, but their partying and the neighbors trying to raise their kids soon begin to clash. Things are about to get ugly.

Funny, but ugly.

I set the bar low for this one.  I had seen the previews, and watching Rogen get blown through the roof with the airbag gag was funny.

It was still funny in the film itself.

This was an escalating revenge comedy as the neighbors and frat members attempted to outdo the other in their game of making life as horrible as possible for one another.

Efron continues to distance himself from his Disney past, and so far he's doing a fine job on both the comedic and dramatic sides of the coin.

Rogen continues playing his usual goofy everyman self, and he does a fine job at it.

The movie works nicely by not giving you either side to really root for or against.

After all, you would think the audience would side with the couple, yet they aren't exactly blameless in this whole thing.  Makes a nice counter-balance for the audience to decide who they want to root for.

Oh, and as I mentioned previously, the daughter? Absolutely adorable.

Final Grade: C+

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Better than I was expecting, but not good enough to earn a spot in the library. Could be viewed again in a few years for a few laughs.

He Doesn't Burst Into Song or Dance... That Makes Us "The Lucky One"!

Today's movie is one of those Nicholas Sparks romantic dramas that make the ladies swoon, the guys they are married to seem inferior, but we get bonus points for watching the movie with them.  Of course, for every Notebook which kicks you in the gut with how great a film it is, and makes you cry like a baby at the ending...

What?

My man card says crying at the end of the Notebook is totally justified.

Anyway, for every Notebook, there is a litany of films that aim for the stars, but barely get off the ground.


The Story:

A Marine (Zac Efron) finds a picture in a combat zone, and it literally saves his life.  When he gets out of the Marine Corps, he decides to find the woman in the picture who he feels he owes a debt of gratitude.  Naturally, before he can fully explain, things happen, and he never really gets around to telling her the whole truth.  Sparks fly...

You can see where this is going, right?

So no, it's no Notebook.  But, it's also not a bad film.  Way more entertaining that it probably has any right to be, and much better than, say, Dear John was.

So Zac Efron works really hard to play a "man" instead of a teenager.  With his looks, he'll have to wait probably another decade to pull it off completely, but for the most part, he does a good job with his role.

You can connect the dots to the story long before the characters do, and amazingly the conflict between our hero and villain does not play out like I was expecting, so I'll have to give the film a thumbs up for daring to be different and avoiding the obvious.

Worth a viewing, and one that could be good background noise in the future, but I won't be adding it to the library.  However if you have a need to watch a romantic drama, this could definitely score you some brownie points for the evening.

And that's always a good thing.

: )