Like the group's sober-toned effort to foil scheming real-estate developer -- and possible drug dealer -- Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra), talk about the potentially fatal consequences of Matt's ego-driven mistakes rings hollow when interspersed with lingering views of barely clad bodies.
The serious sleuthing also jars against the surfeit of low-minded humor in "Baywatch," much of which displays a preoccupation with male characters' crotches. This misguided motif reaches a low point with a prolonged sight gag involving the private parts of a cadaver. While the movie's self-conscious flesh peddling is mostly just tiresome, this effort to reap gross-out giggles from less appealing anatomy registers as degrading.
The film contains some gunplay and physical violence with momentary but extreme gore, strong sexual content, including full nudity and off-screen nonmarital activity, several profanities and a few milder oaths as well as pervasive rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.
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CAPSULE REVIEW
"Baywatch" (Paramount)
When a disgraced Olympic swimmer (Zac Efron) joins the lifeguarding, and amateur sleuthing, team of the title, his selfish ways bring him into conflict with its longtime leader (Dwayne Johnson). Director Seth Gordon's action comedy, adapted from the television series that began on NBC but had a longer life in syndication, succeeds neither as a pop-culture spoof nor as a crime-solving adventure. Though the film's self-conscious flesh peddling is mostly just tiresome, its surfeit of low-minded humor eventually registers as degrading. Some gunplay and physical violence with momentary but extreme gore, strong sexual content, including full nudity and off-screen nonmarital activity, several profanities and a few milder oaths, pervasive rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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CLASSIFICATION
"Baywatch" (Paramount) -- Catholic News Service classification, O -- morally offensive. Motion Picture Association of America rating, R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
