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Thursday, June 1, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS
‘Baywatch’ flops
By FALLON GATES
Daily Arts Writer
With big time actors Dwayne ‘The
Rock’ Johnson (“Fast and Furious”)
and Zac Efron (“The Lucky One”),
“Baywatch” (for many fans) raised
the hope of a hilarious summer action
comedy. Unfortunately, it didn’t come
close to reaching these standards and
left the audience wondering if a plot
could be even more uncreative than
this one.
Director Seth Gordon (“Hor-
rible Bosses”) based this film off
the late ‘90s television series
starring David Hassel-
hoff. Though canceled
after its first season,
it became a popular
show; even members
of the television show
“Friends” would watch
the original slow-motion shot of
beautiful people running on the
beach. However, the popularity of
the ‘90s show will not be shared with
the latest version.
Mitch Buchannon (Johnson) is
the chief lifeguard of the Baywatch
crew, a legend and hero within the
Emerald Bay he protects. Mitch,
along with the rest of his gorgeous
baywatch crew (including swimsuit
model Kelly Rohrbach), holds tryouts
for new recruits. Possible candidates
including the disgraced Olympic
swimmer Matt Brody (Efron), by-
the-book Summer Quinn (Alexandra
Daddario, “San Andreas”) and local
nerd Ronnie Greenbaum (Jon Bass,
“Loving”).
Although Mitch’s character has an
aura of mystery and god-like abilities,
the majority of the characters are
one-dimensional, and the character
development is annoyingly predict-
able. Matt was self-serving but learns
to work with others. Summer follows
the rules but discovers that break-
ing them can be for the greater good.
Ronnie, a total geek, somehow over-
comes the impossible and gets with
a hot girl. It’s a regurgitation of the
main storylines seen in cinema over
and over again.
While the idea of “Baywatch” is
comical, the delivery failed to make
the audience laugh out loud. The only
sound to be heard is an occasional
small noise produced by blowing air
out of one’s nose at something half-
way amusing. The material of the
movie is weak, superficial and unsur-
prising. The ending was already
known 10 minutes into the movie.
However, the film is not a
total waste. Efron is truly a
“blue-eyed demon” as labeled
in the movie. He is reason
enough to see “Baywatch.” The
big screen was made to look at
his countless abs and killer smile.
Johnson, packed with even more
muscle than Efron, is also a favor-
ite to watch. From movies like “The
Game Plan” and “Moana,” there is
something about his warm and
friendly demeanor that is always
so enjoyable to watch.
The girls, too, are absolutely
drop-dead gorgeous, leaving you
with a whole new definition of
swimsuit goals. They are so per-
fect that they will probably leave
you cringing at the site of your own
summer body readiness. Hope-
fully, they can serve as some moti-
vation to hit the gym and skip the
junk food.
If you like a groundbreaking,
makes-you-ponder movie, steer far
away from “Baywatch.” But if you
feel like shutting off your brain for
a few hours to watch a simple plot
with beautiful people, then “Bay-
watch” is your summer flick.
Gethard discusses his
success as a comedian
PARAMOUNT PICTURES
‘The Rock’ and his crew posing
By ELI RALLO
Daily Arts Writer
“I was 20 years old, hanging
out in an old strip club that
had been shut down, doing
comedy, and Amy Poehler was
just hanging out there every
day. It was the most punk
rock thing in the world,” said
American actor and come-
dian Chris Gethard about the
Upright Citizen’s Brigade, the
birthplace of New York City’s
massive comedy scene (and
his career).
Gethard spoke on the nature
of the beloved comedy joint and
finding his place between its
walls.
“I was a little self conscious
when everyone started to blow
up back then… but as for me, so
far, big thumbs up,” Gethard
said.
The hilarious New Jersey
native had his start with his
talk show, “The Chris Gethard
Show,” at the Upright Citizen’s
Brigade in 2009, after taking
classes there since 2000. He has
since gone on to write a book,
become a well known stand-up
comedian, appear on a myriad
late night shows including “The
Late Show with Stephen Col-
bert” and is currently traveling
around the country to film his
podcast,
“Beautiful/
Anony-
mous,” live.
Gethard fell in love with com-
edy when he first began taking
classes in the city during col-
lege.
“I was just this confused, sad
kid from New Jersey that kind
of found this place,” he said
with a nostalgic pause upon
being asked when he knew he
wanted to pursue comedy as a
career.
Despite
consistently
hav-
ing work in the field of comedy
throughout his early career, he
was continuously finding rea-
sons to underestimate himself
until he was asked by “Saturday
Night Live” to be a guest writer
for a few weeks in his mid twen-
ties. The day Saturday Night
Live comes knocking at your
door asking for your brain, you
kind of realize you’re just where
you are supposed to be.
Gethard finds solace in the
little things; he sings praises of
New York City, the human con-
nection, news reporters messing
up during newscasts and never
falling into mundane routines.
He called New York a “beauti-
ful laboratory of comedy” and
spoke about the nature of doing
comedy in New York by praising
its authenticity.
“I like to keep things ground-
ed and real. I want to live
around real people, with real
lives,” Gethard said.
He believes it is truly quint-
essential New York City to be
able to perform for tourists
from Germany, a bunch of your
comedian friends
and some people
from
suburban
New Jersey all in
one night.
Gethard is just
about as real as
they come — in
addition
to
an
infectious
per-
sonality,
he
is
well spoken in a
casual way, con-
stantly
littering
his responses with jokes and
self-deprecating digs. He wasn’t
afraid to consider himself a
“genuinely stressed out dude”
and has not let his growing fan-
base and fame get to his head.
“People probably think, ‘This
guy shouldn’t be in the enter-
tainment industry; he’s a ner-
vous guy with a giant forehead,’”
he said. “Regular people want to
watch TV and see a regular guy.
I’m just a regular person trying
to make a couple people laugh.”
And with that goal in mind,
Gethard has been immensely
successful. His current proj-
ect, the live filming of “Beau-
tiful/Anonymous,” has had an
outpour of support. In the live
performance, he takes an hour
long phone call with an anony-
mous caller and really “sinks his
teeth into the conversation in a
big way.” He tweets out a phone
number before the show and has
been receiving over 5,000 calls
per show. The conversations
range from family secrets to
shocking confessions to psycho-
logical discussions — anything
can happen, and that spontane-
ity keeps the audience engaged.
In his conversation with the
Daily, Gethard reflected on the
nature of real interaction, tying
this notion of human connection
into his intentions with creating
“Beautiful/ Anonymous.”
“As a society, we’re moving
away from phone calls. I can
remember when the kitchen
phone would ring and you’d
have no idea who would be on
the other end. There are one
billion people in this world and
everyone has something to say,”
Gethard said.
Everyone
definitely
has
something
to
say,
and
the
words of Chris
Gethard should
certainly
not
go
unnoticed.
Whether he is
having a blast
with
friends
on
his
talk
show, appreci-
ating the gaps
of silence in a live one man
show, hitting the punch line
in a stand-up performance or
cracking up over a YouTube clip
of drunk Ewoks on the “Today
Show” humping Al Roker’s leg,
Gethard is creating spontane-
ous humor and hilarious chaos
in a world that is increasingly
scary and negative.
“Just put me in a room with
a whole bunch of people and
give me a microphone,” he said
when asked what he hopes to
do more of in the future. “And
afterwards, let me go into the
lobby and shake their hands,
and look each of them in the eye
and thank them for their tre-
mendous support.”
Gethard will be recording
“Beautiful/Anonymous”
live
in Ferndale, Michigan on June
7th at 8 p.m. The show is 18 and
over, and tickets are available
on his website for $25.
Chris Gethard:
‘Beautiful/
Anonymous’
June 7th @ 8 P.M.
The Magic Bag
$25
Baywatch
Paramount
Pictures
Quality 16/Rave
Cinemas
ARTIST PROFILE
MOVIE REVIEW