Priyanka Chopra's Hollywood debut movie Baywatch is finally up for release amidst much fanfare. However, the initial reviews of the American comedy film do not seem favourable. What is surprising is that, the critics have been quite kind of our PC calling her "interesting and engaging" though tagging her as "underused."
Here are some excerpts of reviews from leading tabloids:
The swimwear couture hasn't moved on since the 90s, either: cut so high at the hip you wonder if there was a lycra shortage; unzipped at the front to show maximum cleavage. Even Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra, the underused villain of the piece, looks like she was contractually obliged to show as much flesh as permissible.
Mitch has found packets of drugs on the beach; one missing city official and mysterious blazing yacht fire later, it's clear that there's a larger criminal scheme in play. Gee, could it have something to do with Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra), the new owner of the Honda Club? Chopra, the crossover Bollywood star, preens and schemes like a vamp from "Dynasty," and the whole drugs-and-real-estate plot has a musty air of sub-"Miami Vice" intrigue " it's closer to "Starsky and Hutch."
The only other highlight is Priyanka Chopra as nefarious entrepreneur Victoria Leeds, who outshines pretty much anyone she's in a scene with. Chopra's engaging and interesting and is the only character that speaks with any kind of distinctive cadence, with the rest of the cast falling into the exact same pattern of delivery of their hackneyed gags. None of them are given much of anything to do, either.
The plot, such as it is, concerns the Baywatch team springing into action to counter a wave of drugs sweeping the area, masterminded by resort owner/villainess Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra, Quantico). That the lifeguards are not actually responsible for law enforcement, as they're periodically reminded by an aggravated local cop (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II of The Get Down) proves little deterrent to their enthusiasm for crime-solving.
The plot, about an Indian gangster queen (Priyanka Chopra) importing drugs along the coast, is wafer-thin and perfunctory at best. And yet, somehow, Gordon stretches the movie's running time to two hours, beefing it up with a fatuous romantic subplot and not one, but two heinously long-winded penile gags ripped straight from the Farrelly brothers' textbook of gross-out comedy. The women, meanwhile, are there purely to up the film's phwoar factor: Kelly Rohrbach as CJ Parker and Alexandra Daddario as Summer Quinn wink and nudge but still say - and wear - very little.
Of course, there's something else afoot as Priyanka Chopra's villain is using a local business to smuggle drugs onto the beach. Despite being incredibly talented, Chopra is clinically underused, the script offering her nothing to work with.
Chopra has fun as the baddie, but she stays in the background until the end of the movie and really only gets one big scene at the end of the picture. The showdown is the best moment in the film, one which cleverly plays on gender-specific action movie tropes while showing its female villain no gender-based charity. I wish more movies had female super villains and to its credit, Baywatch doesn't treat it as a big deal.
Naagin 7
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