Priyanka Chopra’s Hollywood Debut Gets Awful Reviews
The worst thing that can be done to a big-bucks Hollywood franchise is to postpone its release in some countries.If Priyanka Chopra’s Hollywood debut Baywatch had released along with the rest of the world on May 26 the largely unfavourable international reviews would not impact its performance in India.
However with the film being out in the West and the verdict being unfavourable Priyanka Chopra would not only have to withstand the flak preceding Baywatch to India, she must also face severe competition from Wonder Woman, one of the biggest Bollywoodfranchises which will release alongside Baywatch in India on June 2.
About Baywatch Hollywood Reporter writes, “A big-screen reboot so lifeless and mechanical that even its end-credits outtakes are not amusing, Baywatch proves much less than the sum of its undeniably attractive body parts….Baywatch strains for a vulgarity that never comes remotely close to being funny. Unless, that is, you find the idea of Zac Efron manipulating a dead man’s genitals hysterical.
Variety us just as scathing. “(Priyanka) Chopra, the crossoverBollywood 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 trouble is that the movie plays it boringly straight.”
Going with a 1-star rating the Guardian states, “Overshadowed by this alpha-male chest-off, the women are given thankless, almost interchangeable roles as love interests and swimsuit models. ….. EvenBollywood star Priyanka Chopra, the underused villain of the piece, looks like she was contractually obliged to show as much flesh as permissible.”
However there is hope for Priyanka. One review , on the IGN.com spares some praise for Ms Chopra: “The only other highlight isPriyanka 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.”
However this is small consolation for what is clearly a massive blunder for Priyanka’s career. The film is filled with phallic jokes including one particularly offensive gag where Zac Effron comes into contact with a dead man’s genital.
Sources at the censor board admit they had a tough time dealing with the smut content of Baywatch.
Says a source, “We were taken aback at how lurid the content is.Priyanka Chopra has never done anything vulgar in Bollywood . Why change your morals for the West?”
