It hasn’t always been the case — it’s only a few years since “Pain & Gain” and “Hercules” underperformed — but Dwayne Johnson is, these days, about as reliable a star as you could ask for. Current mega-hit “The Fate Of The Furious,” which has made close to a billion dollars after just 10 days on release, is his fifth smash on the trot, following “Furious 7,” “San Andreas,” “Central Intelligence,” and “Moana,” and his slate of upcoming projects, including “Jumanji,” “Rampage” and “Skyscraper,” all look like they’ll do the same.
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So perhaps the biggest question mark right now for the star is “Baywatch,” his R-rated comedy reboot of the David Hasselhoff-starring ’90s TV favorite. Teaming him up with Zac Efron, among others, it takes the “21 Jump Street” route of embracing the comedy in the premise and amping up the action, but for every one of those that works, there’s an “A-Team” that really doesn’t.
Still, we should know sooner rather than later whether the gamble pays off: the film hits theaters in less than a month, going head to head with the new “Pirates Of The Caribbean” adventure, and one last glimpse of the film has arrived thanks to a new international trailer. In a nice twist, Priyanka Chopra, who plays the villain of the movie, “stars” in this trailer. Otherwise, it shows the same mix of big gags, explosions and swimsuits as previous clips, and director Seth Gordon doesn’t seem to have done a horrible job, but it’s definitely a hard mix of tones to pull off. We’ll find out if Gordon managed it when the film hits theaters on Thursday, May 25th.