Over 24% Of People Agree That This Is Dwayne Johnson's Worst Movie
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's rise to prominence in the entertainment industry was rather unconventional, but it led him to major success nonetheless. Debuting in the WWF (or WWE as of 2002) in 1996, Johnson became one of the professional wrestling industry's top draws during the late 1990s and into the early 2000s. However, as much as he loved main-eventing in front of packed crowds against the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker, he had far more ambitious goals in mind than winning world championships.
In 2001, Johnson made his way to Hollywood for the first time as a part of the Universal project The Mummy Returns, thus launching both his film career and the soon to be rebooted Scorpion King franchise simultaneously. Since then, he's put his nose to the grindstone to perfect his acting chops and expand his filmography, taking on parts major and minor along the way. As one would imagine, it's been a long road reaching the status of the highest-paid actor on the planet (via Variety), meaning many features he signed on for haven't necessarily turned out to be winners in one way or another.
To find out which Dwayne Johnson movie failed to impress audiences the most, Looper recently ran a poll asking the masses which title deserves this undesirable mantle. The results are difficult to dispute.
Baywatch is far from a fan favorite
Of the 658 total respondents, 161 of them, or, 24.47 percent, cast their ballot for 2017's Baywatch as Dwayne Johnson's worst film to date. This dominant victory came at the expense of Rampage, Skyscraper, Hercules, San Andreas, Race to Witch Mountain, Tooth Fairy (the runner-up with 114 votes), The Game Plan (the least-bad of the bunch, according to voters, with a meager 26 votes), as well as fan-supplied responses such as Jumanji: The Next Level, Doom, and The Rundown.
Based loosely on the television series of the same name that ran from 1989 to 2001, Baywatch stars Johnson as Lt. Mitch Buchannon, alongside Zac Efron as Matt Brody, Alexandra Daddario as Summer Quinn, and Kelly Rohrbach as C.J. Parker. Together, they make up an elite team of lifeguards residing in Emerald Bay, Florida, who go above the call of duty to take down drug lord Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra), who threatens the safety of their generally peaceful beach.
There's action, romance, humor, and plenty of slow-motion running along the shoreline, but those elements weren't enough for fans, critics, or the box office. Currently sitting at a 17 percent "rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes, Baywatch is riddled with so many critiques that it's impossible to hold water. The writing is unremarkable, a detrimental portion of the jokes don't land, and its attempt to bring the TV series onto the big screen falls flat. On a $67-69 million budget, it made $177.9 million back, which isn't a disastrous return but not worth celebration either.
Of course, it's important to remember that Baywatch has its fans, and most of these criticisms are matters of opinion. In fact, Dwayne Johnson received a lot of praise for his performance upon the film's release. But according to our subset of moviegoers, it's the most unimpressive big-screen effort of his Hollywood tenure so far.