Writing for the "Rolling Stone" magazine, Peter Travers was happy with the "easy rapport" from Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron. Travers stated, though, "what [the film] needs more is a functional script". Travers rated the movie two out of four stars. He then said: "Think of yourself sitting down for a big two-hour wallow in instant stupid with a vat of popcorn, slathered in fake butter and possibly a mound of melted M&amp;Ms on top. It feels great chugging it down, then your stomach hurts, your head aches and you puke the whole thing up so you can forget about it in the morning. That's "Baywatch" in a nutshell." Owen Gleiberman from the "Variety" magazine called it "stupidly entertaining... for a while". He was, however, not impressed with the movie's plot.