Not every superhero needs extraordinary abilities, enhanced armor, or even a flashy costume. Some of them can make it with just a badass car and a simple domino mask. Case in point: The Green Hornet.
Created by George W. Trendle and an uncredited Fran Striker, the Green Hornet made his first appearance in 1936 on a radio program that aired on WXYZ-AM in Detroit before eventually reaching syndication. He's been adapted into comic books and 1940s film serials, and was most famously depicted in a TV show starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee that lasted for only the 1966-67 broadcast season.
But it would be 75 years from his first appearance before the Green Hornet would get his own feature-length major motion picture. The twenty-first century version of the Green Hornet hit theaters a week and a half ago, and in 3D to boot. So let's dig in and see just how it turned out.
The movie quickly introduces us to Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), an irresponsible slacker whose father (Tom Wilkinson) is the well-respected publisher of prominent Los Angeles newspaper The Daily Sentinel. Britt is satisfied with an existence that has no purpose or direction, but his outlook on life changes when his father dies after an allergic reaction to a bee sting. He returns home after the funeral and promptly fires the entire staff, save a maid and Kato (Jay Chou), a mechanic and tremendously skilled martial artist.
Britt and Kato strike a friendship, bonding over their mutual dislike of Britt's father and drunkenly deciding to chop off the head of a statue erected in his honor. In doing so, they end up rescuing a couple from being mugged and are mistaken for criminals themselves by the police. Britt and Kato successfully evade the cops after a chase, and in the aftermath, Britt convinces Kato that they should start doing that on a regular basis, but unlike how usual superheroes go about upholding the law. The plan: to take out criminals and use Britt's position at the Daily Sentinel to make their exploits look like a gangland turf war instigated by the mysterious "Green Hornet."
And as a means of accomplishing this, Kato uses his knack for building useful gadgets to create "the Black Beauty," a bulletproof car armed with machine guns, rocket launchers, and a flamethrower. Gleaning a little know-how in criminology from Britt's new secretary Lenore (Cameron Diaz), they hit the streets and start making names for themselves. It's not long before Britt and Kato draw the attention of paranoid mob boss Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). He just can't have anybody mooching in on his business, so Chudnofsky himself sets into motion a plan to eliminate the Green Hornet for good.
I didn't really know what to expect from The Green Hornet, thanks to my unfamiliarity with the property. I'd never heard the radio show, seen the TV show or serials, or read the comic books. But I generally like Seth Rogan's movies, so I figured I'd give it a shot. And you know what? I liked it a lot. I thought it was really cool. While I didn't think it was necessary to make the movie in 3D, The Green Hornet was still a fun way to spend two hours.
At the helm is Michel Gondry, a French music video director whose work as a filmmaker includes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind. I can't say I've actually seen any of his work beyond The Green Hornet, but what I can say is that I enjoyed his work here. It helps that Gondry has John Schwartzman's fantastic cinematography and James Newton Howard's great music to work with, because the movie looks great. The best parts, though, were Kato's fight scenes. They reminded me a lot of the fight scenes from Jet Li's The One, a movie that I just plain love to bits.
If there's anything negative about the direction, it's that the movie feels like it drags in a few places. The movie could have been trimmed a little here and there and brought down to about an hour and 45 minutes, and it would have been fine. There's a scene in the movie where Britt and Kato end up brawling through Britt's house after a disagreement, and while the scene is funny, it's too long. It's long to the point of being absurd. You mean to tell me that they couldn't have cut at least a little bit from it?
I also thought the script could have used a little polishing too. Credited to Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg, the script has quite a few bits that could have been cut as well. Take, for example, the character of Lenore. Each of Lenore's scenes could have been deleted altogether, and they'd have never been missed. I know the character has long been a part of the Green Hornet franchise, but as far as this movie goes, she's completely useless. Any sort of information she gives Britt and Kato about how the criminal mind works could have easily been explained by saying they read it on Google, and the whole love triangle idea (which was badly done in the first place) could have just been rewritten to cause some kind of other conflict between Britt and Kato.
But the real problem is how unfocused it feels. You get the impression that Rogan and Goldberg were just making it up as they went along. None of it really feels connected to anything else, like they just wrote a bunch of different scenes and tried piecing them together as an afterthought. Perhaps they believed that the idea of making a comedy about the Green Hornet would just work itself out. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't approach it with anything more than that.
Rogan and Goldberg do succeed, though, in writing a really funny movie. Sure, some of the jokes do bomb on occasion, but for the most part, Rogan and Goldberg have written a movie with a lot of laughs. The movie is legitimately funny, despite what some negative reviews might say. But I guess it depends on your personal sense of humor. You're not going to laugh at something if you don't think it's funny. But it worked for me, so I'm going to call it a success on the comedic side of things.
So let's continue onward to the cast. Rogan plays the title role, and really, he's just playing the same character he plays in all of his movies. If you can find a movie where he isn't playing a smartass buffoon, I'll be very surprised. (And no, his cameo in Step Brothers doesn't count.) But you know what? Rogan probably plays this character so much because he's good at it. He's charming and likable even when he's playing a total jackass, and he's funny to boot. Though Rogan's version of the Gren Hornet is less of a stereotypical hero and more of a sarcastic frat boy in a domino mask, he's still really entertaining regardless.
I also thought Jay Chou did a great job as Kato. This is Chou's first Hollywood movie after having found success as an actor and musician in China, and he makes the most of it. The character requires more physicality than acting talent, but Chau is aces as both an actor and a fighter. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Cameron Diaz, who is wasted here. She's playing a useless character, and her performance reflects that. I couldn't find any reason for Diaz to be in the movie at all, especially since she doesn't do anything in it that's worth seeing to begin with.
And playing our primary villain is Christoph Waltz, who's appearing his first movie following his Oscar-winning performance in Inglourious Basterds. While his work in Inglourious Basterds was masterful, his work on The Green Hornet is not so much. Waltz is way too subdued; he's supposed to be paranoid and neurotic, yet he plays the part like he smoked about ten pounds of reefer before Gondry called "action." He's the most laid-back paranoid guy ever. He's not bad, per se, but Waltz seems like he's just there to collect a paycheck.
Before I wrap things up, I can't in good conscience finish this review without at least briefly mentioning the 3D effects. The truth of it is that there is no reason at all for The Green Hornet to be in 3D. The movie was even shot in 2D and converted to 3D as an afterthought. It's an obvious conversion too, since it never really utilizes the 3D as well as it could have. The only thing being in 3D adds to the movie is an extra $2.50 to the ticket price, because for all intents and purposes, the 3D is worthless. You could watch it in 2D and not feel like you're missing anything at all.
But whether you see it in 2D or 3D, and despite the complaining I've done about it, The Green Hornet is still a fun movie to watch. The mixed to negative reviews it's gotten is proof that not everyone will like it, but I thought it was good enough for what it was. I liked the movie, and this is my blog, so who cares what those other reviews say? So despite its flaws, I'm going to give The Green Hornet three stars and a thumbs up. I kinda wish I had that extra $2.50 back, though.
Final Rating: ***½
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