Cast: Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz, Edward James Olmos, David Harbour, Tom Wilkinson
Synopsis: Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), son and heir to Los Angeles’ largest newspaper fortune, is a rich, spoiled playboy who has been happy to maintain a direction-less existence. When his father James Reid (Tom Wilkinson) dies, Britt meets an impressive and resourceful company employee, Kato (Jay Chou). They realize that they have the resources to do something worthwhile with their lives and finally step out of James Reid’s shadow. Kato builds the ultimate weapon, The Black Beauty, an indestructible car with every weapon imaginable and Britt decides that in order to be heroes, they will pose as villains. With the help of Britt’s new secretary, Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), they learn that the chief criminal in the city is named Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). He has united all the gangs under his power, and he quickly sees that the Green Hornet is a direct threat to the prosperous criminal underworld he controls.
Review: There is a lot of fun to be had in THE GREEN HORNET. It seems as though those on screen were having as much fun as those in the audience. Britt Reid is just like Tony Stark (Iron Man) or Bruce Wayne, a Billionaire Playboy with a suit and cool gadgets at his disposal – though with a more feminine name. Rogen as Reid is really just playing himself, as he usually does, though this time he is a little trimmer. Someday, and probably soon, the industry will get tired of Rogen’s persona so he will have to try new techniques (think Sandler in REIGN OVER ME). Until then he will continue to play his handful of cards to varying degrees of effectiveness. His chemistry with Jay Chou, with whom he spends most of the film is quite pleasant and the two of them ripple through more than a handful of gags that keep the film rolling along.
Chou marks his first Hollywood feature with HORNET. He is funny and effective as the sidekick. His ability with fighting, matched with clever editing looks fantastic on screen and his accent adds to the humour of his character as he struggles to match the flippant candour of both Britt and Cameron Diaz’s character Lenore.
Diaz, like Rogen, was purely going through the motions here and didn’t really make a mark as an interesting character. The role was required for Reid and Kato (Chou) to reference, though with a bit of leg work and better writing they could have both done the work that Lenore was tasked with and hence the character would have been obsolete.
The weakest link in the ensemble was DA Scanlon played by David Harbour. This was disappointing as he has appeared in much loved movies such as REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, STATE OF PLAY and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. Scanlon was not very well written as a character and Harbour was too rigid and forced in his portrayal. It was clear that the character was meant to be unlikable however did not need to be completely, emotionally detached from the audience.
Unfortunately the two strongest characters in the film had very brief cameos. One was Tom Wilkinson who played Reid’s father and the other James Franco who played a nightclub owning gangster. Both gave solid performances in their limited screen time and it felt a shame that their presence was wasted almost as there could have been far more done with both characters.
Christopher Waltz will be forever known as Col. Hans Landa from INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. Much like Anthony Hopkins will be remembered as Hannibal. Sadly Waltz put on a very watered down version of Landa for his character here. There were short bursts of menace but they were just that – bursts. The character could have been stronger and at times felt more comical than was intended which took the shine off a little.
Rogen and cohort Evan Goldberg reunited to pen this script. It was 75 percent well delivered though there were waves of banal humour and feigned emotion. These two usually turn out much more offensive material than this so it was pleasing to see them be a little bit more serious this time around, save for a random fart joke.
Cinematographer John Schwartzman and Editor Michael Tronick put in a class effort keeping the film humming along with relatively constant action and great use of live action and effects. Some of the shoot out scenes were the best parts of the film and the minute details about the special vision Kato had to spot weapons were cleverly executed.
Director Michael Gondry is an oddball character although not your first for a superhero movie. He proved himself a worthy contender, piecing together rolling action, an above average script and explosive moments of rattling gun fire with clarity and cleverness. This movie is a little bit KICK-ASS but very super… man.
I love this stuff. Every now and then I like to dumb down,turn my brain off and just kick back. Fun movie but I’m very surprised you rated this piece of candy nbetter than The Fighter. ((-;
I love this stuff. Every now and then I like to dumb down,turn my brain off and just kick back. Fun movie but I’m very surprised you rated this piece of candy nbetter than The Fighter. ((-;