Movie Review: THE GREEN HORNET

THE GREEN HORNET

2011
PG-13

You can watch the trailer here

The Green Hornet is a 2011 action film directed by Michel Gondry that follows a young and wild man named Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) who has wasted his life partying and living his lavish lifestyle to its unfulfilling fullest. His father (Tom Wilkinson), the chief editor of a major newspaper called The Daily Sentinel, despises his son’s state of living. Upon his father’s untimely death, Britt is forced into his shoes and realizes that he has never done anything with his life. He meets Kato (Jay Chou) who was his father’s mechanic and coffee maker. Britt quickly learns that Kato is a martial arts expert and a genius with machinery, and the two decide to join forces in order to bring justice to the streets. Their guise, however, relies on the fact that they will pose as villains in order to get close to the real bad guys and bring them down from within. They soon butt heads with the local gangster Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz) who already runs all the crime in the city. With the unwitting help of secretary Lenore (Cameron Diaz), Britt and Kato delve into their plan at full-speed, never truly questioning the morality behind it all.

I’m going to start with acting this time around (you’ll see why in a moment). Now, there’s no one that terrible in The Green Hornet – no one except Seth Rogen, that is. He’s absolutely dreadful. I’m sure he went for outright comedy, which is his niche market, but he’s one of the last people that should’ve had a crack at this role. It just doesn’t fit the tone of the film at all. Considering he’s the lead character and the person we see for most of the flick, there’s a little bit of an issue.

To be fair, the actors didn’t have much of a script with which to work. There’s a little bit of intrigue to the story, but the dialogue is so horrendous that it’s hard to take any of it seriously. Case and point: Christoph Waltz’s character has lines that are so bad that it reduces the recent Academy Award-winner to a tiny slice of what he could have possibly been. His lines are so bad that I wanted to tell him that he didn’t need to jump at the first paycheck that came his way post-Oscar. A lot of the blame here also lies with Rogen, who co-wrote the script. I’m sure in his mind, it was hilarious and captivating, but it’s really just a bit of drivel.

If anybody stands out, it’s Jay Chou as Kato, stepping into a role made famous by Bruce Lee in the original T.V. series (if you see the movie, pay attention for a Lee homage; it’s pretty blatant, but if you’re not paying attention, you could easily miss it). He brings a bit of comedy as well as the fighting prowess needed for the role, and it’s nice to have him opposite the dreadful Rogen to bring something positive to the screen.

We do have a couple of interesting cameos in the film. One of them comes from Edward Furlong – the boy from Terminator 2: Judgment Day – and you may not even recognize him. I had to look closely because he doesn’t even look like he used to. But it’s him. However, the real cameo cake needs to go to none other than James Franco. My God, this man is everywhere right now! But it’s definitely a pleasant surprise to see him grace the screen in an extremely funny role.

Seriously though, I’d say this movie isn’t worth watching. I usually like to highlight a couple of positive attributes at the end of these posts, but I really don’t think you should waste your time with The Green Hornet. If it does poorly, it won’t get a sequel (yes, the ending leaves it open to such). Please don’t pad Seth Rogen’s ego any further.

Movie Review Summary:
Grade: D
1.5 Thumbs Down