Green Hornet Review

Green Hornet is 2011's first big film and as expected opened this weekend in first place. With the standard that comic films have been risen to, does this film stand up? or does it fall to the waste side making way for bigger comic films later this year?




First off a refresh of the ratings system.

GO FUCKING SEE THIS
Worth Your Time
Netflix This
I Would Hold Off
Complete and Utter Garbage

Now onto the review.

The Story

Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the son of famed journalist James Reid, publisher of The LA Sentinel. Britt lives a playboy life based off the hard upbringing he received from an over worked father balancing his business, the loss of his wife, and raising his son. After coming home to the news of his father's death he teams with the house mechanic and coffee maker Kato (Jay Chou) as a random late night prank turns into a life of crime fighting as The Green Hornet, saving people from the rampant crime in LA while posing as villains to the public. Thing's escalate as The Green Hornet gains the attention of LA crime lord Chudnovsky (Christoph Waltz) and a war between the two ensue. It is up to Britt to shake his playboy image and become a true hero to the town.. even if they all think The Green Hornet is the villain.

The Review

The Green Hornet is the latest film brought to us by the writing team Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who also wrote Superbad and Pineapple Express. This time they are taking a dive into the superhero genre with their take on the 1930's radio show. Rogen has an easy time playing a dick in most of his films and this one is no exception. Even though the first scene of the film is a glimpse at how bad his father treated him as a kid it's not really enough of an excuse for you to accept that he parties like a maniac throwing refrigerators out of hotel windows and sleeps with women on countless nights all while acting the age of 12. Even though it's hard to sympathize with him he is still entertaining through most of the film. Once he meets Kato and their late night prank turns into them stopping a group of muggers from their attack (not to mention Kato showing Britt all of the modifications he has made to his father's cars) Britt has the idea of them becoming heroes and stopping crime, but only by posing as villains so they can get close to the ones they want to stop.

The main villain they will go head to head with is Bloodnovsky played by Christoph Waltz. You will remember Waltz from his great role in Inglorious Basterds as Col. Hans Landa. While his performance here is nowhere near as memorable he still provides an entertaining crime lord who struggles to find an identity to keep fear instilled in all his subordinates in this day and age. There is also a role for Cameron Diaz as the love interest for both Kato and Britt but her importance doesn't really come in til late in the movie. This film really does feel like a usual Seth Rogen film with masks and martial arts but with him being out of a major film for a little bit (and me missing his last blitz of films to assault the box office) it's not necessarily a bad thing. His jokes at most times are funny, and his interaction with Kato is quite entertaining. Jay Chou is especially good as Kato filling the roll of enforcer and definitely showing you that without him this team would fail, just like in the old TV show when Bruce Lee was Kato. Overall this film has a good amount of charm, enjoyable humor, great action and good performances.

The big complaint is the 3D, this film did not need 3D nor did it really use it for anything that made you go "whoa". If I gotta pay extra money to sit there with a pair of uncomfortable glasses over my own glasses for 2 hours then for the love of god DO SOMETHING WITH THE EFFECT. It's a shame that films like this are mandatory to only be shown in 3D as I would of liked to have just watched it without the stupid glasses. Also near the end some may get sick of Rogen's attitude before FINALLY taking any responsibility but trust me the rest of the movie balances it out. I can tell you this film really won't be a love it or hate it kind if film. I think everyone will have something to enjoy in this film enough so to not completely toss it to the side. It's a good film to kick off 2011 and get us set for the blockbusters to come late on. Green Hornet is definitely worth your time.