*1/2 out of ****
Directed by: Michel Gondry
Starring: Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz and Edward James Olmos
Running time: 118 minutes
The Green Hornet is the most juvenile and cartoonish superhero movie to zip onto multiplex screens in quite some time, except it isn’t aimed at children, there is no animation (save the closing credit sequence) and its journey to the big screen dates back to the early 1990s.
With almost 20 years spent in "development hell," and such names as George Clooney, Greg Kinnear, Nicolas Cage and director Kevin Smith reportedly attached, after viewing this insipid affair, it’s easy to see why this project had so much trouble leaving the ground.
The biggest hint is that Britt Reid, our protagonist who dresses up as the titular hero, is an irritating, egotistical loon. Portrayed by Seth Rogen in a project that he also co-wrote (with pal Evan Goldberg) and executive produced, these annoyances are embellished. Rogen veers from the subtlety he adopted on the set of Judd Apatow’s Funny People and goes back to slacking off in a half-hungover daze while half-screaming maniacally.
The synopsis does not tread far from what we’ve come to expect from the now laborious superhero genre. After Britt’s father, a newspaper mogul played by Tom Wilkinson, dies from an allergic reaction to a bee sting, our playboy protagonist befriends his father’s mechanic and coffee maker, the hard-working, ass-kicking Kato (Taiwanese musician Jay Chou, in his Hollywood debut) and decides to use his newfound freedom to fight crime.
The duo vow to protect the streets of L.A. by posing as masked criminals and taking out the gangs one by one, the most notorious of whom is led by a Russian named Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz, in a far cry from his performance as a hotsy-totsy Nazi in Inglourious Basterds).
The story isn’t quite fresh, but this conventionality could have been avoided had Rogen and Goldberg put more thought into formulating character nuances and story details than with gadget designs. Their jokes could have also been punchier had the writers (of Superbad and Pineapple Express fame) had the more vulgar freedoms of the R rating to work with. With a PG-13, however, the comedy is dim-witted and the gags are watered-down to keep pre-teen boys amused.
Even while the shrill attempts at humour come up empty, the performances are even more embarrassing. Brief appearances from Tom Wilkinson, James Franco and Edward James Olmos are a waste of their talent. Cameron Diaz, as Britt’s secretary, Lenore, is reduced to eye candy. The only thing we learn about Waltz’s Chudnofsky is that he’s the villain, a thin concoction without personality or menace.
This is a superhero movie that just couldn’t be saved, even with pop visual stylist Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) attached as director. Nevertheless, he is the sole source of flair, ably whizzing his camera while crafting superb action sequences. Most notable is an eccentric, no-holds-barred climax that creatively makes use of its setting, a newspaper plant and newsroom.
Thin, soulless and unfunny, The Green Hornet is a rushed and under-written attempt to cash in on the superhero (or is it the superhero parody) genre. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg hit the big time a few years ago for writing the fantastically crude Superbad, a title that would have served more appropriate for this lewd embarrassment.
agreed!
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