The Green Hornet (2010) - Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz

[ShaOW!linDude]

CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm becoming less convinced about seeing this, dadgummit.

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm becoming less convinced about seeing this, dadgummit.

Yeah the movie will do great with kids though.. The movie's demographic will be kids as young as 12 yrs old...

[Guest Markgway]

Seth's character stayed true to his character that he always play, which is a moronic buffoon asshole and it works really well...

*Groans*

Just as I feared. Do I want to see the crude moron from Knocked Up as The Green Hornet? No. End of. Hollywood just continues to suck more and more...................

He's not trying to be something that he isn't capable of playing which made it genuine...

Because he's not an actor. He's a comic playing the same role OVER and OVER.

This movie has more car chases and shoot-outs then it does hand to hand combat fighting...

It's getting worse...

All the other fights scenes were close ups and fast edits just like the ones in 'The Expendables.'

...and WORSE....

the 3D wasn't all that impressive

Another lame ass retrofit, wasn't it?

[Son Of A Gun]

I love Seth Rogan films. Yeah he's the same from film to film but that's good coz it's his natural voice, personality and of course his laugh - that makes him funny.

This film looks good as a Seth Rogan comedy. But obviously don't expect it to be like the true Green Hornet

becuase it's not meant to be. It's a comedy version.

[Guest Markgway]

Why The Green Hornet? Is it because they think no one will care if it gets fucked up by comedy?

[Son Of A Gun]

Seth Rogan has been writing the screen play for years. I heard about this project a long time ago. I think he's a fan of Green Hornet, but he's also into comedy. So there ya go..

He said he went to comic con and realised there were alot of haters towards it, but he also said that even these haters would have to go see the movie in order to fuel their hate towards it. 'lol So he wins either way.

I saw a 30min tv special on this movie yesterday. It looks fun. I'm not keen on the guy playing Kato though.

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

I'm not keen on the guy playing Kato though.

You'll be surprise.... That's some of the good aspects of the movie is Kato being Gangsta, lol...

[Son Of A Gun]

Well I admit, I haven't seen him in action yet. I only saw clips of dialogue scenes from the movie.

[Chinatown Kid]

I liked the commercial of Seth and Jay riding along listening to Gangster's Paradise in the Black Beauty, Seth says "The camera(light) got us", Jay destroys it with one of the guns on the car and says "What camera?" lol cool

[AlbertV]

The New York Daily News gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/2011/01/14/2011-01-14_green_hornet_review_seth_rogen_and_michel_gondry_make_it_look_easy.html

[GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG]

If The Green Hornet were a car, it would be less like the lethally loaded '65 black Chrysler Imperial driven by the film's heroes and more like the homonymous shitbox discontinued by Dodge in 1987. The otherwise talented screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and the sometimes inspired director Michel Gondry have taken the generic shell of a not-very-interesting '30s radio show and inexplicably cultish one-season '60s TV series and tarted it up with CGI, slow motion, time-lapse pixilation, a "Kato cam" that's like The Matrix effects crossed with the Terminator's cyborg point of view, numerous unimaginative explosions, car chases, and gunfights, and a puzzling motif of bad guys killed by heavy falling objects. Throw in so many ripoffs from every superhero film ever made, it may be pointless to list them — though I probably will anyway. Put on a pair of 3D glasses and it's like watching 118 minutes of noisy trailers from underneath a thin, dark blanket.

Okay, it's not that bad. There are one or two action scenes, like the prolonged brawl between Kato and Britt Reid, replete with Three Stooges–like sound effects, that unroll with satisfying logic and ingenuity. And the badinage between Rogen's Reid, a/k/a the Green Hornet, and Jay Chou's Kato, a/k/a Kato, though not as funny as the Rogen–James Franco match-up in Pineapple Express, still has its moments. Until it starts to sound like Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon.

It's the same dynamic: the loudmouthed feckless white guy and the seemingly subordinate, stereotypical-but-in-a-sort-of-satirical-way Asian martial-arts expert. And it's the same dynamic as in Iron Man, with Reid reacting to his dead father's lack of approval by becoming a superhero rigged out with fancy gadgets — though in this case they're invented by his sidekick, not himself. On the other hand, Reid is inept as a self-invented superhero, so maybe the film falls more along the lines of Kick-Ass. But then there's the newspaper that mounts a campaign against him, vilifying him as a bad guy, just as in Spider-Man, except that here Reid is also the paper's publisher, so he's like Peter Parker and J. Jonah Jameson combined. As for Christoph Waltz as crime kingpin Chudnofsky, he ain't no Joker, just further proof that the Best Supporting Actor Oscar is a career killer.

In short, The Green Hornet is the usual numbing, postmodern pastiche — which is ironic, since the premise is supposed to be retro, a throwback to a simpler, less synthetic analog age done in digital style. What could be more quaint, after all, than print journalism? I especially enjoyed the way the Green Hornet takes shelter from a fusillade of bullets behind a giant roll of newsprint. Another clever, reflexive touch is Reid's secretary, Lenore Case, played with listless spunk by Cameron Diaz: she unwittingly provides "research" for the hapless pair of do-gooders and so helps them figure out what to do next. In effect, she's writing the screenplay. We're told she has degrees in journalism and criminology, but it seems that everything she knows she learned from watching movies.

The Green Hornet | Directed by Michel Gondry | Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg based on the radio series created by George W. Trendle | with Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Tom Wilkinson, Christoph Waltz, Edward James Olmos, David Howard, and Edward Furlong | Columbia Pictures | 118 minutes

********************************

This film sounds like loser.

RIP Bruce only U could do it R I G H T!

GD Y-Y

Wait I take IT back The New York Daley News liked it Oh My words are spoken to soon

The buzz was worth the wait

********************************************************************************

From The Minneapolis Star & Tribune

A C-class superhero saga comes out of development hell with a surprisingly funny and well-crafted film.

By TOM HORGEN, Star Tribune

Last update: January 14, 2011 - 6:18 AM

16

Comments

+

Add comment

Print this storyPrint this story

E-mail this storyE-mail this story

0diggsdigg

GREEN HORNET

★★★ 1/2 out of four stars

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violent action, language, sensuality and drug content.

Related Content

Play

Video: Movie review: The Green Hornet

* 'Hornet's' crooked flight path

More from Movies

* Sissy Spacek writing memoir, 'Barefoot Stories'

* Mel Gibson's next film to debut at Texas festival

* Who's up, who's down in movies

* A real 'Dilemma':Is infidelity funny?

* Spotlight: "Lemmy"

So much could have gone wrong with "The Green Hornet."

First, Seth Rogen, the stoner king of bromantic comedies, inherits the mantle of a second-class superhero franchise that's taken 15 years to release. Then Jay Chou, a Taiwanese pop singer and relative unknown in the United States, is cast as Kato, a role made famous by Bruce Lee in the 1960s. Corralling these disparate elements is Michel Gondry, a French director known more for gonzo head trips like "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" than big studio action films.

That said, the movie these guys have come up with is fresh, funny and a bewildering surprise.

Rogen, who also co-wrote the script, doesn't stray far from the doofus charmers he played in "Knocked Up" and "Pineapple Express." As Britt Reid, Rogen has found the ultimate ignoramus -- a rich man-child who does nothing better than spend his father's money.

Gondry's first great move was surrounding Rogen with a cast of heavyweight actors. Tom Wilkinson ("In the Bedroom") is Britt's dad, a newspaper tycoon whose death leaves the company in his son's very incapable hands. Edward James Olmos ("Stand and Deliver") is the paper's editor. An uncredited James Franco ("127 Hours") has a hilarious cameo as a cocky crime lord.

"The Green Hornet's" nemesis is Christoph Waltz, the Oscar-winning Austrian actor who chewed through every scene in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds." He rockets into "The Green Hornet" as a Russian gangster with self-esteem issues. His name: Chudnofsky. Sadly, no one can pronounce it (Franco calls him Tchaikovsky). His weapon of choice: a ridiculous double-barreled pistol. "My gun has two barrels," he says. "It was very difficult to make." Just listen to him talk: He caresses each syllable like a sculptor with wet clay.

Any modern reimagining of "The Green Hornet" must confront the franchise's tendency to place Kato in a subservient role. (During the 1940s radio serials, he was billed as the Green Hornet's "faithful valet.") Rogen's script brings that dynamic center stage, creating a dramatic tension between the two characters.

After his father's death, Britt finds out that the Asian man who made his coffee and worked on his dad's fleet of hot rods is also a bone-breaking martial artist and weapon specialist. As Kato tells it, he was raised on the streets of Shanghai (to which Britt says, "I love Japan"). Together they hatch a half-baked plan to rid San Francisco of crime by dressing up like criminals.

Kato is the brains and the brawn, building their gadgets and slicing through bad guys in hyper-stylized slow-motion. Chou plays the role with an understated cool. While Britt tries everything to seduce his beautiful secretary (Cameron Diaz), it's Kato who ends up charming her.

Now, a note on the 3-D. It's good. Bullet casings rain down on our eyebrows. Kato's kicks fly past our heads. At times, it seems like every possible object in the frame is rendered in 3-D. Which raises the question: Does the paperweight on Rogen's desk need to be popping out of the frame? It's an unnecessary contrivance in a movie that's already made all the right moves.

For instance, the film opens with a brilliant scene -- a gangster standoff between Franco and Waltz. For Franco, it's a wink-wink cameo and a chance to show off his burgeoning comedic chops. For Waltz, it's another mesmerizing first impression, much like his thrilling lead-off scene in "Inglourious Basterds." Their war of words ends with Franco calling Waltz a "disco Santa." It makes no sense, but sounds hilarious coming out of Franco's mouth. Waltz threatens him with death, demanding to know what the hell a "disco Santa" is.

"It was just something stupid to say," Franco pleads.

That about sums up the mission of "The Green Hornet." It's a send-up of the superhero genre. It's a buddy comedy with actual emotion. It's a critique of the franchise's mythos (Kato is no one's sidekick). The film complicates all of these elements and manages to stay as goofy as the idea of Seth Rogen playing the Green Hornet.

[johnoverall]

Watched The Green Hornet this morning. It was enjoyable enough; it didn't push all the buttons I hoped for and the 3D left me with a headache but I think I'd need a second-pass at it as the goofy tone put me off my stride at times.

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

Rotten Tomatoes wasn't very kind to the green hornet...

43% on the tomatometer, I didn't think it was that bad at all...

It always seems that lesser know super hero movies like the Shadow, Green Hornet, The Phantom always get low ratings... Out of all the unknown super hero movies I thought The Green Hornet stood out from the rest...

[ShaOW!linDude]

Here's an interesting little article about Jay Chou on Yahoo today.

http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/409-the-asian-justin-timberlake-hits-america-in-green-hornet

[Karlos]

Saw it this afternoon and have to say, as a long-time GH fan, I enjoyed it a lot.

It's certainly not perfect - it's tone is inconsistent (and I think it's this that's is mainly to blame for some of the film's poorer reviews) and there's some flabby scenes that could've easily hit the cutting room floor.

Basically, it looks like a superhero film but it isn't.

In many ways it's Pineapple Express redux, with Rogen and Chou instead of Rogen and Franco.

Christophe Waltz was very good s the main villain (being worryingly likeable again after his Ing B'ds turn) as was Jay Chou, playing Kato as a kind of savant slacker (with some nice "Bruce" moments in there). Rogen is fine, and Diaz...well, she's just there, as is a woefullu underused Edward James Olmos.

The film really needed an R-rating to truly open up but it was fun stuff.

Will be interesting to see how it fares at the box office this weekend after all the negative "buzz" (ho ho!)

[daisho2004]

OK I seen this movie today with my Son, and I'll be very honest I really wasn't a big Green Hornet Fan, but I found this movie more on the comedy side than anything else. I really don't know how I was suppose to take in this movie. Was it meant to be a comedy I'm not sure? I didn't really care for the action scenes, I didn't like how they did it. And the whole end car chase through the building and stuff I just didn't care for at all. I did like the chemistry between Seth & Jay but again somethings just felt out of balance. Overall on the comedy side I thought it was good, I think this movie couldv'e been a lot better, but I'm sure there is going to be a sequel so I will be looking forward to how they can make it better.

[thehangman]

Watched it lastnite,was ok abit overlong i thought,some funny moments and fight scenes werent too bad,didnt see the point of the action slowing down tho,seemed abit pointless.

[dopemonkie]

Watched it and enjoyed and accepted it for what it is..

i think the comedy is what saved it for me and the chemistry was great between seth and jay.. the action was so so... and the Kato character is super cool...

it's not a super hero movie, it's just some guys in mask who have no idea what they're doing just looking for some crazy excitement "thumbs up"

it kinda surprised me that it was PG-13.. shoulda been rated r from what i saw

[sen_pai]

Really good movie. See it for what it is...a comedy. Too bad they didn't do action like Chinese martial arts. They had all that slow mo matrix crap, which is cool, but I rather see more realistic fighting than special effects crap. This is not x-men, ironman, or dark knight and if you go in thinking that, you'll be disapointed. It's a comedy and u should have figured that out by knowing who the main actor is.

Good thing is that Kato wasn't just a sidekick, but he was almost equal...he really made the movie, while the green hornet is just comedy. Good couple. I would have prefered a Kato chinese martial arts film, but this wasn't bad.

Hope to see a sequel.

[daisho2004]

The slow motion fights really didn't fit in with this movie, and that is what I didn't like about it, otherwise I think it would've been a better movie. It really used to much CGI IMO.

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

I hope for the sequel they get a little serious and they work with Kato's background of some sort.. Have them go to Shanghai or something and battle out some gangsters, would be pretty awesome...

[thehangman]

The slow motion fights really didn't fit in with this movie, and that is what I didn't like about it, otherwise I think it would've been a better movie. It really used to much CGI IMO.

Same here shoulda had more realistic fighting

[massa_yoda]

I thought this was close to being a good film, but Seth Rogen was just too stupid in the second half. He was pretty funny for the most part, but he was just so oblivious to what was going on around him including the fact the Kato was doing everything. Come on. This was close to Chris Tucker from Rush Hour 2 levels.

[ShaOW!linDude]

SIGH!

Okay. The Mrs. let me take in a matinee of this yesterday.

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..........it's wasn't all that bad.

I mean, it's a good buddy flick. Rogen and Chou have good chemistry on screen. There were some humorous bits. The immaturity of both characters was kind of fun. (Kato came across as less immature though, of course.) The action was actually pretty good in places. The Black Beauty was off the chain! Now, having said that......

1) I think Cameron Diaz was miscast. Don't get me wrong. I like her but she just seemed out of place in this.

2) Rogen's delivery is just so smarmy and over the top at times. And it was like he was stepping on everyone else's lines because he couldn't wait to say his own.

3) Chou's fighting was shot reminiscent of Jet Li's in THE ONE. It looked good at times but also came across as over the top. Yes, there needed to be flair and flourish and demonstrations of impact and power but.........I don't know. I guess that was all intended for the benefit of 3D audiences. (And don't get me started on 3D.)

4) The "buddy fight" was enjoyable but why didn't Chou waste Rogen like he did the thugs they came across?

5) A PG-13 movie with R-rated language. It seemed Rogen was dropping the F-bomb every 3rd sentence or so. I'm sorry but if this is supposed to be geared towards kids.....clean up the dialogue. Just because the intended audience is juvenile doesn't mean their delinquency should be attributed to.

6) Christoph Waltz was another miscast. Well....maybe not. But he really wasn't given a chance to properly display the ruthlessness of his villainy. I was intrigued with his character and really enjoyed the exchange he had with the character of an uncredited James Franco. Loved that. But afterward the villain was like a one hit wonder singing the same song over and over.

7) Lastly, the presentation of the movie was.......ironic to me. I'll explain.

In the 60's, the Batman TV show which starred Adam West and Burt Ward was campy. It was meant to be. And it was enjoyable to watch. Based on its popularity, a year later the Green Hornet aired. It, by contrast, was not campy. It had a darker and more serious motif. (Well, compared to Batman it did.)

Now, 40 years later, Batman is truly the Dark Knight. The films of recent years have a more serious and darker theme. And it's great! Contrast that to the new GH film which is......you guessed it......campy. Enjoyable but campy. To me, anyway.

There's so much that could be done with the GH characters. They could've been made to appear more sinister, tougher, deadlier. I almost would've preferred this to have a more nostalgic feel by being set in the 50's or 60's, even the 70's. Britt Reid could've been more of a party boy who had delved into heavy drinking, drugs, loan-sharking, gambling with ties to fixing sports events or such. Something that would give him some form of intimate knowledge of the workings of the criminal underworld because he had either been the victim of it or forced to participate in it to some degree. Kato definitely should've been made to appear more knowledgeable of martial arts with possible former ties to Chinese tongs. They could've paired up to take on the mob and triads who were trying to unify and thereby turn them against each other. Or something.

There was just so much potential and it was wasted. I want a reboot. Right now.

[daisho2004]

There was just so much potential and it was wasted. I want a reboot. Right now.

Ha! That is great! Excellent review!