Login
After the sudden death of newspaper editor and owner James Reid, his only son Britt is thrown into the cooperate world without any clue of how to run a business. When Britt meets Kato, a disgruntled and mysterious employee of his father they form an odd friendship which results in Britt becoming a masked vigilante in the city of L.A known simply as the Green Hornet. With Britt now running around the city causing havoc for gangs and drug dealers, he draws the attention of a ruthless drug dealer named Chudnofsky
The Green Hornet is a film written by comedian Seth Rogen, and right off the bat that is the biggest downfall the film has. Rogen is very talented comedian, but this film should have never been a comedy. This film could have easily been better had it taken itself seriously at times. Rogen could have thrown in some very good themes had it been a drama. There were some serious scenes, but most of them either awkward because they did not fit with the overall mood or they eventually turned into a joke. Had Rogen taken the time to sit down not as a comedian but as a writer, he may have been able to produce a good script, because the final product which he produced seemed like it was written by a 10 year old.
Now with that being said Rogen does not even do a good job of acting out his own written material. We have seen this type of performances from Rogen many times, but this time it was just too tedious and overwhelming. The material which he performed for his character was terrible to begin with, so no matter how Rogen tried to present it for acting purposes it would have been dull and boring. Which brings up the rest of the actors, Jay Chou was expressionless as Kato and Cameron Diaz did not fit the role of Lenore, she was too upbeat and cheery the entire time for me to buy into it. There was one lone bright spot for the acting and pretty much the entire film and that was Christoph Waltz as Chudnofsky. He played the villain the way he should have been played, cold and ruthless. Waltz was brilliant; his character was insane right from the badass opening scene (featuring a very clever and downright awesome cameo from James Franco) up until the final battle scene between The Green Hornet and himself.
The Green Hornet is far from an enjoyable flick, it was boring and drawn out. Rogen was certainly not the person who should have been in control of this adaptation. It should have been handled by someone who was willing to add more seriousness and take out many of the unnecessary stupid lines. For the first time really in his career thus far it seems Rogens usual over the top delivery and his crude humour did not serve him well. People have caught on to this being a regular muse for Rogen, and would like to see him try and take things seriously for once. It was obvious that Rogen was trying to bring a new spin to the superhero genre, which features many dramatic adaptations of famous heroes, but it sticking with the drama proves to be a more efficient and audience friendly way of making a superhero/vigilante flick.
As far as films from 2011 go or even to clarify that even further, as far as superhero films from 2011 go there will be much better. In fact Green Hornet may be at the bottom of the all time list of Superhero films to grace the big screen. This is certainly far from one of the best films of 2011. Even if you are a huge fan of Rogen this film simply does not work. Watch it for a few laughs maybe and too see a badass Christoph Waltz, but other than that, do not expect to be wowed by this film.
5/10
