★★★
Like many on this planet I was skeptical of a comic book movie starring Seth Rogen. My initial reaction was one of confusion. Will this be a spoof? Does this mean that Rogen will now be in dumb action pictures instead of dumb comedies? When I say dumb I mean George of The Jungle dumb. Fortunately, and much to my surprise, I enjoyed this picture.
The Green Hornet was originally conceived as a juvenile adventure series on the radio in the 1930's. Then it became two separate movie serials in the 1940's as well a comic book and a network television program in the 1960's. Although some of the treatments of the character has been different over the years, most of them remain the same.
Britt Reid (Rogen) is a slacker. He only has one goal in life and that's to be the life of the party every day. After the death of his father Britt takes over the family business. The family business is a newspaper. Britt is assisted by his secretary Lenore (Cameron Diaz) and his chauffeur/mechanic/barista/martial arts expert Kato (Jay Chow) and becomes inspired to be a superhero but a different kind of superhero. He'll be a superhero that everyone thinks is a villain. Along with Kato he begins to take down L.A.'s Underworld. Enter the bad guy who goes by the hard to pronounce name of Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). He believes that The Green Hornet is muscling in on his territory.
In most comic book films you have the hero who can do anything while the sidekick is there to make the hero look better. In this film those roles are reversed. Britt is an idiot. There's no kind way to say that. Kato is the genius who designs the weapons, does the fighting and makes the coffee. Britt takes all the credit. This was a nice flip on the hero/sidekick relationship.
The movie was a great mixture of action and that sarcastic, quick-witted humor of Seth Rogen's that so many have come to love. Christoph Waltz shows his talent at playing "cuddly" villians. Even though he is doing terrible things to other human beings he is incredibly entertaining to watch. I was most intrigued by the performance given by Jay Chow. He brought a calm serenity to Kato. The character is not a stereotype but a fully realized individual that the audience cares about. There's a fight scene between Britt and Kato that fluctuates between serious and comical. Comical whenever Britt gets hit and serious when Kato is injured. This is because we want Kato to receive justice for things that Britt has said and done.
The movie was a great mixture of action and that sarcastic, quick-witted humor of Seth Rogen's that so many have come to love. Christoph Waltz shows his talent at playing "cuddly" villians. Even though he is doing terrible things to other human beings he is incredibly entertaining to watch. I was most intrigued by the performance given by Jay Chow. He brought a calm serenity to Kato. The character is not a stereotype but a fully realized individual that the audience cares about. There's a fight scene between Britt and Kato that fluctuates between serious and comical. Comical whenever Britt gets hit and serious when Kato is injured. This is because we want Kato to receive justice for things that Britt has said and done.
At one point we see Chudnofsky's crew putting the word out on The Green Hornet. It's shown in split-screen. One person tells someone and then we get a new frame of them telling someone else while the first person continues on to spread the news. This happens over and over again until you are so unsure of which frame to watch that you just ignore what's happening altogether. Sure it was a quick way to show a lot happening and how much of a reach the bad guy has but fifteen frames on one screen is overkill.
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