Jason KingThe Green Hornet (6.5/10)
January 19th 2011 06:52
:
Not too shabby!
Category: Reviews
Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the son of LA's most prominent and respected media magnate and perfectly happy to maintain a directionless existence on the party scene - until his father (Tom Wilkinson) dies from a bee sting, leaving Britt his vast media empire. Striking an unlikely friendship with one of his father's more industrious and inventive employees, Kato (Jay Chou), they see their chance to do something meaningful for the first time in their lives: fight crime. But in order to do this, they decide to become criminals themselves - protecting the law by breaking it, Britt becomes the vigilante The Green Hornet as he and Kato hit the streets.
Using all his ingenuity and skill, Kato builds the ultimate in advanced retro weaponry, The Black Beauty, an indestructible car equal parts firepower and horsepower. Rolling in a mobile fortress on wheels and striking the bad guys with Kato's clever gadgets, The Green Hornet and Kato quickly start making a name for themselves, and with the help of Britt's new secretary, Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), they begin hunting down the man who controls LA's gritty underworld: Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). But Chudnofsky has plans of his own: to swat down The Green Hornet once and for all.
The Green Hornet was much better than I was expecting, it is loud, it is colourful, it is immature and it is damn funny and overloaded with enough action and humour to keep you very entertained. The story commenced as a radio serial in 1936 and has many adaptations since then. It even had Bruce Lee as Kato in a TV version screened in 1966 and 67. This movie version has had many stars and many directors since its commencement in 1990. But it finally ended with Michel Gondry directing starring Seth Rogan and Jay Chou.
If you are going to see this the you have to see it as a Rogan comedy that is doing The Green Hornet and not as a Green Hornet movie starring Seth Rogan. He cowrote the script and if you are not a fan of overbearing and obnoxious Rogan then you will hate this film. I actually love most of his humour and found some of his one liners complete belly wobblers, quite a few of them fall flat though. Jay Chou was sensational - I just loved him and actually found him way hot
Boy can he move! The one thing I did not like though was the inconsistency in his character. OK we know Rogan or in the film Britt Reid is a womanising slob with too much money and I got the impression that Kato was the complementing partner in the duo - he was the chivalrous "actual" hero but then you see some stupidity from him and he is no better than Reid. But what he makes up with from his stupidity is his heroism and fighting abilities. Great to watch him in action in his great costume. And damn - I want his coffee machine!!!
Cameron Diaz plays Reid's secretary and to be honest I found her whole character a waste of film. I love Diaz but the character was pointless and if anything it should not have been played by Diaz but an unknown. The role was way too small to even be significant to star Diaz. Or as my friend Geoff from Cinefools says "All of Diaz's characters are pointless" OUCH!
But there are a couple of characters that made the film for me. Christoph Waltz is just insane playing the evil guy of the city, Chudnofsky, he cracked me up but I did find his character under-utilised. A few more scenes with him and a few less with Rogan would have improved the film vastly. Then there was the uncredited cameo from James Franco at the start that just made the film for me - I was crying with laughter - I wish he was in the entire film, but alas his brief performance was GOLD.
One thing that spun me out about this film was Michel Gondry directing - coming from art house brilliance like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep to making a Seth Rogan comedy/ action film after making a Jack Black comedy (Be Kind Rewind) is just odd. Is this a sell out? Is it because of money offers? Who knows but he does an admirable job following the screenplay and providing some good visuals. But it lacks any of his actual mark.
The film is releasing in 35mm and annoying post production 3D - to be honest I have no idea why this is being released in 3D besides the extra 3D cash grab. There is always an annoying minor depth of field bubble in the 3D layers in post production 3D and I swear studios need to either film their productions in 3D or not try for the cash grab - the film ends up looking stupid!! That being said it looks like Avatar when you compare it to the atrocity of the post production 3D of The Clash of the Titans remake but honestly - I wouldn't bother with the 3D - it was never intended to be made as a 3D film.
Definitely not hideous but no action film masterpiece. It has enough to keep the entire family entertained with enough humour and visuals to entertain everyone. It releases tomorrow 20th January in Australia. Worth the watch but don't race out (6.5/10)
Using all his ingenuity and skill, Kato builds the ultimate in advanced retro weaponry, The Black Beauty, an indestructible car equal parts firepower and horsepower. Rolling in a mobile fortress on wheels and striking the bad guys with Kato's clever gadgets, The Green Hornet and Kato quickly start making a name for themselves, and with the help of Britt's new secretary, Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), they begin hunting down the man who controls LA's gritty underworld: Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). But Chudnofsky has plans of his own: to swat down The Green Hornet once and for all.
The Green Hornet was much better than I was expecting, it is loud, it is colourful, it is immature and it is damn funny and overloaded with enough action and humour to keep you very entertained. The story commenced as a radio serial in 1936 and has many adaptations since then. It even had Bruce Lee as Kato in a TV version screened in 1966 and 67. This movie version has had many stars and many directors since its commencement in 1990. But it finally ended with Michel Gondry directing starring Seth Rogan and Jay Chou.
If you are going to see this the you have to see it as a Rogan comedy that is doing The Green Hornet and not as a Green Hornet movie starring Seth Rogan. He cowrote the script and if you are not a fan of overbearing and obnoxious Rogan then you will hate this film. I actually love most of his humour and found some of his one liners complete belly wobblers, quite a few of them fall flat though. Jay Chou was sensational - I just loved him and actually found him way hot
Boy can he move! The one thing I did not like though was the inconsistency in his character. OK we know Rogan or in the film Britt Reid is a womanising slob with too much money and I got the impression that Kato was the complementing partner in the duo - he was the chivalrous "actual" hero but then you see some stupidity from him and he is no better than Reid. But what he makes up with from his stupidity is his heroism and fighting abilities. Great to watch him in action in his great costume. And damn - I want his coffee machine!!!
Cameron Diaz plays Reid's secretary and to be honest I found her whole character a waste of film. I love Diaz but the character was pointless and if anything it should not have been played by Diaz but an unknown. The role was way too small to even be significant to star Diaz. Or as my friend Geoff from Cinefools says "All of Diaz's characters are pointless" OUCH!
But there are a couple of characters that made the film for me. Christoph Waltz is just insane playing the evil guy of the city, Chudnofsky, he cracked me up but I did find his character under-utilised. A few more scenes with him and a few less with Rogan would have improved the film vastly. Then there was the uncredited cameo from James Franco at the start that just made the film for me - I was crying with laughter - I wish he was in the entire film, but alas his brief performance was GOLD.
One thing that spun me out about this film was Michel Gondry directing - coming from art house brilliance like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep to making a Seth Rogan comedy/ action film after making a Jack Black comedy (Be Kind Rewind) is just odd. Is this a sell out? Is it because of money offers? Who knows but he does an admirable job following the screenplay and providing some good visuals. But it lacks any of his actual mark.
The film is releasing in 35mm and annoying post production 3D - to be honest I have no idea why this is being released in 3D besides the extra 3D cash grab. There is always an annoying minor depth of field bubble in the 3D layers in post production 3D and I swear studios need to either film their productions in 3D or not try for the cash grab - the film ends up looking stupid!! That being said it looks like Avatar when you compare it to the atrocity of the post production 3D of The Clash of the Titans remake but honestly - I wouldn't bother with the 3D - it was never intended to be made as a 3D film.
Definitely not hideous but no action film masterpiece. It has enough to keep the entire family entertained with enough humour and visuals to entertain everyone. It releases tomorrow 20th January in Australia. Worth the watch but don't race out
(6.5/10)| 21 |
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