THE GREEN HORNET 
Starring:
Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz, Edward James Olmos and Tom Wilkinson
Director:
Michel Gondry
Running Time:
108 mins
Out to buy on Blu-Ray/DVD 02/05/11
"I want the head of The Green Hornet and I want it tonight."
Been the son of media mogul James Reid (Wilkinson) was a burden that Britt (Rogen) never wanted but when his father passes away suddenly, the responsibility was now his run his father’s newspaper. Not knowing what to do and more bothered about the lack of his morning coffee, Britt meets Kato (Chou), his father’s former mechanic and gifted inventor who gives him an idea. Why doesn’t he take the fight to the villains of Los Angeles by becoming a masked vigilante? Creating the persona of the Green Hornet, Britt and Kato take the fight to the street and become public enemy number one, not just for the police but for crime kingpin Chudnofsky (Waltz), who wants them dead.
There are no new ideas in Hollywood and that is becoming more and more evident but can a remake of a cult 1960s TV show that originally starred the immortal Bruce Lee buck the trend of shoddy remakes?
Bringing classic TV shows to the big screen in nothing new. The successes of ‘Star Trek’, ‘Mission: Impossible’, ‘The Fugitive’, ‘Serenity’, ‘Charlie’s Angels’, ‘The Addams Family’, ‘Wayne’s World’, ‘The Blues Brothers’ and ‘The Untouchables’, shows that TV shows and even sketches from ‘Saturday Night Live’ can become successes at the cinema and in some cases Oscar winners. That does not mean that every successful TV show should get a big screen adaptation however. The failures of ‘Sgt. Bilko’, ‘The Saint’, ‘Bewitched’, ‘The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle’, ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’, ‘Lost in Space’, ‘The Avengers’ and the travesty that was ‘Thunderbirds’, shows that success in one medium does not breed success in another. A cult 60s show about a masked crime fighter and his martial arts trained sidekick fitted into the remake category but the 2011 version capture the essence of what made the original a classic in the first place.
The story of the wayward son of a media mogul becoming a masked vigilante after criminals killed his father might not be the most original tale but it does have the potential for big screen entertainment. Throw in comedic actor Seth Rogan and ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ and ‘Be Kind Rewind’ director Michel Gondry and you should have an action romp with a French twist and, for the most part, that is what you get. Rogan plays Britt Reid, a slacker living off his father’s money without a care in the world but when his newspaper-owning father James, played by the always-excellent Tom Wilkinson, is killed after making a stand against criminal Benjamin Chudnofsky, his whole world changes. He now owns the Los Angeles’ respected newspaper ‘The Daily Sentinel’ and has inherited his father’s fortune. While making changes, he inadvertently fires his father’s mechanic and friend Kato, played by Asian superstar Jay Chou in a role that was created by the legendary Bruce Lee, but little did he know that Kato would become his saviour and his sidekick because after accidentally saving one’s life by beating up some bad guys, Britt decides to become a masked superhero. They are no ordinary heroes however, disguised criminals themselves, Britt and Kato set out to become the most feared men on LA’s streets, much to the annoyance of Benjamin Chudnofsky, Oscar winner Christoph Waltz. Throw in Cameron Diaz as love interest Lenore Case, Edward James Olmos as Sentinel Editor Mike Axford and David Harbour as D.A. Frank Scanlon and you have a cast that has fun with their roles.
French director Michel Gondry is known for his visual flair, using the camera and his keen eye for art direction to create wondrous looks for his films but ‘The Green Hornet’ is Gondry really running by the numbers. The film, while fun, only has a few real visual flourishes during the fight scenes but besides from them, this could be a film by any other director. Whether this was a creative choice or one enforced by the studio, we will never know but this will come as a disappointment for Gondry fans. The choice to retro-fit the film with 3D seems very un-Gondry as well, as you would think that if the director wanted the film to be in 3D, he would have shot it in 3D. The 3D itself is extremely poor, seeming like another excuse to add the extra cost on the ticket price and the cost of the Blu-Ray.
While this may not be the Michel Gondry superhero movie you might have been hoping for, there is still a lot to enjoy. With the cast clearly having fun with their roles and enough action and laughs to keep you entertained, ‘The Green Hornet’ could be the start of another superhero franchise.
Blu-ray 3D Bonus Material
Blu-ray Bonus Material
DVD Bonus Material
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2011
