The Green Hornet has one of the best cars in the movies. It's bullet proof, fire proof, has built in war heads and machine guns, its tires can't be shot out, and it has an ejector seat which could shoot you half way to the moon...and yet an elevator door can cut the vehicle in half. The car is a good metaphor for the movie as a whole I think. The Green Hornet, is fast an exuberant but it feels overstuffed and structurally flimsy. I'd say it could use a rethinking, but as it stands, it's not unwatchable.
The best I can say for this movie, is that it's amusing. It is able to sustain it's energy for a hundred plus minutes, with a fair dose of humarous action, sprinkled with some delicious visual effects shots. The picture I think lends itself quite nicely to a 3-D transfer.
As a superhero satire, The Green Hornet, works in pieces but the big picture seems off. Whats ironic is that this movie about an egomaniac is written somewhat egotistically. Seth Rogan seems more like a burden than a benefit to the production. He tries way too hard to hog the spotlight. The Green Hornet has been written so that the majority of the humour is based off him. That would be fine if he was funny, but he's not. He is juvenile, and nasty, and as a superhero, he is painfully useless without his partner Cato and his car. I suppose that in itself, is kind of humorous, but it makes me wonder if his intention is to have the viewer laugh at him not root for him. Rogan gets most of the one liners, but a few are given to the villain he fights. I like my villains with a little humour or wit, and judging from Inglourious Basterds, anyone can see that Christoph Waltz is the man to do this. But he doesn't get it right here. He doesn't crack jokes, he IS the joke. Waltz' function is stripped down pretty much to satirical narcissism.
The film has an ending which makes me think that the makers just got lazy, but at least they avoided the mistake of asking the audience to anticipate a sequel. The Green Hornet is kind of fun to drive around with, but it only works on a superficial level, and is not nearly clever enough to be memorable. If nothing else, at least offers a way to spend two hours on a Friday night in the season of cinematic junk and apocalyptic hodgepodge.
The best I can say for this movie, is that it's amusing. It is able to sustain it's energy for a hundred plus minutes, with a fair dose of humarous action, sprinkled with some delicious visual effects shots. The picture I think lends itself quite nicely to a 3-D transfer.
As a superhero satire, The Green Hornet, works in pieces but the big picture seems off. Whats ironic is that this movie about an egomaniac is written somewhat egotistically. Seth Rogan seems more like a burden than a benefit to the production. He tries way too hard to hog the spotlight. The Green Hornet has been written so that the majority of the humour is based off him. That would be fine if he was funny, but he's not. He is juvenile, and nasty, and as a superhero, he is painfully useless without his partner Cato and his car. I suppose that in itself, is kind of humorous, but it makes me wonder if his intention is to have the viewer laugh at him not root for him. Rogan gets most of the one liners, but a few are given to the villain he fights. I like my villains with a little humour or wit, and judging from Inglourious Basterds, anyone can see that Christoph Waltz is the man to do this. But he doesn't get it right here. He doesn't crack jokes, he IS the joke. Waltz' function is stripped down pretty much to satirical narcissism.
The film has an ending which makes me think that the makers just got lazy, but at least they avoided the mistake of asking the audience to anticipate a sequel. The Green Hornet is kind of fun to drive around with, but it only works on a superficial level, and is not nearly clever enough to be memorable. If nothing else, at least offers a way to spend two hours on a Friday night in the season of cinematic junk and apocalyptic hodgepodge.