Friday, January 14, 2011

Review: The Green Hornet


(Image taken from: Moviescut.com)

The Green Hornet is good. Iron Man good. Except, here's the difference. Whereas the first half of the first Iron Man movie was undoubtedly amazing, the second half was a big let down in comparison (Come on, you know it's true.)

But The Green Hornet doesn't suffer from that problem. It's good all the way through.

Seth Rogen plays the hero in this off-beat, surprisingly funny action/comedy, and Jay Chou plays his sidekick, Kato. But the thing is, this isn't really an action movie at all. While Iron Man was meant to be this big, explosion heavy actionioner, it really wasn't. At it's heart, it was really the story of a rich boy who learned that there were things in life that more important than money and fame. And in many ways, it surprised everyone because it wasn't so action heavy. And The Green Hornet surprises, too, but in a very different way. It surprises because it was never meant to be this good.

I think the key to why The Green Hornet is so enjoyable is because of the major role-reversal going on here. While Iron Man had other characters besides Robert Downey Jr. in it, let's be honest, it was the Robert Downey Jr. show. But Seth Rogen, playing the star here, really trades off the action to Chou, who makes everything that you would think to be impossible possible (Except for swimming, of course, which is the obvious task that you'd expect him to be good at). And while he's handling the action, Rogen's got the comedy down. Really, and I don't want to say things that I'll regret later, so I'll choose my words carefully, but this movie really reminds me of Big Trouble in Little China. It's similar in the way that Jack Burton, the supposed hero of the film played by Kurt Russel, really plays second fiddle to Wang, who handles all of the fisticuffs. And any movie that reminds me of BTILC can't be too bad. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It's not worth seeing in 3D, but definitely worth seeing all the same. So go see it.

Three and a half stars out of four.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Green Hornet,the famed vigilante,who teams up with Kato and with the Black Beauty fights crime in there own way of doing good and stopping the bad guys.They take on the mob after the death of a friend.Thats the superhero/vigilante story.The movie WOULD have been a lot better.If (Seth Rogen) did not to play the Green Hornet role.He has no clue about Britt Reid/Green Hornet at all.He should have never been allowed to play this main role (Green Hornet).The Green Hornet doesn't quite succeed as a superhero flick.Because it just does not work for him not at all.(Seth Rogen) has NO SKILLS when it comes to playing this role. Not what so ever.He did not even wear a green hornet mask.
The role of Kato played by (Jay Chou) was right on the money "Excellent/Outstanding".A very good choice for Kato..
The Black Beauty was Excellent/Outstanding in everyway and true to the cars name.

please make another Green Hornet movie with out (Seth Rogen)as the main key role.....Please....
Please keep everyone else as they are true to the life of the Green Hornet story of a 1930s & 1960s radio serial/TV shows....

Anonymous said...

Seth Rogen definitely jammed it up and I found him enjoyable, but i'm sure he was nothing like the original. That's okay for me since I didn't really know the original. These superhero adaptations are tricky. You're definitely going to totally please the core audience since these movies are so steeped in lore and are a product of their times. The best they can do is try to entertain a general audience, and for The Green Hornet, I was entertained. A great deal. Sorry you didn't dig it