Green Hornet Review

Rating: 1/5

In the 60's TV was revolutionized when ABC released the original Batman show. Starring Adam West and Burt Ward, it was a very light-hearted show that was really funny and very important in the history of the bat. At one point, ABC tried to capitalize on the bat-craze by resurrecting a forgotten radio character: the Green Hornet. It lasted half a season, but introduced the world to Bruce Lee as Kato. This move definitely does not do anything that cool.

Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the son of the chief editor of The Sentinel newspaper, a hardcore investigative paper. Britt's dad has always been mean to him (or so he thinks), and so Britt is a hardcore party boy. When his dad is murdered, Britt teams up with his dad's mechanic and coffee maker Kato and becomes the Green Hornet, and fights against the head criminal in town (Christoph Waltz).

Now, there are three main problems with this movie. Problem #1: the acting. I love Seth Rogen as much as the next guy, but I don't go to a superhero movie to see 2 hours of schtick. The whole premise is simply "Seth Rogen is a superhero." Kind of like how Bee Movie is "Jerry Seinfeld is a bee." Seth Rogen brings nothing to the table except the lovable manchild we all know him as. Christoph Waltz tries his best with a lackluster script, but Chudnofsky is just a one dimensional villain. The worst of the bunch is Jay Chou as Kato. Chou does not speak English, and as a result, does not act in English well.

Problem #2: The directing. Michel Gondry is a very talented guy, but who's stupid idea was it to get him for a superhero movie? He does great art movies, but here when there's random bits of pretentiousness that come out of nowhere, it's stupid. Problem #3: the premise itself. Green Hornet and Kato's method of heroism is: pretend to be villains, i.e. murder people, blow stuff up, steal, deal drugs, and etc, and use this to get close to real bad guys, and beat them up too. Our heroes ladies and gentlemen.

Despite all these flaws, it should be ok, because it's a comedy right? Yes, but it is absolutely NOT ok, because it is even less funny than Due Date, which I thought nearly impossible. None of the jokes work, none of them are clever, and besides a cameo at the beginning by James Franco, I didn't even smile. Seth Rogen shtick does not equal competent superhero movie, which it tries to be along with the shtick. The characters are cliche, most of it makes little sense, and it's completely forgettable in every possible way. Not painfully bad, but you won't remember any of it after you see it.