The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet was reviewed pretty poorly when it came out, in fact it's currently holding a rating of 45% at rotten tomatoes and I'm sort of struggling to figure out why. Maybe it was because the movie changed hands so frequently during it's production (Kevin Smith and Stephen Chow were both attached to direct before Michel Gondry eventually brought the film to completion) that many critics walked in expecting a turkey, maybe it was part of a backlash against the increasingly ubiquitous Seth Rogen or maybe it was because the film bucks the current trend for dark and gritty takes on classic super-hero tales, instead going for campy humour, who knows? All I can say is that I thoroughly enjoyed the film.



The story centres around Brit Reid, millionaire playboy who (with assistance from his butler Kato) becomes a masked vigilante after the death of his father, the twist being that he decides to pose as a criminal in order to better infiltrate the LA underworld...

The film is a fun, silly action romp and succeeds for me on that level. The set-pieces are delightfully over the top and creative, which is to be expected from the director of 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' and 'The Science of Sleep'. I still enjoy Rogen's (PG rated in this case) schtick and think he plays a cocky buffoon rather well (possibly because he plays one in real life) and Jay Chou does a great job as Kato, stepping into some big shoes to fill (Bruce Lee's) and essentially stealing the film. On the negative side, I thought Cameron Diaz's character was underwritten, essentially being nothing more than a toy for the boys to fight over and (Oscar winner) Christoph Waltz was criminally underused as the film's... criminal.

Although certainly not Gondry or Rogen's best work, I think the Green Hornet is underrated and would recommend it to anyone looking to kill a couple of hours with a bucket of popcorn and a broad grin.