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Movie review: Green Hornet
SETH ROGEN is wealthy slacker Britt Reid who teams up with Jay Chou (Kato) to form the Green Hornet team in the new film bearing that name and Rogen’s imagination.
Fans Will Love Seth Rogen’s ‘Green Hornet,— Not Too Much For Others
By Maggie Scott
It’s a minor point and a minor achievement. But the unique take that Seth Rogen has manages to pull off with his co-writing of the story for the new superhero movie, The Green Hornet, is that what transpires for the most part on screen is what a little boy might conjure up as he engages in innocent play with his toy action figure.
The opening scenes of a young boarding school miscreant—sent home for trying to take on a bully—clutching his dearly beloved toy Superman, are the key to the tone of the film. This would seem to be a no-brainer, given that Rogen the actor is pretty much typecast as the man-child with the frat boy mentality, and there is plenty of that in the character of spoiled, wealthy slacker, Britt Reid.
Rogen isn’t interested in doing a “serious” version of a superhero action film; but, it isn’t exactly a satirical free-for-all, either. Like many of his super hero brothers, Britt Reid takes a childhood trauma and makes it the basis of transformation into defender of the American Way of Life and of innocent victims of predatory criminals.
At first, it’s a way of blowing off youthful steam, a lark. And, it’s also the initial way he’s thumbing his nose at his late father’s opinion that he’s nothing but a failure. James Reid (Tom Wilkinson) was The Daily Sentinal’s tyrannical publisher, felled by a bee sting, buried with accolades and memorialized with a statue that his son promptly defaces.
Britt has never read a “complete edition of the paper.” He doesn’t know the first thing about running a business. All he knows is partying and being waited on hand and foot.
Every bleary morning-after hangover is medicated by a perfect cappuccino prepared by someone called Kato (Jay Chou). His late father’s mechanic not only makes the perfect cup of jo, but he’s also somewhat of an inventor and a bit of a martial arts master. His fighting prowess saves his employer one pankish evening when Britt confronts some thugs he hasn’t a prayer of beating.
Police mistake the duo for criminals, and Britt realizes he’s found his calling. While Britt masterminds their fights for justice, Kato calmly executes the hardware to execute the plans; and the blaring Sentinel headlines about the Green Hornet catch the disapproving eye of a villain called Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), who thought he had his thumb on all of L.A.’s criminal element.
Neutralizing the menace of Chudnofsky won’t be the Green Hornet’s finest hour. That will come when Britt stands up to the corrupt District Attorney (David Harbour) and discovers his manhood (aka, adulthood) has been validated, he’s found peace with his father, he can acknowledge Kato is his indispensably superior “executive associate” and accept the legacy his father has left him in the form of the Sentinel.
Clearly geared to his myriad fans, this is a vanity project for Rogen with not much to recommend it; least of all its 3-D format and thankless role for Cameron Diaz of brainy, bubbly Lenore Case. According to information found at IMDB, future superstar Bruce Lee got the 1966 TV series’ role of Kato because, as he said, he was “the only Asian actor who could pronounce Britt Reid.”
While I wouldn’t mind a more creatively thought out second installment from Rogen, and his fans will most certainly want more, most film critics have gone after Rogen’s effort with the zeal of pest exterminators, hoping this Green Hornet buzzes off into obscurity. Rated PG-13.
