Sunday 30 January 2011

The Green Hornet


The first of several films released early this year with an unremarkable trailer. But one which I knew I'd end up seeing anyway, mainly because my only male cinema buddy would probably want to see it. Unfortunately the film was so bad that just over a week later I couldn't even remember seeing it! 

The story centers on Britt Reid (Seth Rogan), the son of a Los Angeles newspaper publisher who has always been a disappointment to his father James (Tom Wilkinson). Britt lives his life as he pleases, spending lots of daddy's money as he goes. He receives a wake up call in the form of his father's death. A childish prank leads Britt to discover - and then stop - a mugging with the help of one of his father's former employee's Kato (Jay Chou).
With Kato in tow the two devise a plan to become crime fighting duo "The Green Hornet". Along with this decision to fight crime, Britt decides to become more respectable and get a job. So he starts work at his father's newspaper by taking over as publisher. He hires a new secretary Lenore (Cameron Diaz) and asks her to investigate the recent activities of "The Green Hornet".

I spent most of the movie being irritated by Seth Rogan. I've seen him in other mediocre movies but never realised before that he only ever seems to play variations of himself. I read an interview with him recently in which he struck me as quite an arrogant man who's been very lucky to have gotten as far in Hollywood as he has. The other characters in the film are almost as two dimensional as his "character" is. Strange considering the film is in 3D. 

The remaining parts of the movie, when I wasn't being annoyed by Seth Rogan, I was wondering what possessed Cameron Diaz to agree to being in it. Her role was tiny and literally could have been played by anyone. I was hoping she would save the movie as she has good comic timing and is not exactly the type of person who's hard to watch. But even she couldn't do anything with such a lifeless character who held so little screen time.

I have not been this disappointed by a movie since The Last Airbender, and that one I did actually want to see! Not worth the ticket fair, let alone the extra cost for the bad 3D. 2 out of 10 (for James Franco's cameo).



Viewing Date - 16th January 2011
UK Release Date - 14th January 2011

 Cast Overview:
Seth Rogan ~ Britt Reid/The Green Hornet
Jay Chou ~ Kato
Cameron Diaz ~ Lenore Case
Tom Wilkinson ~ James Reid
Christoph Waltz ~ Chudnofsky/Bloodnofsky
Edward Furlong ~ Tupper
James Franco ~ Danny Crystal Cleer

Director ~ Michel Gondry
Writer(s) ~ Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg
Writing Credit for George W Trendle for radio series 'The Green Hornet'

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