The Green Hornet is a pretty decent action flick, but apart from that it isn't really anything to write home about. That said, it could have been a lot worse.
Ever heard of the Green Hornet before? No? Well neither had I, and I suspect not many other people would remember this one time comic and radio series from the 30’s to 50’s and television series from the 60’s. Don’t fear though, you don’t have to know the lineage to understand this latest Green Hornet comeback – He’s a vigilante, he has a cool car, stuff explodes. It doesn’t really get simpler than that and in the end its main flaw is that it doesn’t do much to break free from this simple mould.
The Green Hornet stars Seth Rogen as Britt Reid, who, as son to a rich newspaper mogul, James Reid (Tom Wilkinson) does little but party. However, after the death of his father, he is shoved into the limelight where he is forced to take charge of his father’s estate and his newspaper. Sounds like a coming of age story where the irksome son will slowly, over time, learn the error of his ways and come to understand his father and run his empire, is that it? Well...actually he becomes a masked crusader, masquerading as a bad guy to ‘save’ the world from crime – also he has a cool car. Throw in a side kick, Kato (Jay Chou), who actually does most of the kicking, an evil crime overlord in the form of Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), as well as a somewhat dodgy politician and a cameo from James Franco, and we have ourselves a generic action movie. Things will explode, people will get kicked in the face; there will be the heroic rise followed by the generic mid-plot strife which drives our heroes apart, though they will inevitably put aside their differences before the credits roll. You’ve seen it all before, but that doesn't mean it still isn’t somewhat enjoyable.
First off, the action, when it comes, is highly entertaining. There’s a good amount of both car on car action (that’s car on car-with-stupid-amount-of-crazy–stuff- like-machine-guns-in-it action) as well as physical fight scenes. What surprised me the most about these scenes is the reliance upon physical effects. A surprising amount of real things are constantly blowing up and numerous sets get absolutely trashed. All this, at least for me, is rather refreshing to see in a world which relies so heavily upon CGI for its action– CGI which quickly looks outdated and just isn’t as much fun as the real thing. That is not to say that CGI isn’t employed at all, and it is used nicely to counter balance these physical effects, especially for a number Kato’s rather over-the-top fight scenes. Overall, the action, though not revolutionary, is just plain fun.
Apart from the action, The Green Hornet was actually surprisingly funny, not so much in terms of gags, but more through individual performances. Seth Rogen is all up in his Seth Rogen Shtick as seen in all films with Seth Rogen in, and will certainly crack a smile and bring you to laugher a number of times. In terms of performances though, for me, the star was Christoph Waltz, who plays the main villain, Chudnofsky. Originally they were going to cast Nicolas Cage in this role, and I’m happy he pulled out because what Waltz brings to the character is a subtlety that Cage (god bless him), could never have carried out. This subtlety and subdued nature in the face of such crazy actions, and especially for a villain, is great to watch, especially when Chudnofsky gets subconscious about his non-threatening image, a fact that many a character points out, and changes him name to Bloodnofsky – ludicrous but entertaining (also he has a pistol with two barrels on it – what more do I need to say?) For these good performances though, there are a number of average ones. Jay Chou as Kato is good in the action scenes, and also in his relationship with Rogen’s character, but in the more serious scenes, he seems to miss a certain something. Cameron Diaz as Reid’s clever assistant and David Harbour as District Attorney Frank Scanlon portray their roles well, but with little panache.
In the end though, it is the plot that lets the film down. It is just too simple, sometimes contrived and a little silly in spots. It’s just everything you have seen before, the twist, when it comes (or if you can even really call it a twist), is all too obvious and a little contrived, a fact that the films compounds but carrying out a long montage sequence piecing all the different parts of the film together to explain what’s going on, an attempt seemingly to make good on the creation of a villain who had little part in the majority of the film. Overall though, it was never going to be an Oscar winner and for what it is, it’s enjoyable and will probably entertain most.
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