The Green Hornet (2011)
"Breaking the law to protect it."
Not Rated / Color / 119 Minutes

WARNING: THIS CAPSULE REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

I have to say my dear readers that 2011 has been a superb year in cinema thus far. As of my writing this review, I have yet to see one single film, foreign or domestic, indie or mainstream, that has managed to disappoint me. (Sure Season of the Witch was bad, but it was bad in all the right ways. Ron Perlman pretty much saves that particular film from being a complete waste of time.)

The same can sort of be said about the critically-panned The Green Hornet. This movie has traveled down one majorly bumpy road, starting back in 2008 when the film was in pre-production. Originally, Stephen Chow was going to be directing and co-starring as Kato, but he eventually dropped out of the project due to creative differences.

Dual hood-mounted miniguns = Instant male bonding!

And even after they finalized the casting and attached Michel Gondry as director, the film was plagued with more problems. From what I've gathered, the suits at Sony did not like what they saw during post-production of the film, as they felt it was "too campy." Sony's meddling pushed back The Green Hornet's release date, and the troubled production finally hit big screens across the nation on January 14th.

Though it had a great opening weekend, the film has been getting mercilessly attacked by various critics and I can't really figure out why. So I now take it upon myself to defend this movie, because unlike so many of my peers and fellow film scribes, I really enjoyed the antics of the Green Hornet and his sidekick (the real hero) Kato.

Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the son of newspaper magnate James Reid, who suddenly dies one night after succumbing to a hitherto unknown allergy to hornet stings. Britt isn't too forlorn over the death of his old man, as James was tough on his son, even at a young age. After his father's passing, Britt fires most of the staff at the Reid mansion, including Kato, who apparently makes such a damned good cup of coffee that Britt hires him back.

While talking with Kato, Britt discovers that they share a common bond, mainly a huge dislike for the late James Reid. While this makes Kato cool in Britt's book, his new mysterious Asian buddy turns out to be a gifted artist, mechanic, and inventor! (A "human Swiss army knife" if you will.)

After revealing his laundry list of awesome talents to Britt, the spoiled manchild decrees that they should become vigilantes and go cause some mischief. Their first act of defiance is to steal the head from the bronze memorial statue of James Reid, during which they have a battle with a street gang who tries to mug a young couple.

"And that's for trying to shoot me in my car!"

After Kato and (to a lesser exent) Britt beat down the numerous thugs, they get into a car chase with the police in the bulletproofed Black Beauty. Due to Kato's driving skills and the numerous gadgets and safety measures built into the car, our two heroes escape and begin to formulate a plan.

Britt declares that they should become a crime-fighting duo, but should pose as criminals to the public, reasoning that if they act as straight-up heroes, the bad guys will commit crimes in order to draw them out into the open. (Hmmm... kind of makes sense if you think about it.)

They make preperations, create masks and costumes, build up an awesome technological arsenal, and then begin fighting crime in their own unique fashion. At first, they have no idea what they are doing, but help soon arrives in the form of Britt's newly hired secretary/part-time criminologist, Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz in a pointless and poorly written role).

Britt and Kato quiz her "hypothetically" on a frequent basis, and follow her forecasts for what she believes the "Green Hornet" will mostly likely do next. Using Lenore's theories as a template, Britt and his kung-fu companion begin to put a dent in the city's crimewave, and run afoul of a crimelord named Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz).

Chudnofsky is going through a villainous midlife crisis and is constantly trying to reinvent himself, which he takes to ridiculous lengths after being bested time and again by the Green Hornet. Toward the end of the movie, Chudnofsky finally snaps and becomes "Bloodnofsky," a criminal mastermind dressed head-to-toe in red leather, with a gas mask and a double-barreled handgun!

Double your pleasure, double your fun, double your kill rate with a two-barreled gun!

As the film reaches its action-packed climax, Bloodofsky and his goons (along with a corrupt District Attorney named Scanlon) attempt to squash the Green Hornet once and for all. This is one of the big highlights of the film as Kato and Reid's suped-up "Black Beauty" takes a major beating.

The car is shot to hell during an epic chase, crashed through a news building, cut in half by an elevator, and yet it still works! (Thank God for front-wheel drive!) In the end, the good guys come out on top, and once again escape from the police. Britt does not get away unscathed however and receives a bullet to the shoulder, which leads to a hilarious joke at the very end of the movie.

The Green Hornet is a fun and action-packed movie that pays homage to its source material. It gives the old 1940's serial a nod, pokes fun at the 1966 TV series (where Kato was obviously the real hero, to the point where the show was called The Kato Show in some foreign countries), and even gives props to the hilariously absurd battles between Inspector Clousseau and his servant Cato Fong in the Pink Panther films.

While many were dreading Seth Rogen as the lead character, I fully embraced him as our generation's Britt Reid. He's spoiled, lazy, crass, obnoxious, and takes nothing seriously; he is truly the embodiment of today's youth. This is pretty much a result of his upbringing, as his father was always too busy to actually be a parent, unless Britt did something wrong or "disappointing." Due to his father's constant disapproval, Britt simply rebelled against James Reid and everything he stood for, even when he first decides to become a crimefighter.

Cameron Diaz in the most forgettable role of her career!

By the third act, Britt clearly begins to take on the responsibility of his heroic role after seeing the deadly effects of Chud... err... Bloodnofsky's anti-Green Hornet campaign on innocent civilians. (Plus it helps him come around when he discovers that his father was murdered and forced against his will to both overlook reports of growing crime in the city, and print the exact opposite in his newspaper.) Even when he fully accepts his duty, Britt's still as bumbling as ever, but thankfully his "sidekick" is almost always there to back him up.

Speaking of which, Kato is played by Taiwanese international superstar Jay Chou, whom I have previously seen in Kung-Fu Dunk and Curse of the Golden Flower. Chou portrays Kato as a stoic, but playful guy that has a dry wit, and the ability to think so quickly that time seemingly slows down for him. This skill allows him to target his (multiple) opponents' weaknesses in order to defeat them, and to constantly rescue Britt from being viciously beaten or murdered. I personally liked Jay Chou as Kato, but one has to wonder what the movie would've been like if Stephen Chow had stayed on the project.

As for Kato and Britt's camaraderie in the film, though many critics slammed it, I think the weird chemistry they have works. In the old TV show and serials, Kato was the faithful servant that always protected the fairly competent Britt Reid / Green Hornet. In this film, Kato goes from being a servant, to a friend, to an equal partner in the crimefighting biz with the frequently incompetent Britt Reid. One of the best parts in the film is when Kato and Britt duke it out during an argument over who the key member of their team is.

Britt is fully convinced that he's the backbone of their dynamic duo, when really it is Kato who comes up with the Green Hornet moniker, creates the weapons and gadgets, maintains the vehicles, and constantly saves Britt's clumsy ass. Eventually Britt realizes he is wrong (in the midst of a deadly car chase of course), and the two heroes make ammends and take the fight to the bad guys over the course of several entertaining action setpieces.

"We got the tools! We got the talent!"

But a hero is only as good as his villain, and that is where this film falters a bit. Academy Award Winner, Christoph Waltz fails to impress as Britt Reid's nemesis Chudnofsky. While I got a kick out of the fact that Chudnofsky is always attempting to reinvent himself to become a more contemporary criminal mastermind, it is really the only thing that sets him apart from any other generic movie villain.

Now don't get me wrong, Waltz is fantastic in this role, but Chudnofsky is a far cry from the awesomness of Hans Landa. (Yeah, I know, it isn't fair to compare these two roles, but I can't help it. Waltz really set the bar high when he did Inglourious Basterds.) Shared blame for a lackluster villain falls squarely on the heads of star and screenwriter Seth Rogen, and fellow screenwriter Evan Goldberg who could (and should) have made the character of Chudnofsky far more interesting.

Other than that though, I can't really complain much about this film, especially when my best friend's grandfather, a fan of the original Green Hornet radio program, had such a blast watching it. While I'm sure many purists thumbed their nose at this modern take on the classic pulp hero, I was extremely happy to be in the company of one old school fan who truly appreciated the new Green Hornet for what it was.

I very much enjoyed The Green Hornet and wholeheartedly endorse it. It is a great popcorn flick that is head and shoulders above most films that based on pulp and comic strip heroes, (e.g. The Shadow, The Spirit, The Phantom) if only because this incarnation of Britt Reid isn't a cut-and-paste hero. He's got issues, he's playing the good guy for all for the wrong reasons, but deep down, he's got a good heart and is just trying to find his place in the world.

For entertaining me thoroughly (both times I went to see it) and bringing back a classic hero in style, I gladly award this "bro-mantic" superhero comedy:


- THREE AND-A-HALF 'RADS' -

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