I had no idea the newspaper business could be so lucrative. According to Hollywood, if you own your own newspaper in Los Angeles, you will be able to become a millionaire with your own fleet of vintage cars, many servants in a huge mansion and a lazy 30-year-old son that mooches off your hard work. With that ridiculous premise, the story line of "The Green Hornet" emerges and the rest of film feeds off of the improbable. And yes, I do understand that this is a superhero fantasy flick, but c'mon it has to have some realism to it.
The newspaper owner is James Reid (played by Tom Wilkinson). James is the demanding, overbearing father of the film's protagonist Britt Reid A.K.A. the Green Hornet (played by Seth Rogan). Britt is the 30-year-old man living in his father's pool house with no ambition in life other than to sleep with beautiful women and party nonstop (come to think of it, that is the ambition of most men). His father represents the hard work ethic the newspaper was founded on and he is outraged that his son is not contributing to society. James is writing articles on how society is being torn apart by the criminal underworld in L.A. while Britt is doing nothing but being a bum.
The mastermind behind all of Los Angeles' criminal activities is Chudnofsky (played by Oscar winner Christoph Waltz). Chudnofsky (whose name cannot be pronounced correctly by anyone in the film) is a villain who has great ambition that is followed up with very little character. And yes, we are supposed to believe all of Los Angeles' criminal activities can be controlled by one man. Do you know how many people live in Los Angeles? Again we are brought back to a ridiculous premise. The concept here is that one man rules all of the wrong doings in a city of millions. It would take an army of trained martial arts experts to stop this madness.
Enter Kato. Jay Chou plays Kato, The Green Hornet's sidekick. Is this the same character that was played by legendary martial arts expert Bruce Lee in the 1960s TV show now played by a Taiwanese pop star? Yep. I had to look Chou up on Wikipedia too. It seems that this guy who wrote and performed several pop music hits in the Pacific Rim is also qualified to fill Lee's shoes.
I will give credit where credit is due; Chou's action scenes are good with the help of the computer-generated images and the 3D. Oh no, I almost overlooked the fact that this was a 3D film; I forgot I was watching this film in 3D until the end when the credits were rolling in 3D animation. Do you know why I forgot it was in 3D? Because it wasn't good "Avatar" 3D, it was terrible "let's shoot this in 2D then if the budget allows, we'll add on 3D in post production" 3D.
Kato and Britt unite to cause some vandalism and in the process they stop a crime and become renegades themselves. They devise an idea to be vigilantes that help the citizens but are still wanted by the cops and the villains. With that reasoning the villains won't have any leverage against them if they think The Green Hornet is a villain himself. I am still trying to comprehend it myself.
Should you see this movie? Go ahead and wait for the DVD rental on this one. The story was lazy with no surprising twists (there was one twist but it wasn't surprising). Waltz was not used to his full capabilities. After seeing his performance in "Inglorious Basterds" we can expect fuller characters from him. The fight scenes (when done in proper lighting) were great. There were some memorable jokes but most of that humor was aimed a younger audience (ages 13-18). Rogan has a talent of yelling his lines and still making them come off as funny. However, continuing that method in every movie will result with him being less and less funny. Rogan will soon run the risk of being the next Jack Black by being a one dimensional funny man.
The newspaper owner is James Reid (played by Tom Wilkinson). James is the demanding, overbearing father of the film's protagonist Britt Reid A.K.A. the Green Hornet (played by Seth Rogan). Britt is the 30-year-old man living in his father's pool house with no ambition in life other than to sleep with beautiful women and party nonstop (come to think of it, that is the ambition of most men). His father represents the hard work ethic the newspaper was founded on and he is outraged that his son is not contributing to society. James is writing articles on how society is being torn apart by the criminal underworld in L.A. while Britt is doing nothing but being a bum.
The mastermind behind all of Los Angeles' criminal activities is Chudnofsky (played by Oscar winner Christoph Waltz). Chudnofsky (whose name cannot be pronounced correctly by anyone in the film) is a villain who has great ambition that is followed up with very little character. And yes, we are supposed to believe all of Los Angeles' criminal activities can be controlled by one man. Do you know how many people live in Los Angeles? Again we are brought back to a ridiculous premise. The concept here is that one man rules all of the wrong doings in a city of millions. It would take an army of trained martial arts experts to stop this madness.
Enter Kato. Jay Chou plays Kato, The Green Hornet's sidekick. Is this the same character that was played by legendary martial arts expert Bruce Lee in the 1960s TV show now played by a Taiwanese pop star? Yep. I had to look Chou up on Wikipedia too. It seems that this guy who wrote and performed several pop music hits in the Pacific Rim is also qualified to fill Lee's shoes.
I will give credit where credit is due; Chou's action scenes are good with the help of the computer-generated images and the 3D. Oh no, I almost overlooked the fact that this was a 3D film; I forgot I was watching this film in 3D until the end when the credits were rolling in 3D animation. Do you know why I forgot it was in 3D? Because it wasn't good "Avatar" 3D, it was terrible "let's shoot this in 2D then if the budget allows, we'll add on 3D in post production" 3D.
Kato and Britt unite to cause some vandalism and in the process they stop a crime and become renegades themselves. They devise an idea to be vigilantes that help the citizens but are still wanted by the cops and the villains. With that reasoning the villains won't have any leverage against them if they think The Green Hornet is a villain himself. I am still trying to comprehend it myself.
Should you see this movie? Go ahead and wait for the DVD rental on this one. The story was lazy with no surprising twists (there was one twist but it wasn't surprising). Waltz was not used to his full capabilities. After seeing his performance in "Inglorious Basterds" we can expect fuller characters from him. The fight scenes (when done in proper lighting) were great. There were some memorable jokes but most of that humor was aimed a younger audience (ages 13-18). Rogan has a talent of yelling his lines and still making them come off as funny. However, continuing that method in every movie will result with him being less and less funny. Rogan will soon run the risk of being the next Jack Black by being a one dimensional funny man.