The Green Hornet

"So this is what you want out of your life? This gives you sense of fulfillment? I spend all night, writing about the corruption in this town, and you do nothing." Jack Reid (Tom Wilkinson) to his son, Britt (Green Hornet Seth Rogen) The Green Hornet is unlike most other comic-book-hero film adaptation: Seth Rogen's slacker Hornet is a dipstick without a clue about navigating the crime world while Kato ( pop star Jay Chou), his valet/associate, pretty much plays the Bruce Lee/kung-fu role as cool, even when he's goofing with the Hornet, which is most of the time. It is also a bromance with Cameron Diaz as Lenore Case, a love interest who helps us get over the homoerotic subtext.

Geeks know the Green Hornet franchise well: radio show from 1936 to 1952; TV show in 1966 by the producers of the campy Batman TV series, while Green Hornet's greatest asset was emerging martial arts star Bruce Lee. Writers Rogen and Evan Goldberg renew that 60's camp but with it seeming out of date, as if the parodic part of the genre cycle had long ago been played out and not welcome anymore. Of course, you could argue that Despicable Me, Kick Ass, Megamind, and Iron Man 2 last year took to parody, but each one of those is more successful at marrying the satire to the action than Green Hornet.

The personality of the film is split—it's either satire or action, Hornet or Kato. The film is a bit away from the accepted concepts of this sub-genre except in Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), the arch villain whose ironic reactions are an adept amalgam of menace and insouciance.

As he did in Inglorious Basterds, Waltz commands the screen with his charming menace. Actually he is equaled in the opening sequence, the best scene of the movie, when he faces off James Franco in a cameo, two hoods pissing about their territory. Franco is quite good as a semi-clueless drug lord.

Britt has daddy issues, specifically making something of his life while newspaper owner dad. Jack Reid (Tom Wilkinson), is a hero to the city. With dad's death, Britt decides to fight crime as the Green Hornet while letting everyone think he is a criminal (as in the original versions).

The gadgets are Bond-worthy, and Kato has the Bruce Lee charisma; it's just Rogen who seems out of place—not believable as a hero from beginning to end of the film. He can be amusing as a man-kid, but the geeks will never accept him as their hero.

The Green Hornet has lost its buzz.

Frankly, very few remakes are worth the time. I was expecting a disaster of a movie when I started watching, but was pleasantly surprised.

Seth Rogen is his usual self/character. He needs to learn more than one trick. I found his acting flat and his voice monotonous. So kudos to the screen and script writers for making it interesting enough that Mr Rogen's shortcomings are overcame.

Cameron Diaz.... Of the hundreds of actresses in the movie industry, why her? Is her character written in, in the last minute? Or is there some kind of compulsory need to add a female lead, so that the 2 male leads are not seen as homosexuals? She was refreshing a decade ago, now she is just.... boring and highly predictable.

Jay Chou. Being an Asian-Asian, I personally never like or dislike him. He has a zero-expression face, no matter what movie he is in. Putting him in the shoes of Bruce Lee is a tough order. Of all the characters in the movie, his is the most significant one. Ones with big expectations to fill, and I think he did alright. Do remember this is his first Hollywood movie. Other than that, I still say he can't really act.

Story/plot. The movie is fast pace enough that even the slow moments get by really fast. After a first 15 minutes or so, there is very little dull moments. One of the few things I disliked about this movie is the elevated level of gory deaths. Is it really necessary? As I said before the screen and script writers did a fantastic job in this adaptation.

For pure action entertainment, I'll give it 8 or 9 out of 10. However, overall it should only garner a 7, in my opinion.

This is a below average superhero movie where Seth Rogan and Jay Chou star in the movie update to the classic TV series starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee as the masked crime fighting team.

As with any superhero movie, there are plenty of fight scenes and alter-ego suspense. The special effects were quite good and the story is average, nothing too exciting or impressing about it. Jay Chou made a pretty good Kato with his serious and die hard attitude and his skillful martial arts moves. Seth Rogan made an awful Green Hornet - obnoxious, loud, annoying and unsympathetic. His gruff, raspy and incredibly irritating voice made me glad that Kato delivered him several good punches. Cameron Diaz looked like she was thrown in for good measure.

When you end up rooting against the lead superhero, there's really not much enjoyment in this movie.

Grade D-

"The Green Hornet" is your same old typical Hollywood remake. Non-stop explosions, CGI, shot in 3D. And it is also your same old typical Seth Rogen comedy. Seth Rogen acting like a retard and scattered raunchy humor. While "The Green Hornet" is a ridiculous movie it's also an enjoyable one. It's not painful to watch. The action scenes were awesome. It's not really as bad as anyone else is saying. "The Green Hornet" is completely fun and ridiculous.

The biggest problem here in "The Green Hornet" is Seth Rogen's portrayal of Britt Reid. He's not playing Green Hornet. He's just playing himself all the time with fighting. If he's not around in one scene the movie is quite serious. The slow-mo fights and the car chases were awesome. How about the 3D? The 3D was good especially when there are sparks coming out the screen.

The merit here is Jay Chou. He practically steals the show although he needs to improve his accent. Christoph Waltz is like playing Hans Landa again in a different manner. Cameron Diaz is too old for her role. Overall "The Green Hornet" is entertaining, hilarious and absurd. It's the same old Seth Rogen comedy with explosions. It's a good movie to watch... For a while.

Ever since I heard about "The Green Hornet", I expected a bad movie. It didn't seem like it would work...boy was I wrong. I saw a screening of this recently, and walked in with zero expectations, and walked out having laughed throughout the movie and REALLY enjoyed the action and chemistry between Rogen and Jay Chou. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg did a fantastic job crafting this script, which could have been truly horrible, into a fun ride.

The true star of the movie is Jay Chou, aka Kato. His accent was sometimes hard to interpret, but he was surprisingly funny, and Kato-vision (time slows when his heart starts pumping during fights) turned out pretty cool in 3-D.

Thank goodness Nic Cage walked away from this, and Christoph Waltz came in as the bad guy, because Christoph inhabited the role better than Nic could have. I enjoy Nic Cage, but he wouldn't of worked in this movie, and with that character. Nic Cage would have been too over the top, where as Christoph went a subtle route.

The movie isn't perfect, I didn't feel Cameron Diaz added anything to the movie expect being "the hot girl" to create a rift between guys, but if you're looking for a pure escapist fun ride, then look no further than "The Green Hornet."