Grade: B
Director: Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind)
Writers: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Based on the characters created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker)
Starring: Seth Rogen as Britt Reid/The Green Hornet, Jay Chou as Kato, Christoph Waltz as Chudnofsky, Cameron Diaz as Lenore Case
I love Be Kind Rewind. I may have been the only one, save for A.O. Scott calling the movie “inviting, undemanding and altogether wonderful.” It is kind of funny, however, that those three phrases are phrases I would use to describe Be Kind Rewind writer/director Michel Gondry’s next project, The Green Hornet. The comedic nuances from BKR are clearly visible although it is not Gondry who writes the script, but star Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg, the duo known for writing the immensely popular films Pineapple Express and Superbad. Here the two guys tackle a superhero story in which the sidekick is more super than the hero and we are presented with a film that is equal parts “inviting, undemanding and altogether wonderful.”
Britt Reid (Rogen) is the son of newspaper publisher James Reid (Tom Wilkinson). Britt is a young playboy who became disinterested from his father and his father’s profession at an early age. But when his father dies from an allergic reaction to a bee sting, Britt is shaken. He meets up with his dad’s chauffeur and coffee maker Kato (Chou). After getting drunk and decapitating the elder Reid’s memorial statue, the two stop a mugging but are chased by the police. Britt then comes up with an idea to be superheroes who pose as bad guys and then take out the real bad guys, with the support of their supercar The Black Beauty. Meanwhile, city crime head Benjamin Chudnofsky (Waltz) is setting his sights on The Green Hornet in his quest for control of all crime in Los Angeles.
For me, a “B” grade means just above average. “B-” approaches the average and then “C+” is average. So there were things that were poor in quality about this movie, but there were just a few more that were great.
Let me first talk about the two main characters in The Green Hornet. I will take this first opportunity to confess that I have only seen four films in which Seth Rogen’s name is credited. Three of them are animated and the other is Step Brothers, which was very very forgettable and he had a cameo appearance. I loved his voice work in Monsters vs. Aliens; in fact, it’s probably why I love that movie so much. Anyways, let’s just say I am not very familiar with his work. He brought this goofiness to The Green Hornet character that I thought was clever and necessary. The numerous clever one-liners than not only he said but he co-wrote had me laughing out loud in my seat. His chemistry with Taiwanese singer-actor Chou was perfect. I, like many people probably, had never heard of Jay Chou, but he has sold 28 million music albums plus up to last year worldwide. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2006 for Curse of the Golden Flower, if that means anything. Despite not being able to understand some of the things he said, Chou’s Kato is a delightful sidekick that is the real hero. In fact, it is clever comedy that (this is not a spoiler here) during the climax of the film, Kato imitates being The Green Hornet. Rogen and Goldberg’s comedy ranges from the simple to the clever, providing a good enough mix to keep all who see interested and entertained. Gondry makes most of it come together and keeps the visual not only entertaining, but quite funny at parts and relevant.
What does not entertain definitely takes away from the movie though. Christoph Waltz was freakishly scary in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. I tremble at the mere potential that there were people like Waltz’s Colonel Hans Landa. He played that part to a T and was well-rewarded for it. So I was very excited to see him play a villainous role in this movie as well as take on parts in the other 2011 Hollywood films Water for Elephants opposite Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon and The Three Musketeers with Logan Lerman and Matthew Macfayden, among others. I certainly hope the writers of those movies gave him more to do than Rogen and Goldberg did here. What Tarantino obviously noticed about Waltz was that his actor’s talent deserved starring credence. While he is one of the headliners and does a nice job, Christoph Waltz is wasted in The Green Hornet. Yes, he is slightly funny in parts and the opening scene, which features a delightful cameo by 127 Hours star James Franco, is slightly intimidating. But his potential as a character is wasted. Cameron Diaz’s character, which is pretty much a researcher masquerading as a fake love interest, is super unnecessary. From the moment she showed up on screen, I felt that I was going to witness a throwaway performance. I was not surprised. Also, the 3D was quite underwhelming. But does that also come as a surprise?
Unfortunately what could have been a great comedy-superhero film, a “spoof” on the genre that was actually funny, was ruined by having your prototypical love interest and villain. That’s not saying that The Green Hornet wasn’t funny or entertaining; it was both those things to a high degree. But the combination of funny men Michel Gondry and Seth Rogen has much more potential than what was put on screen. So I walked out of this film very amused but also disappointed.
