Rating: 4/10
US Certificate: PG-13 UK Certificate: 12A
Is The Green Hornet a comedy? Is it an action-based comic book flick? It’s neither and it’s both. It’s nowhere near as funny as Kick-Ass and not as well executed as those at the serious end of the spectrum like The Dark Knight. In a saturated genre The Green Hornet is just going to be forgotten about in a matter of weeks because frankly, it’s a bit of a mess.
This latest caped-crusader effort follows Britt Reid (Rogen), a playboy who, after inheriting his late father’s newspaper, stops a robbery and decides to become a masked crime fighter. He teams up with Kato who doubles as both his driver and, conveniently, a martial arts expert, to battle with the obligatory evil madman Chudnofsky (Waltz). Oh, and Cameron Diaz sort of hangs around as the love interest.
On the whole, the action is quite weakly executed and the chase scenes are boring to the extent of me switching off and thinking about my dinner for swathes of the film. Additionally, the unnecessary addition of 3D is poorly done and feels tacked on which adds to a feeling of frustrated anger as you watch this substandard fare knowing you paid more than you should have.
The Green Hornet was made into a television mini series in the sixties starring none other than everyone’s favourite dead martial arts star Bruce Lee as Kato. Big shoes to fill indeed and Asian pop star Jay Chou is okay but not spectacular. It’s a shame that after Christoph Waltz’s Oscar-winning turn in Inglorious Basterds he has followed it up with this and Cameron Diaz is underused in what is essentially a cameo. The only asset that the movie has going for it is that it is occasionally mildly funny.
It's Got: Boring action, poor characterisation and dialogue, some decent humour
It Needs: To decide which side of comedy/serious it's on
Summary
Crossing The Green Hornet with Michael Gondry and Seth Rogen is exactly what you would get if you crossed a real hornet with the windscreen of a truck. A mess.