2011: The Year in Film: Green Hornet Review.

Man, I suck at posting these reviews lately. I think I saw this one on January 21 if my calculations are correct, and here we are more than a month later and I'm finally posting my review, thereby completely eliminating the purpose for reviewing it at all.. but, c'est la vie. The Green Hornet is one of those flicks that's had a tumultuous trip to the screen after existing in various incarnations for something like 75 years via radio, comic books, tv series, movie shorts and so on. Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg wrote this one, and Rogen stars as partyboy heir to a media empire Britt Reid. Indie darling Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine, Science of Sleep) makes his transition into "big" action here, and the result is... interesting. There are some impressive names attached to this one in various supporting roles: Christoph Waltz as the crime lord of LA, Tom Wilkinson as Britt's father, James Reid, Cameron Diaz as Britt's secretary/crush and a personal favorite of mine, Admiral Adama himself, Edward James Olmos as longtime publisher and write hand man of James Reid's media magnate. This is a weird flick that couldn't quite decide what it wanted to be. Is it an action flick? Kind of. Is it a comedy? Kind of. It actually reminds me most of the Joel Schumacher Batman flicks.. and that's not really a compliment. There are some cool action scenes.. I think Gondry has potential there.. and there are some funny bits.. but overall the film feels scattershot and kind of pointless. Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou is interesting in the role made famous by Bruce Lee, as Britt's handyman/genius/badass Kato.

In this day and age when films like Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, V for Vendetta and the Ed Norton Hulk have shown that comic book movies can be adult and compelling with actual character development. In this atmosphere, this film seems like something that would have been made in the late 90's.. it's just not rooted in any semblance of reality and despite being rather violent and dark isn't gritty at all. Seth Rogen is pretty much constantly playing shades of Seth Rogen.. and that just doesn't work for a flick that's asking to be taken seriously. Wilkinson, Olmos, Diaz and Waltz try their damndest but ultimately can't hike this one beyond a less-funny Pineapple Express. James Franco does have a hilarious cameo that for me was the highlight of the whole flick. Yes, don't let your impression at the Oscars the other night ruin your impression of Mr. Franco, the dude is pretty damn talented.

Overall, the film looks great and there are some funny scenes and a couple of impressive action sequences, but the film feels like it belongs in 1997, not 2011. Mediocre at best - 6/10.