The Green Hornet: Taking a fairly venerable property like the Green Hornet (he’s been around since the 1930’s in one media form or another) and “re-imagining” it to present day, even though the character is less known now with the general public, more often than not, ends up a giant poo-fest. “The Green Hornet” is more this sort of re-imagining than not. This revamp has been in development since the 1990‘s at least and with good reason. Seth Rogen is Britt Reid, rich playboy wastrel whose father runs a newspaper in Los Angeles. His father dies unexpectedly, leaving Britt his newspaper. Britt also meets his father’s mechanic Kato (Jay Shou), wiz-kid designer and martial artist, and Britt concocts the idea that they should fight crime by pretending to be bad guys to get closer to the real bad guys, in this case played by Christoph Waltz as Chudnofsky. Gratuitous fights, car chases, and indiscriminate violence ensues. Cameron Diaz and Edward James Olmos are here in support. The film has several problems: 1.) it’s just not that exciting; 2.) the main character is pretty much a giant, self-interested louse for the bulk of the movie, making him hard to root for (selfish rich louts are not an incredibly sympathetic stereotype), nor is the movie viewing public at large going to easily accept Rogen as “action hero“ given his past work (here, they take his strength - he‘s a comedian - and make sure he has as few yucks as possible, which is particularly sad as Rogen wrote the screenplay); 3.) the supporting cast is mostly wasted. On the bright side, Waltz is more entertaining than either of the leads, even though he’s a better actor than this script deserves and burns through a big chunk of his post-Oscar goodwill in the process. But there is nothing remarkable about the picture. Another disappointment from director Michel Gondry. He’s turning into a bit of a one-hit wonder (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”). Woodchuck sez, “Skip it.”
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