First and foremost I do enjoy Seth Rogan. I think he's a great comedic actor and if this was the type of Green Hornet movie I was looking for he would have been a great choice.
The movie was way to camp for me. Now, it wasn't original TV Batman campy...but it wasn't a straight up comic book action film either.
The only article that I read about the movie going in was an interview with Rogen who said that he based his pre-green hornet Britt on a male Paris Hilton. That alone should have sent off warning bells.
I have no problems with a comedic injection to my comic book/super hero movies. Ironman was a perfect mix in my mind of a film that both rocked and didn't take itself too seriously at the same time.
While I didn't care much for Rogan as Britt...Jay Chou as Kato was a fantastic choice. He has the skills to do justice to a part that is owned by Bruce Lee (we even get a nice nod to Bruce when Britt is reviewing Kato's sketch book). For a 30 year old virtually unknown actor he was amazing. In fact I kinda wish they'd gone that route with the Britt Reid character.
Chou, to me, mixes the bad ass style of Bruce Lee and Jet Li with a good comedic timing a la Jackie Chan. Not a bad mix and something that Hollywood is needing right now...a new Asian martial arts star!
Cameron Diaz is waisted in a throw away role that really could have been filled with by anyone. Tom Wilkenson is great as always even given the fact that his role is really only to show up and die!
For me the star was Chou...but in a close second was Academy Award Winner Christopher Waltz.
Right from his first appearance until the end of the movie Waltz makes the character of Chudnofsky his own. You know that being a comic book bad guy he's going to be a little unhinged anyway. But, he does boarder line bat shit crazy like the king himself...Nic Cage!!
Style wise the movie looked good. Michael Gondry is a director that I enjoy usually. Be Kind Rewind was fun and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was AMAZING. Green Hornet was just okay for me. It didn't bend or break any rules but it was still a clean looking film.
It had good action, a decent pace, and good actors. Overall it wasn't a bad movie. I think a totally unknown cast would have been better. It would have been a little less prone to the knee jerk reaction of some people (myself included).
In the end when the credits rolled I didn't find myself looking forward to a sequel. Granted if they do one I will probably check it out because I like the character...but I won't be mad if it's a long time until we see Britt, Kato and the Black Beauty on screen again.
If forced to give it a grade I'd say a solid: C
No comments:
Post a Comment