The Green Hornet Review

The movie version of “The Green Hornet” answers one of life’s most important questions: “What if an idiot tried to be a superhero?”

Obviously, we’ve seen plenty of non-superpowered folks slap on a costume and try to battle the forces of evil, but I can’t really think of another big-screen hero who has done it quite like Seth Rogen’s Britt Reid.

Sure, Reid is mega-rich dude just like Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, but he’s not nearly smart enough to build Iron Man’s suit and he’s not a muscular genius like Batman. Blankman may have been a scrawny, super-smart nerd, but he was a SUPER-SMART nerd nonetheless. Kick-Ass didn’t have any particularly special physical attributes either, but he wasn’t exactly a moron — he was just a painfully average kid.

Even The Green Hornet himself was played relatively straight by Van Williams in the 1960’s TV show (co-starring Bruce Lee).

Still, in a world with more comic book/superhero movies than you can count, that’ precisely what makes the new “Green Hornet” stand out.

Rogen plays the irresponsible Britt Reid, who inherits his father’s (Tom Wilkinson) publishing company after the elder Reid dies. More importantly, he inherits his father’s coffee maker/mechanic Kato (Taiwanese singer Jay Chou), who introduces Britt to some of his father’s niftier cars, including the Black Beauty.

After the two foil a robbery, they decide to use their considerable resources to fight crime by posing as criminals — which puts them at odds with Chudnofsky (Oscar winner Christoph Waltz), the city’s reigning crime lord — and by gaining insight into the criminal mind with help from Britt’s bright secretary Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz).

You can tell just from those last two paragraphs — a comedian here, an Oscar winner there, a Taiwanese pop star over here — that there’s a LOT for director Michel Gondry to try to cobble together and make into something coherent. Indeed, the movie isn’t always 100% tonally consistent as it ping-pongs from new millennium dude humor to old-fashioned superhero yarn.

In fact, if you don’t like Seth Rogen, you’re probably going to hate “The Green Hornet.” Fortunately, I really like Seth Rogen, so I’m perfectly ok with him basically hijacking “The Green Hornet” mythology (not exactly a sacred property) to suit his comedic rhythm. (The only part I don’t understand is why Rogen made such a big deal out of losing all that weight — other than to get healthier, of course — since Chou winds up handling almost all the action.)

Rogen’s fingerprints are all over the movie — he co-wrote it with Evan Goldberg — and Gondry smartly steps back and allows the actor to do his thing, which is usually heavy on bromantic comedy. He has excellent chemistry with Chou, a cool customer who, despite his sometimes-broken English, pretty much winds up stealing the movie.

Chou has competition in the movie thievery department from Waltz, who realizes he’s in a silly movie and decides to have a blast with his sensitive super-villain. (Waltz’s first scene opposite a familiar star making a fun cameo might be the movie’s best.)

I’m still not really sure why Cameron Diaz was in this movie. Her character seems wrong and too old to be a love interest for Britt and Kato (and Rogen amusingly riffs on this at one point), but it mostly seemed like they just wanted a recognizable female star in this thing, no matter how little there was for her to do.

Then again, this “Green Hornet” is really a big-budget vehicle for Rogen’s brand of humor. (With an assist from some cool visual tricks, courtesy of Gondry.) Fortunately, I happen to be a fan of that particular brand.

The Green Hornet…B+