Review of The Green Hornet (2011) by Randy P — 21 Jun 2014

Childish, unfunny and self indulgent, The Green Hornet finds likeable star Seth Rogen at his unfunniest, alongside Michael Gondry's lousy direction. In this tame action comedy, Britt Reid and sidekick Kato turn into vigilante's to bring down a crime syndicate within their city, whilst trying to keep the name of the family newspaper business untarnished.

When I say self indulgent, I'm talking Seth Rogen's writing. It feels as if he's taken the easy way out, he is simply not acting here or playing a part, just being himself but even if this feature I'm finding it hard to enjoy his screen presence. The dialogue is crap and tedious, it feels like conversations from behind the scenes have been thrown into the final cut, I don't want to hear what the characters think of their own inventions and of each other, I want a story and proper dialogue exchange not friendly banter that Rogen throws in so he personally has fun, and we as viewers don't. What's even worse is that his co-star Jay Chou is about as charismatic as a bag of bricks, he also isn't acting. It's probably the most un-involving and lame on-screen pairing since Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon's duo in Taxi. The talented Cameron Diaz is wasted, Tom Wilkinson is surprisingly dull and predictable as Reid's Dad, the only lone spot is James Franco's cameo and Christoph Waltz's deluded bad guy performance.

When I say childish I'm talking Michael Gondry's direction, it is cheap and feels like a 10-year behind the camera and in the editing suite. Gondry resorts to pointless slow motion shots, really really bad stock feel soundtrack playing over the most useless of sequences. Listen to it when Britt and Kato are in the garage, it's atrocious, and worst of all the action is worse. The execution is stilted, Kato's slow motion heartbeat fights are tacky and yet again undermined of any quality by the cheap soundtrack. Gondry is useless at action sequences.

I actually enjoyed this back in the cinema, but it's aged horribly, every gag falls flat and it's embarrassing to watch.