Monday, January 17, 2011

CineMATTics: The Green Hornet Review

Green Hornet? More like Green HorNOT!

First of all, this movie has a pretty good cast, a cool director, and hilarious screenwriters. So it should be awesome, right?

I actually like the casting of Seth Rogan (Hollywood’s favorite fatshit funnyman) as the titular character of The Green Hornet. Cameron "Take Me or Leave Me" Diaz, AKA Cameron “What Am I Doing in this Movie?” Diaz, also stars as Lenore Case, the sassy secretary with a... well I really wanted to say, "heart of gold," but her heart, unfortunately, is only made of blood and tissue, or she might've had some sort of value in this movie. Christoph Waltz, who I (along with every critic in the world) thought was excellent in Inglorious Basterds, plays the villainous Chudnofsky. I was wondering what his next big acting choice would be after the fame he achieved at the Oscars last year. Apparently, that choice was to play a forgettable villain in a dumb action comedy.

Michel Gondry, the artsy-fartsy director behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, seemingly stepped out of his comfort zone to direct this big budget, would-be blockbuster. I don’t know why the producers thought he could direct a huge action movie, after mostly directing bizarre music videos and quirky love stories. He did an okay job, but there was nothing spectacular here.

Overall, the movie was not great. It had plenty of action, but it was too violent to match the comedic tone of the movie, and not violent enough to be over-the-top fun/campy. I could've also used more neat martial arts from Kato, played by Jay Chau. Also, the dialogue and humorous situations were not what you’d expect from Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg, the screenwriter’s of Pineapple Express and Superbad. The movie had its funny moments, but the constant banter between Seth Rogan and Jay Chau was tedious more often than it was witty or fun. The pieces just didn’t all fit together to make a good movie.

Fans of Seth Rogan won't like it. Fans of Michel Gondry won't like it. Fans of the original Green Hornet series probably won't like it either, because they're dead. Who will like it? People who are in the mood for a dumb action comedy.

Final Grade: C -

If you ARE going to watch it:
Recomended Format: 2D Matinee or wait for Home Video. The 3D adds very little to the film.
Recomended Snack: Twizzlers and Coke
Recomended booze to smuggle into the theater: A water bottle full of vodka.

No comments:

Post a Comment