Review: The Green Hornet

Here's a movie that should have been a surefire hit for me. It has Seth Rogen, who I love (it's also written by him and Evan Goldberg). It's a Superhero movie, which is cool. And it's directed by Michel Gondry, who directed one of my all-time favorite films - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I was stoked for this film!

Hornet runs into a lot of problems. First of all, it's an action-comedy. Action comedies can struggle to find a nice mix between being funny and action packed, while also having some heart to it that people can relate to. Just look at Rush Hour 3, a prime example of how bad an action comedy can go - ironically enough, the last good action comedy, Pineapple Express starred Rogen and was written by him and Goldberg as well.

The main problem with this movie is that you don't really care too much. Rogen's character is not really likable. He's funny enough, but he's just not relatable to. He's an overprivileged party animal that wants to go beat up bad guys. C'mon Seth, I want to love you in every movie you're in! If that weren't enough, the story is pretty bland and silly. Not silly in a good way, I felt the same way about Be Kind Rewind, whoch Gondry also directed - some of the humor here is just weird and painful (the French and their sense of humor...).

The good of this movie would have to be the action, Gondry directs some pretty cool fight scenes starring Green Hornet's sidekick, Kato (played by Jay Chou). He kicks some major, stylish butt - in slow motion, and in 3D! (if you're into this 3D craze, which I'm not, but I found myself thinking some of those shots would have looked cool in 3D.) Gondry has a sense for the artistic, which pays off in a few scenes. Rogen will probably make you laugh some, but it just doesn't fulfill the ridiculously high hopes I had for it.

Let's Roll, Kato!

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