Michael Gondry was announced as the films director. You might know Mr Gondry from his masterpiece Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. If not there are a few other films that he has directed with varrying levels of success. The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind and Block Party to name a few. If you were watching MTV when they still occasionally showed music videos you might have seen some of his video work. Most notably to me is the video for The White Stripes "Fell in Love with a Girl". No matter your opinion on Mr Gondry, it is undeniable he has a keen eye and visual style all to his own.
Then the new got even stranger with the casting of Seth Rogan as the character The Green Hornet. Funnyman extraordinaire of the Apatow cannon, at first glance he doesn't posses the typical superhero features. He is a dumpy, stoner in most of his films. I was still optimistic in the project at this point. I remembered what PT Anderson did with Punch Drunk Love and Adam Sandler. Then the casting of a mostly unknown Chinese guy for the role of Kato, the sidekick and secret weapon, was even more bizarre.
Once I saw the trailer for the film all my confidence subsided. First off, this film was being made during the period where every movie on the slab was getting a 3-D post conversion. Secondly, I think Gondry had one thing in mind for the film and the studio, having sunk a butt load of money into the project, wanted to make a movie that everyone could agree upon. They didn't want some visual savant making an artsy mind fu*k of a film out of their popcorn fodder. Which made me wonder what they were thinking by hiring Gondry in the first place.
Well I had a free REDBOX rental the other day and I caught up with this one. Mostly forgettable. There are a few moments of pure inspiration, but overall this movie wore me down.
The plot involves a publishing mogul dying and his freeloading son has to take over his fathers empire while living in his shadow. This man with the help of his industrious mechanic become the duo of the Green Lantern. The villian is played by Christopher Waltz. He is a self absorbed and insecure baddie. A recurring joke that fell with a thud every time they marched it out.
Rogan did what he could to salvage this thing. He natural timing and improved style makes for some "happy accidents", but beyond that the acting is pretty sour. Jay Chou as Kato still hasn't quite mastered the English language and that made it difficult / impossible to be able to riff with Rogan.
Like I said there are a few things worth noting in the movie. Most of them have something to do with Gondry. You can see the "Gondry touches" whenever they come up. But because of that it looks like the film is directed by two different people. Even Gondry takes his physical comedy and stunts too far by driving the front half of a car in a stunt that was supposed to be funny, but by this time the plot had completely fallen apart and it was clear that the only reason the good guys were doing this was so that Gondry could get his half-car idea in the movie.
I give The Green Hornet ★★1/2.
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