The Unseen Movie Review - The Green Hornet

By Robert Dixter Jan 14, 2011, 15:15 GMT

Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), son and heir to Los Angeles\' largest newspaper fortune, is a rich, spoiled playboy who has been happy to maintain a direction-less existence. When his father James Reid (Tom Wilkinson) dies, Britt meets an impressive and resourceful company employee, Kato (Jay Chou). They realize that they have the resources to do something worthwhile with their lives and finally step out of James Reid\'s shadow. Kato builds the ...more

There are very few actors who can show up on the screen without any baggage. Most film stars remind the viewer of a previous performance or even their private lives. This explains why every time I see Wilford Brimley I’m reminded how much I like oatmeal. Most actors get in a groove and tend to make the same movie over and over again. We like them in a particular role and we accept them like that. Could Jason Statham ever play Hamlet? Well, definitely not in tights.

The same could be said of Seth Rogen. Rogen is the funny guy who lives next door, doesn’t have many prospects and likes to smoke weed, a lot of weed, more weed than Cheech and Chong at a High Times photo shoot.

This week I’m suddenly supposed to buy him as the crime fighting superhero Green Hornet? Can Seth put his roach down long enough to beat up bad guys? Granted he’s not wearing spandex, but will I buy him as a comic book hero?

It’s a stretch bigger than believing Eddie Murphy when he said he picked up a transvestite only to give her a ride. Seth has basically played the same character on screen since getting noticed in The 40 Year Old Virgin.

You can tell the studio is trying get away from Seth’s stoner image because the trailer is full of action. Action directed by Michel Gondry. This is when Scooby Doo pops up and says “Ruh?” Yes, Michel Gondry who is known for making quirky indie films like Human Nature, The Science of Sleep and the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Sunshine was one of those movies where everything just connected. It was a perfect story told in a perfect way with perfect actors. It also had no action in it at all, let alone comic book action. It did have some crazy ideas that even Woody Harrelson thought were far out.

But hiring indie directors for big budget comic book movies has worked in the past. Bryan Singer and Chris Nolan both got started in the indie world and went on to make X-Men and Batman.

The last question mark I have about this movie is will anyone care about the Green Hornet. The film is about a crime fighter that first appeared on radio in the 1930’s. He’s not as popular as Spider-Man or even Iron Man. Will people be drawn to the film because of the character? Probably not. He’s probably less known than Dick Tracy and we all remember how Frank Miller’s The Spirit turned out.

Maybe I’m wrong about Seth and Michel. Maybe the combo of the two of them will turn out a unique action film. The buzz on the film was originally pretty bad but that seemed to turn around after a few test screenings. If nothing else I’m definitely curious about Seth as a superhero and Michel as an action director. Maybe Seth can put down the bong long enough to make a pretty good comic book hero film.