Review: THE GREEN HORNET in 3D

THE CAST
Seth Rogen - Britt Reid aka The Green Hornet
Jay Chou - Kato
Cameron Diaz - Lenore
Christoph Waltz - Chudnofsky
Edward James Olmos - Axford
Tom Wilkinson - James Reid

THE STORY
Britt Reid is the bored playboy son of a multi-millionaire media mogul, who begins fighting crime as the Green Hornet, after his father dies in suspicious circumstances. Teaming up with his late father's highly skilled car mechanic and coffee maker, Kato, he goes on a vigilante mission to clean up the streets and avenge his father's death.

THE STRENGTHS
There are some fun action set pieces, especially the fight scenes with Kato and they really make the most of the super slow motion or 'bullet time', made famous by The Matrix more than a decade ago. This means the director, Michel Gondry, allows you to actually see what's happening during these sequences, making them all the more enjoyable. Jay Chou puts in a solid and likeable performance as Kato. Impressive, when you consider this character was made famous onscreen by Bruce Lee, so there were some big shoes to fill, well probably not big shoes, but you know what I'm saying.  You should also look out for a great cameo by James Franco, which is one of the funniest parts of the film and makes you wish he was in it some more.

THE WEAKNESSES
I'm not a fan of 3D upscaling. If you want a film to be in 3D, shoot it in 3D, don't just do some half-baked 3D post-production on it because it doesn't work. The Green Hornet is the most recent proof of this, as wearing the glasses seemed pointless for about 107 of the 108 minute running time. Cameron Diaz was totally wasted in an underwritten role, that could've been played by any blonde female. Christophe Waltz is a superb actor, but now he knows what it was like for Halle berry after winning her Oscar and going on to make Catwoman! We know he can play a brilliant villain (Inglorious Basterds), but he seemed to struggle finding the balance between fear and funny, meaning some of the 'jokes' fell a bit flat.  Here then is the biggest problem with the film, it's over-reliance on the comedy. It felt like everyone was trying too hard, especially Seth Rogen, who seemed intent on trying to steal every scene. Don't get me wrong, Rogen is a funny guy, but it seemed everything else had to be secondary to his comedy performance. This meant it was difficult to actually care about what was going on in the rest of the movie. The chemistry between Rogen and Chou wasn't great either and occasionally came across like the least funny parts of a Chris Tucker/Jackie Chan Rush Hour movie. 

THE SUMMARY
If you're a big fan of Seth Logan you'll like this film, if you're not, you probably won't. As far as comic book movies go it isn't as bad as Daredevil, but it's nowhere near as good as Iron Man. It's tongue is firmly in it's cheek and it's a fairly entertaining ride, but suffers from too much 'comedy' and not enough decent action. 


MICHAEL'S MOVIE MARK    5/10