THE GREEN HORNET
RYAN: I was not that interested in seeing The Green Hornet because I wasn’t feeling a superhero comedy from the likes of Seth Rogen; but I happily stand corrected.
CAROLINE: This movie is much better than I anticipated, though its first half is infinitely better than its second. But I was surprised at how much I enjoyed myself.
RYAN: I have a prejudice that a superhero needs to be a hot, buff dude, and we all know Seth Rogen is hardly that. But The Green Hornet himself is more of a vigilante than a superhero, so it actually works.
CAROLINE: Yeah, this movie reminded me of Kick-Ass in a lot of ways. He’s basically just a regular guy who starts to fight crime; he doesn’t get bitten by a radioactive spider or anything like that. And the real “superhero” of the movie, if there is one, is Kato the sidekick, who’s played by the Taiwanese pop star, Jay Chou. He was cute.
RYAN: But he can’t act, let’s be honest.
CAROLINE: Well, he can barely speak English but they did that on purpose. It’s part of his charm. But his character is totally bad ass and awesome. He makes the coolest inventions.
RYAN: There’s also a great cameo early in the film from James Franco.
CAROLINE: And I thoroughly enjoyed Christoph Waltz, who plays the villain. This is the first movie we’ve seen him in since his Oscar winning role in Inglourious Basterds. He’s great, albeit kind of short.
RYAN: I like him too, though they did something to his teeth that grossed me out. He does a great job of playing despicable. Then there’s Cameron Diaz who’s terribly miscast as Seth Rogen’s assistant. This is probably the worst casting since Katie Holmes in Batman Begins.
CAROLINE: They must have intended Cameron to be the sexy Pepper Potts type that Gwyneth Paltrow is in the Iron Man movies, but it so didn’t work. Cameron is too old for the role. I love her, and she does a fine enough job, but she’s completely wasted in this. This role did not need to go to a huge A-lister; it should have gone to some up-and-coming younger type.
RYAN: The 3D in this movie isn’t remarkable, but it’s pretty good. I couldn’t tell if it was shot in 3D or converted after the fact, but I think it’s the latter.
CAROLINE: Hardly any of the movie even looked like 3D to me. Only a few action scenes. I was a little underwhelmed by that.
RYAN: But the action itself is great. I’m impressed any time I see an original action sequence, and there was some really cool stuff in this movie.
CAROLINE: Agreed. The first two action sequences blew me away and made me really like the movie. But the final action sequence was a little drawn out for me. It felt a little silly and over-the-top. The whole second half of the movie dragged for me. It got bogged down by the plot, and I just wasn’t that interested. Overall, I enjoyed myself throughout, but they definitely could have shaved it down a bit.
— BOTTOM LINE —
RYAN: My expectations for this movie were very low but I wound up liking it, partially because it isn’t a traditional superhero movie. It’s more of a buddy comedy with great action. I was entertained the whole time.
CAROLINE: It has some laugh-out-loud funny moments, but not at the expense of the action. Guys and girls alike will enjoy this movie. Seth Rogen has the capacity to annoy me, but he’s kind of meant to be annoying in this, so it works. Like I said, I didn’t like the second half as much, but overall it’s entertaining and fun and I was surprised at how much I liked it. A pretty solid January release.
— RATING —
