Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Day 61: "I'm Indy and you're Short Round!"

When Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg sat down to write the screenplay for The Green Hornet, it was pretty obvious that the had the '60's TV show in mind.  I was a fan of the show in my youth, as it was very similar to Batman, which was also a blast.  What they finished with was an updated, "hipper" version of that show.  I wasn't really expecting a lot from this movie, but I have to admit to being mildly entertained by the camp factor and that Kato is still a badass (physically and intellectually) after all this time.  Definitely not your standard superhero movie, Green Hornet seems to take pride in the fact that is is a B-grade hero story.  After his immensely wealthy, estranged father is murdered, Britt Reid takes up his mantle as head of The Daily Sentinel, an L.A. newspaper.  Completely unfit for the position, Britt and his father's old mechanic, Kato, spend time "bonding" (read: drinking) and decide to do the masked vigilante thing.  Chaos ensues, and bad guys get annihilated.  Very formulaic and predictable, i still kind of enjoyed it.  I'm not sure if this is due to the rash of stinkers I have seen lately, but I'll take it for what it's worth.

Seth Rogen does his usual slacker performance, nothing special here, but Jay Chou (Kato) was a lot of fun to watch.  Unfortunately, with his heavy accent, his lines are sometimes hard to distinguish, but his action scenes more than made up for this drawback.  Cameron Diaz, Tom Wilkinson, and Christopher Waltz round out the cast, with Waltz delivering a great, hammy performance as Chudnofsky (the main villain).

Not Superman, and a long way from the horrendous '80's Captain America, The Green Hornet enters itself into the plethora of superhero movies at just above the midway point. 6.25/10.

OK, tomorrow I'll be putting up the scores for the last month, with my PICK and STINKER of the month highlighted.  So 2 posts, then.  See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!

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