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When the news spread that director Michel Gondry (.php>Be Kind, Rewind, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and slacker funnyman Seth Rogen were teaming up to bring legendary masked crime fighter The Green Hornet to theaters, I probably wasn’t the only one who was more than just slightly perplexed by the combination. An artsy director making a superhero movie starring a guy who’s spent his career playing dim-witted stoners? It just didn’t make any sense. And now, after I’ve seen it…well…it still doesn’t make any sense.
A slimmed-down Rogen stars as Britt Reid, the spoiled, party-boy son of legendary Los Angeles newspaperman James Reid (Tom Wilkinson). When his father dies, Britt inherits his empire—but he isn’t interested in newspapers. Still resentful of his father’s stern and critical demeanor, Britt coaxes employee Kato (Jay Chou) to join him in vandalizing his father’s newly-erected statue. In the process, though, they manage to prevent a crime—which gives Britt an idea.
With plenty of help from engineering genius and martial arts expert Kato, Britt becomes The Green Hornet—a masked man who poses as a villain while acting like a hero. But while the two amateur crime fighters set out to rid the city of bad guys, they attract the attention of crime boss Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), who decides to do away with the competition.
It may be a superhero adventure (made by a typically artsy director), but this kooky crime thriller was custom-made for Seth Rogen’s fans. There’s plenty of crazy action, complete with cool gadgets and flashy effects. And, since Rogen and his screenwriting partner, Evan Goldberg (Superbad, Pineapple Express), also wrote the script, it’s loaded with geeky slacker comedy.
Unfortunately, though, it’s also loaded with unlikeable characters and irritating plotlines—and, for the most part, that geeky slacker comedy feels completely out of place. Rogen’s Britt is far from the ideal hero. He isn’t strong or courageous or honorable; he’s a spoiled-rotten rich kid who becomes a hero mostly for the cars, the gadgets, and the adrenaline rush. And, to make matters worse, he isn’t even any good at it. He’s a bumbling idiot who lets Kato do all the work—and he and his bloated ego then proceed to take all of the credit (which leads to an exhausting amount of bickering between the two of them). Britt is an infuriating character, made all the more frustrating by his ridiculous slapstick antics—and I suspect that superhero purists and fans of the real Green Hornet story will be mortified by Rogen’s portrayal.
Still, that’s not to say that The Green Hornet is a total loss. It does have its moments of brilliance—usually involving either Chou (who’s absolutely, Bruce-Lee awesome) or Waltz (who, once again, plays the perfect villain). In fact, without Rogen, it could have been a cool superhero adventure with just the right touch of humor—but, instead, its incompatible star makes it little more than an awkward slacker comedy with just a touch of crime-fighting on the side.
