The Green Hornet (2011) Reviews

• Awful...

  jrargonaut2011-01-15

  It blows me away that people thought this movie was, "surprisingly good." It's not. It's bad. Really really bad. Lets put it this way, I have not walked out of a movie in who knows how long, since Ishtar? And this was that bad. Yes I did laugh a few times. But Seth Rogen, just plays himself as he has played that same character in dozens of other movies, except this time he has money, a side kick and weapons, devised by the sidekick. He plays Britt Read as a super loud and obnoxious character without being endearing. Reid's not smart or witty, but brash and annoying. Now one could say that there are these great fight scenes thanks to Kato (played by John Cho). But there so over the top special effects laden as to be completely unreal and not enjoyable. It's like the viewer is playing a video game when we see from Kato's perspective in a fight. The bad guy, has a bad guy insecurity complex with wanting to be perceive as scary, but has a name that nobody can pronounce and of course, owns and hide's out? at a cement/construction company. In the end, this movie is tedious, predictable, annoying, and worse, unenjoyably campy. Save yourself the money and god forbid the 17$ it costs to see it in 3d. Because 3d does nothing but make you angrier you spent that much more money on a waste of 2 hours.

• Really annoying film

  mattjohnson5322011-01-21

  The trailer got me all excited to watch this, but boooooy was I wrong. I was really hoping this was going to be like Iron Man but instead it felt like that darn Streetfighter film with Van Damme. Like Streetfighter, the movie felt really short, because there was not much of a plot. Heroes were generic and same with the villains. You see the bad guy in the beginning, but there wasn't much character development which made the villain very generic (which also made it obvious how the story is going to end). Kato's role was generic as well, like he was a typical Asian foreigner who does all the hard work but no play. Now I understand why Nicolas Cage turned down the role of the villain and same with Stephen Chow as Kato...lame. Besides the cheesy characters, the fight scenes were done in slow motion which made it seem fake and derivative of the Matrix, Seth Rogen (green hornet) was annoyingly loud most of the time, I didn't really understand what Jay Chou (Kato) was saying sometimes because of his heavy accent (which also made his acting kind of wooden), and Cameron Diaz felt like she was there just for star power for some reason. Even the action scenes (especially towards the end) was very boring, (believe it or not I actually fell asleep during the middle of an action scene), my brother tapped me on my shoulder to wake me up. There was nothing in this movie that was really interesting other than maybe the black beauty (green hornet's car) and maybe his hornet gun, and that's about it. And what was up with the 3- D? The glasses made the movie too dark and did nothing to the experience (I am getting really sick of 3-D).

• Don't waste your money..very minor spoilers..read this ..

  med77_992011-01-16

  I never watched episodes of the TV series, nor have i read any of the Green Hornet comics, though i doubt they were as lame and as silly as this new movie adaptation of Green Hornet. because of the big adds and billboards this movie has, i bought into that and decided to watch it tonight, and i wish i have not !! i was expecting a cool superhero, a crime fighter type of movie with a little a humor, but i was let down and disappointed. it had too much humor it turned into a full comedy, a cartoon. it became silly and ridiculous. the plot did not have anything special, just another average superhero plot with some really silly and lame parts " Spoiler AHEAD " >>> Hornet and Kato fighting over a girl !! how silly is that <<<< END Spoiler and i saw this in 3D, what a waste !!! nothing special about that except for small parts of the action scenes, not really worth the price. Some of the action scenes were cool, but not enough to save this movie from being a failure. Also, Cameron Diaz role was unnecessary and she was just one of the marketing aspects of this movie. the whole thing was a Hollywood joke, just too much Hollywood !! please don't buy into the big billboards and the charming adds, because this movie really isn't good. Im also surprised that some people are giving this good reviews, probably they are either 10 year old kids, or people who watched it drunk with a group of friends !

• A stinker : green hornet - dog poo cornet

  Anton_Ego2011-01-21

  Where do I start ? See how long we can take one joke and stomp it to death again and again and ( voice gradually fades ) ..Arrogant rich kid blundering through life ; Smart sidekick does everything for hero who doesn't get it .... The casting is so far off wack in this, Seth Rogen who is supposed to be core of this film is just not convincing either as rich playboy buffoon, or as a prospective crime fighter. He spends the whole film being unsure of what he is doing there. The arch villain even when he is shooting people is not the least scary. The humour is crass, directing appalling. The few decent actors Tom Wilkinson, Edward James Olmas just look embarrassed. I notice there is no DC logo at the beginning, and someone should have stopped this mess a long time before release. I guess having Mr Rogen as producer probably didn't help.Its not that I don't like these type of films; Iron Man is one of my all time favourites and Kick Ass does what it says on the tin. Really - buy yourself a tin of Dulux, a 4 inch brush,find a wall and slap it on. You'll find watching it dry a lot more fun..

• Stupidly Dumb!

  Reviewer52011-03-13

  I don't know why I went to see this, but I wish I could get my money back. Wow, this movie was really irritating me. First of all, being of an Asian descent myself, I expected Jay Chou's character Kato to be somewhat represented fairly (with respect to Bruce Lee), but most of the scenes have him doing all the hard work and not getting any action from the ladies. There was a brief scene with Cameron Diaz, but nothing happened. I find that kind of odd because Kato seems to be more of the superhero than Seth Rogen's character Britt Reid as The Green Hornet, and aren't superheroes suppose to get the ladies? There wasn't even a romance other than a brief flirtation in the office. No offense to Jay Chou fans, but his Asian accent wasn't very flattering either because his role is of a stereotypical Asian martial arts expert that drives Seth Rogen's character Britt Reid around as a chauffeur. And I understand that's how the story goes with the characters, but I find that kind of ironic because Bruce Lee tried to avoid the Asian stereotype with the heavy accent. Besides the stereotypical Asian accent, the fight scenes with Kato were interesting and pretty to look at, but the fancy special effects also made the martial arts seem a little fake. Instead of the real thing like Jackie Chan's or Jet Li's fight scenes, I felt like I was watching a video game of a player going through the motion. And I understand the fight was stylized to be funny, but it felt more campy than funny (like all that was missing were those big letters that said "POW!"). I also found Seth Rogen as The Green Hornet awkward to watch with his overacting, obnoxious personality (which wasn't very likable throughout the movie) and I understand he was trying to be funny too, but there wasn't anything really all that humorous, despite some funny moments. Overall, the film felt lazily produced and I agree with critics like Ebert, there wasn't a well structured plot. It's as if Rogen wrote the story to fit his type of characters that he portrays in every movie (which also kind of ruins it for the followers of the comic) and I understand it's just an adaptation but still, even a big time star like Cameron Diaz's role seemed to be in the movie just for her name only. And Christoph Waltz's portrayal of the villain wasn't very inspiring either (kind of a waste of his talent), not like Inglourious Basterds. Also, I question the morals of the story. I'm not sure what Rogen and Goldberg were thinking when they were developing the script considering The Green Hornet TV show in the 60's wouldn't have been popular without Bruce Lee. One of the themes about the movie was inequality between The Green Hornet and Kato, and when the movie ended, the two decided to be equal but it didn't seem like it. It felt like Kato is always going to be in the background doing all the hard work without getting any credit which is kind of a slap in the face to Bruce Lee because like I mentioned, he did not want to be portrayed as a stereotypical Asian man. That's one reason he left the U.S. for Hong Kong to pursue his passion for cinema. One last thing, the 3D glasses made the movie too dark, (it felt like a first shooter game) and did nothing to the experience.