What if Batman was a total asshole? That's the question answered by Seth Rogen's recent update of the classic radio/TV hero, The Green Hornet . This time Britt Reid, the man behind the green mask, is the ne'er-do-well son of a crusading newspaper magnate. When the elder Reid dies suddenly, the lazy, shallow, vain, cowardly Britt escalates his punky behavior to outright crime, but when he unexpectedly winds up defending some innocent citizens, the adrenaline rush inspires him to become a vigilante.
But as he and we quickly discover, he has no idea what he's doing, and that ineptitude taints the entire movie. Co-scripted by star Rogen, Hornet tries and usually fails to be funny, drifting into silliness instead to the point that we can hardly believe what we're watching. The grander plot involves The Hornet and "executive associate" Kato (newcomer Jay Chou) posing as crooks in order to infiltrate the criminal syndicate, and the action could have been A-list-quality had the filmmakers chosen to hone this movie into a serious adventure, instead of a dude comedy with bullets and explosions.
And what is the wonderful director Michel Gondry doing here? Yes, he brings some stylish visuals (a split-screen sequence that continues to split and split uninterrupted is a standout), but speeding up the action to make it funnier? That was hokey when Benny Hill did it decades ago.
Perhaps you'll find Joe Lozito's review of The Green Hornet less stinging.
Shot on a combination of film and digital video formats, but not originally in 3D, The Green Hornet was later converted in post production for the stereoscopic effect we saw in the theaters and now on Blu-ray. It works, with minimal technical problems, but the illusion is neither particularly immersive nor impressive.
The 2.4:1 image is marked by frequent edge enhancement but is exceptionally sharp, with a distinctively warm palette dominated by yellows and browns. The darkness of current home 3D displays does not serve this movie well, as the ubiquitous blacks tend to blend into a muted, lifeless sea.
The soundtrack is presented in outstanding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, and for the 3D version it has even been "3D optimized," which I imagine means that it has been further tweaked to better complement the you-are-there visual elements. Indeed, the whizzing bullets and tumbling shell casings and deadly missiles fill the home theater magnificently, greatly enhancing the on-screen action. There's thunderous bass, particularly in the numerous explosions, while credibly active rears lend depth and detail, and the music is often mixed quite aggressively.
Rogen and Gondry are joined by producer Neal Moritz and co-writer Evan Goldberg for the somewhat chaotic audio commentary, rife with sincere self-criticism but also juicy tales such as how one Oscar winner (Christoph Waltz) came to replace another (Nicolas Cage) in the role of the bad guy. This appears on both the Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D discs. Exclusive to 3D are the Animated Storyboard Comparisons for seven scenes, scrolling through little motion effects on bottom of the screen while the corresponding movie clips play above. This is new and different, but oddly the two don't synch up all that well.
Disc Two, the 2D Blu-ray, offers much more. The interactive Green Hornet Cutting Room provides us with the raw materials (film clips, music and sound effects) to edit together our own video creations using the remote control, and even share our results online via a connected player. It's somewhat technical, but there is onscreen Help available.
There are also nine deleted scenes totaling 26-and-a-half minutes, and a gag reel. The half-dozen featurettes range from the predictable to the less-predictable, possibly the most interesting being "The Stunt Family Armstrong" about the different generations of the extended clan and their undisputed expertise at old-school mayhem. Both Blu-ray platters also support BD-Live. Disc Three serves up the movie on standard-definition DVD.
A big-screen Green Hornet had been in development for many years, at one point Kevin Smith was going to write and direct, so why the studio ultimately settled for this particular cast and crew is beyond me. Yes, it could have been worse, but it could have been much better too, if they'd kicked up the action and dialed down (and funnied up) the comedy. At least the disc sounds great.
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