The Green Hornet

. When his father dies, Britt suddenly finds himself trying to act like a grown up and take over his late father’s business. For this purpose he teams up with his father’s mechanic, Kato (Jay Chou), who not only makes awesome gadgets, but also drinks the only coffee Britt likes. Britt bonds with Kato through their mutual hatred of Mr. Reid and soon they engage in a “bromance,” the likes of which have become more and more common in recent films.

Rebuilding American Manhood: The Green Hornet Circa 2011

The big screen reboot of the Green Hornet provides another opportunity to bask in a heroic struggle against evil.  While the Green Hornet seems to fit neatly into the comic to film craze, the truth is more complex. The big screen outing of this classic pulp hero extends and progresses a message of masculinity, identity, and agency that predates the superhero comic.  More than escapism, the Green Hornet gives an U.S. audience nurtured on frontier imagery an example of individual agency that resonates with the effort to believe and achieve the American dream.  This message is amplified by the unlikely casting of Seth Rogen to play Britt Reid/Green Hornet.  Not seen as an action hero, his turn as the Green Hornet links contemporary circumstances to an imagined U.S. identity nurtured by a selective remembrance of the past.