The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet may not have the crazy grit and "comic-book" flair of Kick-Ass, but it has an excellent bad guy (on a par with Mark Strong in Kick-Ass in terms of quality), precise Snyder-esque visuals, and Seth Rogen, who wrote a perfectly funny script and does a great job playing the main character just as comically as well. Michel Gondry's handwriting isn't lost in what for him is such an uncharacteristic genre, so all in all this is a popcorn film on a solid level. (19/01/2011)

I've been feeling lately that I’m giving harsher reviews. I guess it's because I've gotten a whiff of South Korean filmmaking. It's set the bar pretty high. But to the rating… I like the duo of Rogen and Chou, but it hasn’t got enough action for and action film and not funny enough for a comedy. Cameron Diaz played a completely unnecessary role. I guess this was just a name to catch moviegoers at the movies. The ending was pretty much a big "humbug", so 3.5 stars. (13/06/2011)

Strange, but it works. The best thing about Green Hornet is Christoph Waltz who you will just fall in love with. The action is choice, with Gondry often pulling extra treats out of the hat. In fact, I got what I expected. All right. Chudnofsky, kiss my ass. Put your lips to my ass and kiss it. French kiss it. Tickle it with your grey whiskers. I got bittersweet news for you. You're washed up. You're old. You're boring. You're not scary. You dress like shit. It's over for you, okay? That's the bitter news. Now the sweet news is: You can retire. You can go play golf, eat dinner at 3:00 in the afternoon, play with your grandkids, drink Metamucil, old people shit. Okay? Look at me. I got a name people can say. My name’s Danny Clear. I deal with crystal meth. People call me Crystal Clear. It’s easy. Check out my kick-ass hangout here. I got shit loads of glass everywhere. I got a see-through piano. Look at my boys. They're pimped out. We got Gucci, Armani, another Gucci, tailor-made. This is what you need to get to the top today. Not hard work. Not looking like Disco Santa Claus. You need charisma. You look like my Uncle Greg. Very nice guy, but, he's a dentist. Now consider this your retirement letter. Boom. It's over. See you way out. (03/04/2011)

Yup, the hillbilly rhetoric and horny teenager humor are more or less Rogen's trademark, which is certainly not a complaint by me. However, the script full of infantile humor is tamed by Gondry in the end. He put the perfect stamp of exaggeration on it and turned all that instantaneous crap into a perfect hit, which pleases especially during the action, when playfulness, original ideas, and wit are combined. No, this wasn't supposed to be the second Kick-Ass, but it definitely is the third Iron Man. (14/01/2011)

I must say that I definitely expected a bit more from this movie than what I ultimately got, but in the end, it's not that terrible. It's just not that exceptional either. Christoph Waltz is absolutely excellent, and it's great that he can make fun of himself a bit. Seth Rogen doesn't stand out in this and is rather annoying. I was quite surprised that Michel Gondry's direction is too much influenced by the genre. It resulted in a rather unremarkable work that will probably go unnoticed. (27/02/2014)