Green Hornet Kicks Ass!

Like everybody else I've been waiting for this Seth Rogen comic book adaption of The Green Hornet for two year.  Well actually every Seth Rogen fan has been waiting for this moive for two years. Fanboys weren't actually howding Hollywood for a big screen version of the 40's comic book/60's tv show. However when news broke that Rogen was to play the lead alot to people were skeptical, but interested. Rogen has made his name as the loveble slacker/baby daddy in Knocked Up and consitanty worked since exclusively in comedies and has lended his gruf  voice to animation features such as Kung Fu Panda.  So to be completely honest I was concerned that Rogen, a chubby comedian was set to play a action hero. Watching a fat guy run round is only funny for a while. So how did he solve this issue? He lost some  lbs and made the character......Seth Rogen....ish.

In the modern abaption Britt Reed/ The Green Hornet is a spoiled rich kid in his early 20's thats never work a day in his life and party 24/7 to the shagrin of his father, respectable newspaper owner James Ried, played by the always comanding Tim Wilkinson. When his father dies suddenly from a bee sting Brit inherts the newspaper and a menchanic/gormet coffee maker named Kato. Playing the character Bruce Lee  made famous or made him famous, is  Jay Chou. Kato is  a materal art expert/mechanic/gadgets inventor. On a night out vandalizing his dad statue, Brit and Kato get involved in a street fight with group of would be attackers. High on they’re victory Brit decided that they should continue beating up bad guys under the front of being bad guy and use his newspaper to up they’re profile . Cut to montage of Kato supping up The Black Beauty and making new devices. Then cut to Montague of The Green Hornet and Kato kicking ass and the crime boss Chudnofsky, Christopher Waltz, reacting to them messing up his business.

Rogen being the title character is in 95% of the scenes and of course uses his average joe comedic charm as his most lethal weapon even when hes in the middle of taking down a drug lab. Kato is also silent, and very soft spoken speaking with a sometime hard to understand Chinese accent. The bromance between Brit and Kato is centerpiece to the whole film. But unlike most action flim the hero and “side kick” actually fight about they're roles, escalating when Brit a ego manic to begin with, gets jealous of Kato relationship with his secretary, Lenore, played by Cameron Diaz, whom they both like. Making matter worse the media, including Brit’s own paper, and villains seem to think Kato is just the driver. The power struggle between the two reached a point of a fight reminiscent of Rogens fight with Danny Mcbride in Pineapple Express. Unfortunately, this fight we see coming a mile away, along with the out come.

 Despite the cartoonish 3^rd act and the truly unnecessary 3-D affect which was for the most part unnoticeable, this popcorn movie delivered laughs and a message of media responsibility to report the truth. Even thou Brit is hypocrite, using his paper to make The Green Hornet a bad ass. Plus, Kato slowmo vision was definitely cool, giving the matrix bullet time effect a little new spin. Moreover, Chou could have had more to do in general, but did make the most out of his screen time. But not withstanding Rogen dominating every scene  its clear Kato is the man and The Green Hornet is mascot of the duo.