Movie Review: THE GREEN HORNET

The director of The Green Hornet, Michael Gondry, is an excellent filmmaker, having made one of my favorite movies Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  I am also a fan of both Seth Rogen (Knocked Up) and Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds).  I really like quite a few superhero movies.  So while I wasn't camping out to buy a ticket for TGH, I was excited. Having not been familiar with the source material, I was very interested and willing to be brought into a new world of mayhem.  Now having seen the film, in short I am left with three words:  This movie sucked.

The story in short depicts the life of Britt Reid who inherits his fathers privately owned media empire upon his untimely death.  Britt is a party animal and wants nothing to do with the business, except for the money it generates.  One of his late father's employees, Kato, makes the best coffee in the world along with other gadgets that lead Britt to believe he could be a superhero.  Meanwhile a super-villain who is less terrifying than a malfunctioning Tickle-Me-Elmo, wants to kill Reid for reasons that seem odd and don't really matter to the story in the least.

A level of believability has to be suspended to enjoy any superhero movie, I know that.  TGH though goes above and beyond to be absurd, with action sequences so ridiculous I wanted to get up and leave.  One specific example of stupidity is as follows:   The two heroes, Green Hornet and Kato, drive a car into an elevator.  The car doesn't fit, but they ascend anyway and half of the car gets chopped off in the shaft (scariest elevator ever).  When they get to their floor, they mention how it's a good thing they have front wheel drive and proceed to drive the half of a car around the floor of a building, running people's desks over and causing workers (not bad guys) to go running for their lives.  Maybe it was for laughs, but it really was just stupid.  The movie is one scene after another like that one, and it's just too much to put up with.  Oh, and I almost forgot to add that Cameron Diaz pops in now and then solely to add a female presence to the mix, nothing else.

Ultimately, there is very little to be positive about with TGH.  There were a couple of laughs, and that's about it.  It's a early front runner to be on my worst of 2011 list, and it would get a 3 out of 10 from me.

Parental Take:  The movie is geared at middle school students who may not be looking for much in an action movie and be satisfied with what they get here - including quite a few fart jokes.  The violence and profanity did make this movie one of the more objectionable PG-13 movies I've seen in a while.  Some of the violence is very graphic for this rating, and younger children should definitely not see it.

If You Like The Green Hornet Try:  Try Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to see how good a director Michael Gondry can be.

**ON A FUN NOTE, THIS POST IS THE 200TH ENTRY IN THE MMOM BLOG!!**