Sting in the old crime-fighting tale The Green Hornet

10 April 2012

You may not remember but it was the Green Hornet television series, which ran from 1966 until 1967, that introduced Bruce Lee to the world.

Michel Gondry’s 3D action comedy has the capable Jay Chou as Kato, the old Lee part, while Seth Rogen takes on the Van Williams role as Britt Reid, a feckless young man whose millionaire father leaves him a fortune. Since Rogen wrote most of the screenplay, it’s no surprise that the star of Knocked Up dominates the proceedings.

Does it work? Yes, if you like Rogen, but if you don’t you’ll feel that Gondry has fiddled too much with the original by giving his star full rein. The film has some spectacular (if overlong) action sequences but the tone is more reminiscent of Judd Apatow’s comedies than whoever it was who thought up the television series in the first place.

Given vast sums of money by his newspaper magnate father (Tom Wilkinson), Reid resolves to hunt down arch criminal Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz, the best thing in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds).

He is aided by his ingenious helpmeet Kato to construct The Black Beauty, a car which can’t be hurt by bullets and can obliterate anything before it.

Cameron Diaz appears as the equally clever secretary who tells Reid that if he ever looks at her ass, there’ll be real trouble.

It all looks good, even if Gondry manages few of his trademark off-kilter moments. It is funny, too, especially when Kato and Reid pitch into each other as heartily as they do into Chudnofsky’s gang. But its two hours seem longer than that and there are times when it’s possible to yearn for closure.

The Green Hornet
Cert: 12A

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