With all the super hero movies coming out, it was easy to overlook The Green Hornet, especially considering they cast Seth Rogen as the title super hero. Rogen has only played pot heads and slackers so far in his film career, and playboy turned super hero seems like a big jump. Then the studio announced Michel Gondry would be directing, the same Michel Gondry who directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind. So you put together a director who has one good movie under his belt and specializes in trippy visuals and an actor who has repeated the same performance over and over again and you get...a solid super hero movie. I expected nothing from The Green Hornet, but was pleasantly surprised when the credits rolled. Gondry does put his mark on the film and sometimes it gets ridiculous, but for the most part its a well done story of a man with no super powers who needs to become a hero to redeem himself and his legacy. As playboy Britt Reid aka The Green Hornet, Rogen is convincing and the film smartly never tries to make him a martial arts expert or great fighter, he kind of just runs around while his partner Kato (Jay Chou) does all the work. The dynamic between the two is solid and the complexities and uniqueness of their friendship is the main focus of the movie. Christoph Waltz who won an Oscar for playing one of the great villains of all time in Inglorious Basterds, plays again a villain but a very insecure villain, while the character doesn't work that well, I think it was good that they gave the villain a little bit of a different mentality to keep the film fresh. Cameron Diaz is on hand as well but her casting is pointless as anyone could have played the role. Overall while not a great film or a great entry in the super hero genre, The Green Hornet holds up well and is worth checking out if you have the time. I give it 6 Ninja Stars out of 10.
-Maximus
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