Just saw Green Hornet

[TremblingBluStar]

I know I am late to the game, but I caught this one on PPV the other day. I'm normally pretty lenient when it comes to superhero flicks not making sense, but this film was a mess.

Nothing the characters did or said made any sense! Why fight crime, but pretend you are criminals??? I get he was trying to lure the real criminals out (even though this was never specifically stated), but wouldn't being vigilante crime fighters going after drug pushers do the exact same thing?

Seth Rogen was absolutely annoying in this film. I get what he was going for, with the spoiled rich brat who has a character arc where he grows, but he missed the part where the character has to grow instead of being an annoying prat throughout. Further, why would someone as strict as his father allow his son to live off his estate, doing nothing but partying until he's in his 30's?

The crisis at the end where they needed to get to the newspaper to upload the recording struck me as completely manufactured. Other people argued they should have had wifi in their super high-tech vehicle. I couldn't figure out why they had to go specifically to the newspaper building? Couldn't they go anywhere with a computer? Like somewhere more easily defended, with less risk to innocent bystanders? It's not as if this wasn't something he had planned out beforehand!

The part where he had to fake his gunshot wound also made no sense. Even if he didn't die from blood loss, infection, and shock in the intervening hours, I didn't understand his reasoning. The police knew Green Hornet was shot in the shoulder... so he couldn't go to the hospital because he was shot in the shoulder... and it certainly isn't possible there was more than one person in Los Angeles shot in the shoulder in one night... so he has to fake an assassination attempt! What???

Couldn't he go to the hospital and say it was an accident? He's a multi-millionaire! Pay the doctor to not say anything to the cops!

I didn't understand why Kato, a super-genius inventor who should have started his own company and become fabulously wealthy would instead opt to make coffee for a crotchety old rich guy and his son. Even after he is fired by Rogen's character, he goes off to update his resume and sulk, acting as if he has no idea what to put on a resume!

Why does he have to put anything. Send a cover letter saying "I can make a car that is 100% bulletproof, including the glass, that can still operate after the rear half is severed. I can also make a green gas that will knock a person out for 11 days. Oh, and I am a martial arts expert with 3D vision." I'm sure he'd at least get an interview!

Enough nitpicking. I was just annoyed by this film. I was never a huge fan of Rogen's humor, though I liked Paul, and this film didn't change my mind. For those who haven't seen this film, I would only recommend it if it's free and you want an occasional chuckle and some decent action.

 

[Trekker4747]

Actually the biggest problem with the "Green Hornet shot" thing as that when he goes to hospital to get it checked out what's the first thing the police are going to do?

Take that bullet and run ballistics on it and find it came from a policeman's gun!

This movie wasn't too bad, I think my biggest problem was Seth Rogen turning his usual shtick up to 27 and acting like a coked-out lunatic the entire time and then he tries to molest Diaz, and somehow, this gets her to go along with his plans and allow herself to be rehired rather than getting him arrested and put on a registry.

 

[Greg Cox]

Actually the biggest problem with the "Green Hornet shot" thing as that when he goes to hospital to get it checked out what's the first thing the police are going to do?

Take that bullet and run ballistics on it and find it came from a policeman's gun!

.

For what it's worth, that whole bit where he gets shot in the shoulder by a policeman, then has to pretend to get shot as Britt Reid, is lifted directly from an episode of the old tv show.

Maybe it was more plausible back in the 1960s . . . ?

 

[Christopher]

Nothing the characters did or said made any sense! Why fight crime, but pretend you are criminals??? I get he was trying to lure the real criminals out (even though this was never specifically stated), but wouldn't being vigilante crime fighters going after drug pushers do the exact same thing?

This is part of the original concept of the Green Hornet going back to the original 1940s radio series. The idea was that the political system was so corrupt that the gangsters and racketeers were protected by the law, so the Green Hornet pretended to be a racketeer himself so that he could work against organized crime from the inside. He could use his criminal reputation to strike up partnerships with criminals in order to gather evidence against them or set them up for a fall, and then when he brought them down it would look like the partnership had soured and he'd turned on them.

I have no interest in seeing the movie, but from what you're saying, it sounds like it failed to justify this aspect of the character.

The police knew Green Hornet was shot in the shoulder... so he couldn't go to the hospital because he was shot in the shoulder... and it certainly isn't possible there was more than one person in Los Angeles shot in the shoulder in one night... so he has to fake an assassination attempt! What???

Hey, they did that same thing in an episode of the '66 Green Hornet TV series, "Bad Bet on a 459-Silent." And it makes sense to me, at least the way the show did it. Sure, there might've been more than one guy with a shoulder wound, but the police would investigate any white male who came in with a shoulder wound that night, because that's just good police work. And if they investigated Britt Reid on suspicion of being the Green Hornet, they'd probably expose him.

I wonder how much else of the movie's plot was cribbed from the TV show.

I didn't understand why Kato, a super-genius inventor who should have started his own company and become fabulously wealthy would instead opt to make coffee for a crotchety old rich guy and his son. Even after he is fired by Rogen's character, he goes off to update his resume and sulk, acting as if he has no idea what to put on a resume!

From what I recall hearing about the film, I think that was a deliberate deconstruction of the way Kato was presented in the '66 series: he was super-competent, but by virtue of his race he was relegated to a subordinate role. The whole plot of this film was an extended riff on the implausibility of that, exaggerating Kato's competence and turning Britt into a bumbler, and building the whole thing around the joke that the sidekick is the real hero.

 

[Trekker4747]

Actually the biggest problem with the "Green Hornet shot" thing as that when he goes to hospital to get it checked out what's the first thing the police are going to do?

Take that bullet and run ballistics on it and find it came from a policeman's gun!

.

For what it's worth, that whole bit where he gets shot in the shoulder by a policeman, then has to pretend to get shot as Britt Reid, is lifted directly from an episode of the old tv show.

Maybe it was more plausible back in the 1960s . . . ?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure ballistic forensics has advanced a bit in the last 50 years.

 

[stonester1]

I enjoyed it.

 

[Admiral_Young]

It is the worst movie I've seen this year, and the worst film I've ever seen Seth Rogen As the original poster stated he was annoying, over the top--even for him, totally unlikeable even when we're supposed to be rooting for Britt. I have much preferred Kevin Smith's comic. It's great fun!

 

[Guartho]

Nothing the characters did or said made any sense! Why fight crime, but pretend you are criminals???

If you can't stand Seth Rogen or something your ears had probably understandably shut down already, but the motivation was a pretty good idea I thought.

In the film his thinking is that if you're a known hero and confronting the bad guys, the bad guys can always "have you by the balls" whenever they want by taking innocent hostages or threatening a city full of innocent people. But, if you have everyone believing you're a bad guy, the real bad guys don't try to play that trump card.

 

[Trekker4747]

But you'd think that sooner or later they'd learn that these "new bad guys" aren't doing any "bad guy things."

 

[Greg Cox]

But you'd think that sooner or later they'd learn that these "new bad guys" aren't doing any "bad guy things."

Perhaps. But that's been built into the DNA of the character since the 1930's. He's a good guy pretending to be an underworld bad guy. That's his schtick.

And he gets away with it, in part, because he owns a newspaper which is constantly hyping the fact that the Green Hornet is the scariest criminal in the city . . . .

(It's kind of like if Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson were working together to convince the world that Spider-Man was someone to be feared.)

 

[Garak]

Too funny, I saw this last weekend on ppv.

I feel asleep. I never fall asleep in movies. That's the sign of a pretty bad flick.

Christoper Waltz, what a waste.

 

[Christopher]

(It's kind of like if Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson were working together to convince the world that Spider-Man was someone to be feared.)

You know, that sounds like it'd be a pretty cool What If? issue...

Although in the TV series, at least, you had Mike Axford in the Jameson role, the guy who was convinced the GH was a menace and kept writing stories to that effect no matter the evidence. So Britt didn't need to be in collusion with Axford to build the GH's reputation; he just had to give Mike free rein.

 

[Gojira]

I am generally a very lenient movie viewer. But Green Hornet did leave me disappointed. I can't really put my finger on it...I do like Seth Rogen and while I don't think he was completely right for the part I think the script was a bit of a mess too.

 

[Guartho]

I am generally a very lenient movie viewer. But Green Hornet did leave me disappointed. I can't really put my finger on it...I do like Seth Rogen and while I don't think he was completely right for the part I think the script was a bit of a mess too.

Yeah, I meant to see it in the theater, but I ended up waiting on Netflix and I was glad I did.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

If you can't stand Seth Rogen or something your ears had probably understandably shut down already, but the motivation was a pretty good idea I thought.

I never said I can't stand him. I'm just not a fan of stoner humor. I've seen him in movies where I liked his character, however. He was great in Donnie Darko.

I understand that the idea might work - it just wasn't explained in the movie very well.

Even if it was explained, there was nothing in the film that showed why pretending to be evil was better than pretending to be heroes. Like I said, they wanted to draw the bad guys out. To do that, they needed newspaper headlines. But Britt controlled the headlines, so there was no point to pretending to be bad. It didn't make sense in the context of the film.

Basically every scene makes Britt look like a total moron. Like when he confronts the district attorney with the recording. Why would you do that? He could have just as easily said "okay, you want me to slant the news in your favor. Sounds good! Lets schedule a meeting for 4pm on Tuesday", then once he is safely away expose the D.A. as a crook.

 

[Christopher]

Basically every scene makes Britt look like a total moron.

Again, I haven't seen the film, only read about it, but wasn't that the whole idea? That Britt was a bumbler and Kato was the actual hero, and it took most of the movie for Britt to realize that? It would hardly be the first time that a comedy portrayed its hero as incompetent.

 

[Trekker4747]

No, in the movie Britt is a complete moron. To the point of one wonder how he is able to even dress himself in the morning. Where he ends up at the end of the movie he's only slightly less of a moron but not by very much.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

Again, I haven't seen the film, only read about it, but wasn't that the whole idea? That Britt was a bumbler and Kato was the actual hero, and it took most of the movie for Britt to realize that? It would hardly be the first time that a comedy portrayed its hero as incompetent.

Yes, but Kato, the supposed genius goes along with almost every stupid thing he does.

 

[Christopher]

Again, I haven't seen the film, only read about it, but wasn't that the whole idea? That Britt was a bumbler and Kato was the actual hero, and it took most of the movie for Britt to realize that? It would hardly be the first time that a comedy portrayed its hero as incompetent.

Yes, but Kato, the supposed genius goes along with almost every stupid thing he does.

Just as Agent 99, the far more capable spy, was content to be Maxwell Smart's sidekick (in the original show, not the recent movie). Just as the far more competent Eager Young Space Cadet idolized Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century even though he was totally inept. It's just part of how the trope works.

And let's face it, there are a lot of not-very-bright people in real life who end up having authority over much smarter and more competent people due to their charisma or their influence or whatever, and a lot of the time the smarter people just accept it because it's human nature to follow authority figures. How else do you think George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Bachmann got into positions of power?

 

[Agent Richard07]

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Rogen's usual shtick was there, but I thought it was toned down, not cranked up.