Today’s quick review: The Green Hornet. Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), the hard-partying son of a newspaper magnate (Tom Wilkinson), inherits a fortune when his father dies. Left with nothing else to do with his life, Britt teams up with Kato (Jay Chou), his father’s ingenious mechanic, to fight crime as the Green Hornet. Their escapades soon put them on a collision course with Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), the head of organized crime in Los Angeles.
The Green Hornet is a superhero crime comedy based on the classic radio and television series. The story follows a rich slacker and his canny assistant as they cobble together a crime-fighting career. The Green Hornet aims to be a comedy-infused adventure that focuses on the unlikely friendship between Britt and Kato. But even though the movie makes a credible effort, its story and character work fall short of the mark.
The Achilles’ heel of The Green Hornet is Britt Reid. The protagonist of the story is loud-mouthed, selfish, and incompetent, relying on Kato to do all of the heavy lifting. With a lighter touch or a fuller character arc, this dynamic could have worked. Britt is poised for growth, and Seth Rogen would have fit a more serious version of the character just fine. But as he is, Britt detracts from almost every scene where he gets going.
Apart from this key weakness, The Green Hornet is a competent crime movie. Britt and Kato work their way up Chudnofsky’s organization, partly by accident and partly by following the advice of Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), Britt’s secretary. The action is a mixture of gunplay, martial arts from Kato, and gadgets installed in the Hornet’s car. None of it is jaw-dropping, but it is enough to give the movie some spectacle.
Ultimately, The Green Hornet has a viable premise that does not work in practice. The story hinges on Britt and his growth as a person, but Britt ends up too obnoxious to like and grows very little throughout the movie. As such, the rest of the framework—Kato’s character, Chudnofsky’s villainy, and a minor mystery surrounding Britt’s newspaper—largely goes to waste. Interested viewers should approach with caution. Most should skip.
For a similar adaptation of a classic adventure hero, try The Phantom or The Shadow. For a quirkier and more stylized one, try The Spirit or Dick Tracy. For a somewhat more involved story about self-made superheroes, try Mystery Men or Kick-Ass. For a more serious superhero movie about a rich man spurred to heroics by the death of his father, try Batman or Batman Begins.
[5.8 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0990407/). I give it a 6.0 to 6.5 for a decent setup undermined by poor character choices and flaky humor.