Review of "The Green Hornet," DVD

Review of

The Green Hornet, DVD


One out of five stars

 While the Green Hornet is not a superhero in the classic sense of the term, he has no powers that he can use, the crimefighting team of the Green Hornet and sidekick Kato are generally included in the group. Therefore, this movie can be considered another in the current bumper crop of movies about such characters.

 Placed in that bucket, the movie tries to be a joke and succeeds. Seth Rogen plays the son of a wealthy newspaperman (Britt Reid) that is a party animal until his father dies. Suddenly placed in charge of a major daily crusading newspaper, he is clearly out of his league. Even though Reid becomes the Green Hornet with his sidekick Kato, the brains of the group, he never loses his boyish, ignorant enthusiasm. That failed joke characteristic wears on the viewer to the point where you just want it to end.

 Despite Kato’s clear genius in creating effective gadgets, Reid never manages to give him due credit. The closest thing to saving graces of this movie is the power of the villain, an unemotional killer played very well by Christoph Waltz and the incredible competence of Secretary Lenore Case as played by Cameron Diaz.

 This movie was so poorly received that there was an almost immediate discussion of a more serious reboot. From watching this movie, that makes a great deal of sense.