The Green Hornet review thread.

I have a question about the comedy/campiness in this movie. Which of the following films would you say that the level and/or degree of comedy and camp the GH movie is more like/in line with?

IRON MAN 1 and 2
SPIDER-MAN 3
FANTASTIC FOUR 1 and 2
MEN IN BLACK 1 and 2
THE INCREDIBLES
MEGAMIND
BATMAN
BATMAN RETURNS
BATMAN FOREVER
BATMAN AND ROBIN

Also, is the GH movie more serious than any of those movies I just listed?


Hybrid of Iron Man 1 and maybe Incredibles.
 
I think some people are getting too hung up on the words `parody` or `spoof`. Those words are what skits on shows like SNL and MadTV obtain to and this movie was not like that at all! Yes, comedy was present in the movie but so was everything else! It wasnt a movie that made fun out of the character or disrespected it in any way like that (or at all actually). Once you start taking away or fixing things to the extreme when it comes to comic book characters based on their source material thats when they start messing up. For example- in Batman&Robin there was no mention that Batgirl is the commisioners daughter, instead Alfred is her uncle (WTF?!!!). In GH everyone was who they needed to be and when they needed to be.
 
I think the Superheo film genre , if we're gonna give it name , needs to be as diverse as possible in terms of tone of the films . Not every superhero film can or should be TDK. While I think that the source material should be respected , I think in order for these to last over the long run , you're going to need to have those films like GH which aren't brooding , overly serious flicks all the time. In fact , I think the factor that may give this film legs is that it isn't trying to be another Spiderman, Batman, or X Men .
 
I thought it was hilarious when they crash into the crack house then Green Hornet shakes Edward Furlong's hand lol , the guy looked terrible though.

I was also surprised by the violence , especially
bloodnofsky getting the table ends in his eyes
 
An in depth explanation for why I don't want to see the Green Hornet? Okay. I'll start first with some analogies. How about that? I don't want to see Seth Rogen play the Green Hornet anymore than I want to see Bill Murray play Superman. Does that mean I hate Bill Murray? Of course not. Does that mean I'm a die-hard Superman fan? Of course not. Does it mean I have to go spend money on a ticket to know Bill Murray is not right for the part? Of course not. Do I have a problem with comedy in the hero genre? Nope. I encourage it. It helps take the weight off any camp elements in most superhero stories. But the purpose of that comic relief is to remove camp, not create it. The Green Hornet IS camp - all out. I don't like that. As a matter of fact, it's a cancer to all of these other films being made. Other films meaning Captain America, Ironman, Batman, etc.

As you already know, we're in the midst of a very creative period for hero films. This genre is considered potential "blockbuster" material if handled properly. Since I don't know your age Jezza, I'll assume you were not around in the 60's,70's and probably not grown up enough in the 80's to have an opinion of those decades. When Batman came out in '66, the show was HUGE. Nobody had seen anything like it. It was also CAMP. The idea of treating Batman like an idiot, hit the sensibilities of grownups, while going right over the heads of the youngsters. The kids took it seriously because they didn't understand their hero was THE "joke". Well, this formula wore off quickly. Batman was out for three "seasons", but in truth that only lasted a little over two years (The first was a mid-season replacement so it was very short).

The fallout after that show lasted literally for DECADES. The public not only rejected the show, it began to apply that treatment of camp to the entire genre. If you mentioned comics, you were immediately thought of as someone who lacked intelligence since the medium was considered ignorant and CAMP. Heroes had no medium except television. And those treatments were low budgeted and subsequent poor productions...for the most part. When there was a good one, like the Hulk, it was popular, but the stigma from the industry was still very much in play. It was canceled, not for low ratings, but because the studio simply didn't want to pay the high costs for the series because it was a comic book. During the 70's and most of the 80's there was only ONE hero who got recognition in Hollywood - Superman. We wouldn't see another big budget film until 1989 and Batman. The industry ran from Adam West. They distanced themselves from any association with him because they feared the public would view their product as CAMP. As you know, that Batman, and every incarnation since, has NEVER wore anything that resembles tights. It's because they STILL want no association with CAMP.

Batman's success was HUGE. It told Hollywood you could invest big money and big actors in the comic book genre and find success. What killed off that franchise? Batman and Robin. Why? Because the director tried to install CAMP as a treatment. :doh: It was rejected and the series closed down for years to let the public forget. Then came a string of huge films that went on to be big franchises - X-Men, Spider-man, and then a new Batman franchise. The last film grossed over a BILLION dollars worldwide. Amazing. Now you have Iron Man as a franchise, and so many more coming together. It's just a huge property now. But it's because the public and industry have accepted that CAMP is no longer a main ingredient in this genre.

So, what I have tried to do is illustrate a historical perspective of what CAMP does to this genre. It's a cancer Jezza. And you don't want anything to do with it. The Green Hornet is a HUGE cancer. It will fail because it's camp. And you know what? The industry will count that as a strike against this genre for 2011. That will be the talk within the industry leading right up to Thor, Captain America, and Green Lantern. God help us if any of those under perform. Because when it comes to genre's and money, it doesn't take too many miscues to send studios packing back to the old attitudes. If you like this genre, you don't want films like Green Hornet which laugh at the concept. This was not a $30 million dollar production that can be swept under the rug. With production AND marketing costs, this film is close to $200 million in the red. It's a huge mistake and Seth Rogen was simply trying to take advantage of a big property to try and make a quick buck for himself. It backfired. And it not only hurts him, it hurts this genre. History says so.


I think you need to take into account the fact the genera is now more widely accepted. Campy Batman was pretty much all the genera had offered up in the 60's. Hence everyone thinking all comic properties were stupid... But the thing is a campy super hero movie isn't going to make everyone forget about the Dark Knight.

And your making some huge assumptions about Rogen there. Judging by his comedy (his stand-up included) he seems like a fan of the genera. And though I have not seen the movie, I did watch the series when I was younger and making it have a slightly comedic tone makes sense to me because that is the feeling invoked when I watch the series.
That being said, comedy like all forms of entertainment (music, art, comics) evolves. So from what I can tell, they modernized the comedic tone.

Also I love what I'm hearing about Kato being a show stealer. Very funny, reminds me of when a friend of mine expressed outrage over the Hornet being Seth Rogen, because he thought Kato was the Hornet and Brett was the side kick. Just like most of the audience.
 
Yeah, I don't want every film to be TDK serious. Superhero films need to be different, or people will get bored of them. So this is a nice surprise. Hopefully word of mouth will help this film. I agree with it being a hybrid of Iron Man 1 & The Incredibles as well. It was serious when it needed to be and funny when it needed to be.

Definite buy on Blu-Ray when it comes out. :D
 
Good points. I think a sign of the survival of these kind of films will be if we see more diversity in terms of the tone of these films. If not these films can just easily be dismissed as paint by numbers stories and characterizations and thus be considered dull and stale.
 
Yeah, this was a pretty fresh approach on a super-hero film. It didn't feel like any of the ones I've seen before anyways.

Pretty sure everyone caught this, but, did anyone see the picture of Bruce Lee in Kato's notebook? I thought that was cool. And apparently theirs a Lone Ranger poster in Reid's house before they get into a fight. I didn't catch it though.
 
Can we get a poll started?
I give it a 6/10, it was a mindless action comedy that was pretty decent.
 
I saw it this morning. It was decent. It was funny here and there. The action scenes, which I wasn't invested in, went on a bit too long. Cameron Diaz and Christoph Waltz seemed like they were in the movie just to be in the movie. Jay Chou was very likable.

I haven't seen the green hornet show or read any of the comics, but I didn't feel so much like I was experiencing a new superhero as I was experiencing 'Seth Rogen: Sueprhero.'

I wouldn't care if they made a sequel, but if they did, I'd probly go see it. If not just to support the superhero genre.
 
I enjoyed the movie. It was fun and enjoyable. Watch it in 2D though. The 3D is useless and adds nothing to the film.

I was forced by the local showtimes to see the 3D one and I wish I hadn't had to.

My main complaint would be that I wanted to punch Seth Rogan in the mouth several times in the movie. Sometimes he was funny, sometimes he just grated on me.
 
I enjoyed the movie. It was fun and enjoyable. Watch it in 2D though. The 3D is useless and adds nothing to the film.

I was forced by the local showtimes to see the 3D one and I wish I hadn't had to.

My main complaint would be that I wanted to punch Seth Rogan in the mouth several times in the movie. Sometimes he was funny, sometimes he just grated on me.

I was wondering about this myself. I'm planning on seeing the movie today but wasn't sure if I wanted to see the 3D version. I'm not really interested in 3D that much (unless it's like Avatar or Tron). I think I'll save some money and see 2D instead.
 
Prison Mike, it wasnt shot in 3D so its not worth seeing in 3D, I saw it in 2D
 
I'm on board for Green Hornet 2.
Likewise. :woot: I've come across one of the writers for the GH film, I posted it in the sequel board, but I'll go ahead and post it in here too:

Evan Goldberg on Sequel:
I can’t share it but we have an idea that if we gross enough to justify a sequel, our sequel idea is so much better than the idea that this movie was. When we first wrote this movie, we skipped the first one and decided to write the sequel - that was our big idea to skip the whole story of how they come together. That doesn’t work, we found. But we have a sequel kind of written and we have this incredible idea for a villain and I really want it to happen.
 
I'd actually say the tone was closest to the first Men In Black film.. which is a movie that I didn't think of comparing it with, since that wasn't a superhero movie. I liked it.
 
Saw the movie. Thought it was fun. I liked it a lot.
 
I thought it was fun too .I think it also helps that critics have been bashing it so much, they've probably lowered the expectations of the viewers; at least those viewers who did read the reviews anyway. I gotta admit , seeing the previews I thought I was gonna loathe this thing , but I ended up really enjoying it even with it's flaws.

I also think it helps that the majority of people who saw GH are far too young to know or care about the character since his last incarnation was 1967. In that sense , he not like a Batman , Superman or even Zorro , who've been done time and time again over the years. Alot of the audience can come to the character without any bias about how the character should be portrayed or the tone of the film.
 
In essence the demographic of people that would ***** about this movie raping their childhood are too old to even care.
 
In essence the demographic of people that would ***** about this movie raping their childhood are too old to even care.

Well put .Lol. To be honest , the main reason GH is even known by the public today was because it launched the career of Bruce Lee, and even when the show was on, the GH character was considered outdated .
 
Saw the movie. Thought it was fun. I liked it a lot.


Did you see what I meant about wanting to punch Rogan in the mouth?

He was just so over the top *****ey sometimes it took me out of the movie for a second.

Other than that I like it though.
 
The brief shots of The Green Hornet in the 1993 biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story were so impressive i hoped they would actually make a Green Hornet film.The idea was even kicked around to cast Jason Scott Lee as Kato,but unfortunately it never happened.
Well 18 years later The Green Hornet finally hits the big screen but unfortunately its a mediocre presentation.
Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is an irresponsible, playboy and son of of widower James Reid (Tom Wilkinson), publisher of the Los Angeles newspaper The Daily Sentinel.
Dissapointed with Britt's lack of concern for anything ,he has it out with his son one last time before dying from a bee sting.
Upon his father death one of the discoveries he makes is that his father had a guy friday named Kato (Jay Chou) who is an expert at just about everything.
They team up to deface a statue of James,but happen upon a couple getting mugged by thugs they rescue the couple and stop the thugs and the Green Hornet is born.

The first half of the film was pure fun and quite funny the banter between Britt and Kato is sharp,and the in jokes about heroes and villains,and their costumes is fun too.
Loved the gas gun jokes.
The villain Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz) is ok at the beginning of the film but he's just not menacing enough and that fact is actually a running joke in the film,and Waltz was definitely more intimidating in Inglourious Basterds.
Edward James Olmos isnt give much to do as Daily Sentinel managing editor Mike Axford
he just grumbles at Britt a few times about how a newspaper should be run.
Cameron Diaz fares a bit better as Britt's helpful and smart executive assistant Lenore Case.
By the time TGH enters its last half hour i started thinking about those bad joke filled super hero flicks or spoofs like Blankman,or SH flicks that have run their course and by the end of the third or fourth sequel you dont care about what happens to the characters,your just wishing it will end.In the end The Green Hornet failed to hold my interest.
I really like Rogen and i wanted to like this film but found it dissapointing for the most part and the 3D was ok in some spots but definitely not worth the 3D ticket price.
Not sure if their will be a sequel,but hopefully it will be far better than this first big screen Green Hornet
Scale of 1-10 a 5
 
Goldberg did say they have ideas for a sequel, and he may have alluded to how the sequel will actually be more in tune with how GH actually is, as this was more or less his origin/jumping off point.
 

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