I am not the natural audience for The Green Hornet.  I was not the audience envisioned when the concept of this film was approved, scripted, cast and all the way to when the publicists sat about planning their campaign and subsequently sent me the Blu-ray.

This is not a bad thing necessarily because, while there are some classic films that I count in my top 500, there are also some clangers.  I enjoy eclectic films to the same degree as I consume romance and action adventure, although clearly not in the same way.  So while there are many a times when I hanker after some quality comic book violence The Green Hornet will not feature in my must-watch list because frankly I found it a little dull.

Admittedly, I am not a die hard fan of the original radio or comic book incarnations of the eponymous hero, but I considered myself sufficiently game to enjoy it and sadly I was left thinking that this was two hours of my life that I could never get back.

We enter the world of The Green Hornet amidst ongoing parental criticism directed at a prepubescent Britt Reid (AKA The Green Hornet, but not yet..) for being a failure.  Tom Wilkinson is a hard nosed newspaper editor and father, whose patience and emotion cannot stretch to support a son who is not meeting his expectations.  Zoom to the present and Britt is living in his father’s pool house, spending loads of cash on partying and women and his father ism naturally, still disappointed.  When he dies unexpectedly in suspicious circumstances Britt does not attempt to revenge him, but during a drunken night with the only man who can make a good cup of coffee, Kato, he attempts to deface his father’s grave by stealing the head of his statue and stumbles across a gang with evil intentions towards an innocent couple.  A latent sense of morality sets in and with Kato at his side he kicks some bad guy ass.  This is to be the beginning of a crime fighting partnership with a twist, but as the story develops it fails to deliver, much less sustain, the punch.

My belief is that you have to have a sense of interest and engagement with your hero to care about what happens to him/her and what motivates his actions.  This is not something that was in any way nurtured in this film by Seth Rogen, who plays the same version of himself we saw in Knocked Up with even less grace.  Jay Chou as Kato cannot fail to be more compelling and sophisticated by comparison and while it seems as though that may be the point, it  remains a challenge not to root for the excellent Christoph Waltz who hams it up superbly as the bad guy Chudnofsky.  This is an odd choice of film for Michel Gondry, whose tolerance for the schlub heroes of the noughties, such as Rogen and Jack Black is much higher than expected.  Overall the script is flat and the acting muffled by a storyline that feels forced and disconnected, or maybe I just was not drinking enough.

There are some highlights that may compel you to add this Blu-ray to your collection: Gondry’s ‘Kato’ vision, the use of slow motion and tactics before the fight sequences is rather cool and worth a repeated look; in among a film that feels like a bit of a mess I actually found myself liking Cameron Diaz’s performance which I felt had a degree of presence lacking from Rogen and Chou; the cars are amazing and the DVD allows you the chance to pause and enjoy. A missed opportunity with flashes of something brighter hiding in plain sight, blink and you’ll miss them.

[Rating:2/5]

DVD Special Features:

Filmmakers’ Commentary
“Awesoom”-Gag Reel
Writing The Green Hornet
The Black Beauty: Rebirth of Cool

BluRay Special Features:

Jay Chou Audition
Double Barrel
movieIQ
The Green Hornet Cutting Room
Filmmakers’ Commentary
“Awesoom”-Gag Reel
“Trust Me” -Director Michel Gondry
Writing The Green Hornet
The Black Beauty: Rebirth of Cool
The Stunt Family Armstrong
Finding Kato
The Art of Destruction

The Green Hornet is out on Blu-ray and DVD today and available to rent here.