The Green Hornet - Blu-ray Review

'On the one hand, Reid is slick, funny and charming, on the other, he's a schlubby, sexist, awkward, nobody. The two, very obviously, don't work together'

The Green Hornet, a comedy with superhero trappings, definitely benefits from the fact that it doesn't have much going for it. The law of expectations says that the lower the promise of a film, the easier it is for it to deliver. Notch expectations for this at the lowest possible rung and you're somewhere approaching where they should be. Circling since sometime in the mid-nineties, the project, based originally on a radio and TV series, has little recognisable history, iconography or, arguably, fan base. Somehow it ended up in the hands of Seth Rogan and writing partner Evan Goldberg, who combined with director Michel Gondry - an off-the-wall choice if ever there was one - to bring the character to the screen for the first time since the 1960s.

Rogan brings an obvious level of laddish, knockabout, laughs to the character which proves both the film's major strength and weakness. As usual, his writing and performance is comprised of a series of sharp hits which feel well developed and scripted and a series of less well developed sections which feel improvised, awkward and not particularly hilarious. With playboy Britt Reid (aka The Green Hornet) the sense of disconnect between the two is heightened. On the one hand, Reid is slick, funny and charming, controlling a room or a party with sharp one-liners and extrovert actions. On the other, he's a schlubby, sexist, awkward, nobody; bumbling through meetings and one-to-ones, unsure of himself and stilted in public spaces. The two, very obviously, don't work together and Rogan needs to learn when he can include the latter kind of comedy in his writing and his characterisation and when he can't.

There's no particular 'Gondry-style' evident here but there are some smarts from the director that show exactly what he brings to this sort of project. An early cameo is a guaranteed laugh and the French director's decision to give it both pride of place and a decent amount of time to develop are solid ways at ensuring sceptical audience members are sold on the rest of the film. The marginalisation of Lenore (Cameron Diaz) seems a misjudgement at first but when you consider that she's already a horribly written character (she's a secretary, is constantly talked down to and has very, very little to do), giving her a Reid-led love story (inevitably the direction it would have gone in) wouldn't have made things any better.

Ultimately, the laughs, the solid conclusion and Christopher Waltz' unpronounceable villain Chudnofsky are enough to recommend it as long as you go in with tapered expectations. This is purely a Rogan comedy, dressed up as a superhero film, with the latter only getting lip service on occasion. With that comes the awful jokes and sub-standard storytelling but see past those and you'll get something which at least attempts one or two new directions within an increasingly tired-looking genre.

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