This remake of the Green Hornet is a slightly different take on the original television series starring Bruce Lee as Kato.
The Green Hornet is about Brit Reid (Seth Rogen), the son of a powerful businessman who owns the Newspaper company ‘The Daily Sentinel’. Copping a lot from his father as a bit of a no hoper, Brit always tried to please his father but never seemed to earn his respect.
But when his father is killed by a bee sting (being allergic), Brit inherits the running of the newspaper. He fires all of his father’s personal employees at his house, but is displeased when his coffee is delivered one morning tasting like utter crap and not with his ‘leaf’ drawn on the surface.
Brit discovers that a young man named Kato made his coffee in the past, and he rehires Kato (played by Jay Chou) when he discovers just how amazingly smart and talented he is at building and inventing things.
The two have a bitch fest about Brit’s father then decide to go out and decapitate Brit’s father’s statue. When they arrive they remove the head of the statue but see someone nearby being mugged by a gang, the two help out and Kato basically bashes the lot of them.
The two get home on an adrenaline high and come to the conclusion that they need to become crime fighters. Using the influence of the newspapers, Brit declares that this person who decapitated the statue as a threat to society, and tries to pass him off as a crime lord named ‘The Green Bee’.
Naturally someone pulls him up on how stupid the name is and he is renamed to ‘The Green Hornet’.
The Green Hornet then gets tied up with some local crime and does his best to shut down the major offenders. But inevitably he attracts the attention of some very powerful men who want him dead. So both Brit and Kato, experiencing problems between each other, must work together and stop the men from killing them.
Not bad but not great
This movie has it’s funny and awkward moments, backed up by very standard martial arts action.
Seth Rogan seems a little unnatural for the part but it seems to comment heavily on the reliance of Kato’s skills, making fun of The Green Hornet himself. Considering that Bruce Lee is the only reason people remember the Green Hornet TV series, I found it to be quite funny – considering that Bruce Lee was the most popular actor on the original TV show.
It basically seems like your average Seth Rogan comedy and doesn’t really tap into the potential the movie had as something different, which is a little disappointing. But as a standard comedy film, it’s mildly entertaining.
Jay Chou does a good job as Kato, and even shows a few tributes to Bruce Lee, having drawn him in his sketch pad, and even using his one inch punch on one of the movies henchmen.
The movie is a pretty standard reimaginging of an older show. As I said – not bad but not great.
The Action and Martial Arts
The small flashes of Jay Chou’s performance as Kato, kicking ass aren’t bad. The slow motion as he fights is a cool concept that seems to work. He uses elements of Wing Chun and some flashy kicks to create the visual style of Kato’s movements – selling his mastery of the martial arts.
But there’s not a hell of a lot of it, and it’s generally only on screen for a short time. I feel the martial ars could have been capitalized a little more and if Brit Reid actually had some moves of his own, it could have been a cool action movie.
Ultimately though it’s a pretty standard action flick and offers nothing really outstanding, and not much to comment on. If you like Seth Rogan’s style of comedy check it out, don’t get too enthused about the martial arts though.
On Blu Ray –
Region A (US & Canada)
The Green Hornet [Blu-ray]
Region Free (Plays in any Country)
The Green Hornet [Blu-ray] [2011] [Region Free]
On DVD –
Region 1 (US & Canada)
The Green Hornet
Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
The Green Hornet [DVD] [2011]
Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
