- Courtesy of Columbia
BY TIMOTHY RABB
Daily Arts Writer
Published January 17, 2011
In the recent movie “Jackass 3D,” the outright lack of 3-D imagery in all but a few scenes was disconcerting. The producers lured us in with the promise of glamorous visuals for only five extra dollars, but the delivery was scant at best. Luckily, the movie still gave us the hilarity we expect from the “Jackass” gang with uniquely painful stunts and depraved tomfoolery.
"The Green Hornet"
At Rave and Quality 16
Columbia
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Even so, it raises the suspicion that perhaps the “3D” designation is a fallacy, considering that many of the 3-D films that have followed “Avatar” and “How to Train Your Dragon” don’t take full (or even partial) advantage of the resources at their disposal. Unfortunately, Seth Rogen’s new adaption of “The Green Hornet” franchise is further proof of this bait-and-switch routine.
“The Green Hornet” could be best described as a rip-off of the average Joe-turned-hero element of “Kick-Ass” coupled with the strained, affected dialogue of a bad improv comedy bit. The characters of a comedy should be just as close to their audience as those in a compelling drama, but it would prove an arduous (if not impossible) task to find a single characteristic in Britt Reid (Seth Rogen, “Pineapple Express”) or Kato (Jay Chou, “True Legend”) with which a sapient movie lover could identify.
Britt is a millionaire playboy who hates his late father James — even in the wake of his death — for his unwavering commitment to integrity and his no-nonsense parenting style. In lieu of running his newly inherited newspaper empire with the same degree of professionalism as his father, he decides to cause a violent stir in the underbelly of Los Angeles to give the news some panache.
After forging an unlikely friendship with his father’s former employee Kato, Britt creates a clever hero disguise and raises hell on the streets of LA with the goal of vilifying himself and giving his newspaper enticing fodder for reporting. In the process, he injures cops and destroys thousands of dollars worth of personal property, yet we’re supposed to hail him as a hero when he later denies a bribe from a crooked official. Case in point: Comedy can stretch the boundaries of the believable, but the characters’ motivations should at least have some sort of logical basis. Don’t look for it here.
Rogen’s emphatic “I don’t know what the hell’s going on” routine works well in stoner flicks like “Pineapple Express” and “Superbad,” but falls flat on its face here. He’s a mediocre actor who’s been fortunate enough to star in plot-driven movies that don’t rely on acting chops so much as a bevy of action scenes and slapstick situations. It brings to mind the “Family Guy” parody of Rogen: “The Seth Rogen gene gives you the appearance of being funny even though you haven’t actually done anything funny.”
Granted, the movie isn’t entirely trash. The cinematography shows some promise with unique shots and slow-motion fight scenes and there’s an occasional good joke (“occasional” can’t be stressed enough here). But the long lag time between sporadic action scenes will give viewers a welcome opportunity to tire and yawn.
A good rule of thumb in light of the precedent set by “Avatar” — don’t see a movie in 3-D unless it’s either animated or it markets itself as a straight action film. Instead of spending Friday night watching man-children vacillate between awkwardly romancing girls and fighting among themselves, save $15 and sit in a local dive bar.
