The Green Hornet (Gondry, 2011)

[number8]

Oh shit. Stephen Chow is directing and playing Kato.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i0401622f490c0f88f39120dd5fd ec617

[Sven]

Huh. Too bad about Rogen. Hopefully Chow can handle him better than others have.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Stephen Chow and Seth Rogen? There goes any chance of me seeing it.

[Morris Schæffer]

Stephen Chow and Seth Rogen? There goes any chance of me seeing it.

I'm pretty indifferent to Rogen, but after Kung Fu Hustle I'm not exactly foaming at the mouth to see anything by Chow ever again. Still, I guess there's no reason to suspect this will be as unbearable as Kung Fu Hustle.

[Watashi]

I'm pretty indifferent to Rogen, but after Kung Fu Hustle I'm not exactly foaming at the mouth to see anything by Chow ever again. Still, I guess there's no reason to suspect this will be as unbearable as Kung Fu Hustle.
You are weird.

[Grouchy]

I'm pretty indifferent to Rogen, but after Kung Fu Hustle I'm not exactly foaming at the mouth to see anything by Chow ever again. Still, I guess there's no reason to suspect this will be as unbearable as Kung Fu Hustle.
You are insane.

[number8]

Stephen Chow and Seth Rogen?

I know!!! It's going to be the best movie of 2010.

[Ivan Drago]

Oh shit. Stephen Chow is directing and playing Kato.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i0401622f490c0f88f39120dd5fd ec617

What's wrong with Stephen Chow? I heard that Kung Fu Hustle was good and did well at the B.O.

[eternity]

After DGG and Pineapple Express ended up being a whole lot worse than I imagine the pair to be, I can't get excited about Chow doing this movie. Everything else he's done has been fantastic, but Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg scripts are usually bordering on abysmal.

[The Mike]

Oh shit. Stephen Chow is directing and playing Kato.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i0401622f490c0f88f39120dd5fd ec617

Nice. I was hoping for Tony Jaa, but this package deal is better.

[Raiders]

Stephen Chow and Seth Rogen? There goes any chance of me seeing it.


I'm pretty indifferent to Rogen, but after Kung Fu Hustle I'm not exactly foaming at the mouth to see anything by Chow ever again. Still, I guess there's no reason to suspect this will be as unbearable as Kung Fu Hustle.


After DGG and Pineapple Express ended up being a whole lot worse than I imagine the pair to be

This thread is full of wrongyness.

[MadMan]

Kung Fu Hustle rocks. Pure and simple.

[Ezee E]

Kung Fu Hustle haters (I'm meh on it) should watch the impressive CJ7.

I didn't like Shaolin Soccer either, but the man has some talent.

[Sycophant]

Chow? Rogen? I wonder how much of a budget they're going to give them.

I'm a little dubious about Chow bringing his career stateside. But I'm still excited for this; it sounds all kinds of weird.

[transmogrifier]

I'm pretty indifferent to Rogen, but after Kung Fu Hustle I'm not exactly foaming at the mouth to see anything by Chow ever again. Still, I guess there's no reason to suspect this will be as unbearable as Kung Fu Hustle.

I'm with you. Kung Fu Hustle was an irritating bore.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'm with you. Kung Fu Hustle was an irritating bore.

w00t.

[bac0n]

You guys are nuts. Stephen Chow = my ass in a seat.

[Thirdmango]

Stephen Chow is God. Pure and simple. I feel the need to buy more of his movies, the ones I don't have yet. I think I shall.

[Sycophant]

It would appear that Chow has dropped out of directing this film, though it's ambiguous whether or not he'll be in it (apparently they're searching frantically for a director now).

Meanwhile Chow is apparently working on casting for his Hollywood debut, with likely leads in Anne Hathaway (yay!) and Jack Black (less enthusiastic about this).

[lovejuice]

It would appear that Chow has dropped out of directing this film, though it's ambiguous whether or not he'll be in it (apparently they're searching frantically for a director now).

Meanwhile Chow is apparently working on casting for his Hollywood debut, with likely leads in Anne Hathaway (yay!) and Jack Black (less enthusiastic about this).

i though chow's doing dragon ball, right now? or am i missing something?

[Sycophant]

i though chow's doing dragon ball, right now? or am i missing something?Produced, not directed by.

[Ezee E]

Meanwhile Chow is apparently working on casting for his Hollywood debut, with likely leads in Anne Hathaway (yay!) and Jack Black (less enthusiastic about this).

Fat man in a blue collar job gets into action situations that involve saving the girl that initially hated him?

My prediction of storyline... I just hope its not the case.

[transmogrifier]

Gondry's in negotiations to direct (http://login.vnuemedia.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3ieda4f2f47125746d8ad355ddbf4 e7515). A superhero movie worth watching?

*faints*

[megladon8]

I have serious doubts about this movie ever seeing the light of day.

[Sycophant]

Me, too. But the prospect of Gondry directing this kind of thrills me.

Rogen's scripts need great direction. Gondry's direction needs good scripts. This could work.

[megladon8]

Me, too. But the prospect of Gondry directing this kind of thrills me.

Rogen's scripts need great direction. Gondry's direction needs good scripts. This could work.


Yeah, I thought bringing on an artsy-indie director (David Gordon Green on Pineapple Express) worked wonders. Very subtle wonders, but wonders all the same.

I'm looking forward to it for sure, I just - like I said - wonder if it'll ever happen.

[number8]

Hmm, Rogen revealed some details about the film. It's something that is pretty much to be expected when you have Rogen playing Green Hornet.

Apparently the main focus of the movie is very heavily on the relationship between GH and Kato, where GH is just a totally normal kind of useless guy in a get-up and Kato is the one who always saves the day. It's supposed to be a subversive take on the superhero origin story.

[Grouchy]

Hmm, Rogen revealed some details about the film. It's something that is pretty much to be expected when you have Rogen playing Green Hornet.

Apparently the main focus of the movie is very heavily on the relationship between GH and Kato, where GH is just a totally normal kind of useless guy in a get-up and Kato is the one who always saves the day. It's supposed to be a subversive take on the superhero origin story.
That sounds like somethin Stephen Chow would do much better than Gondry.

Of course, I'm not Gondry's biggest fan, so maybe I'm just biased.

[D_Davis]

Apparently the main focus of the movie is very heavily on the relationship between GH and Kato, where GH is just a totally normal kind of useless guy in a get-up and Kato is the one who always saves the day. It's supposed to be a subversive take on the superhero origin story.

Man, if only John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, and Dennis Dun would have made this movie in the mid 1980s....

[Ezee E]

ha.

Michel Gondry when asked if he would do his typical special effects in the movie: "No, I don’t want to any of that. The fact that you think I want to do that drives me crazy and makes me never want to do anything like that again."

[number8]

Stephen Chow completely out, not involved at all.

They're looking for an unknown for Kato. Casting call notice:


[KATO] ALL ASIAN ETHNICITIES, Male, 20's - early 40's. Brit Reid's manservant/chauffeur by day and Green Hornet's martial arts-skilled sidekick by night sptv050769. Actor doesn't have to have Martial Arts experience

[Sycophant]

Stephen Chow completely out, not involved at all.

They're looking for an unknown for Kato. Casting call notice:

That's a little disappointing. Wonder how Chow's Hollywood debut feature is coming along, then.

You going for it, 8?

[EyesWideOpen]

Stephen Chow was the only reason I had any interest in this. If they got Tony Jaa as Kato I might still be down.

[Morris Schæffer]

Cage is out as the villain, but oh boy, guess who's in?!


Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke is reporting that the magnificent Christoph Waltz has agreed to step in for Nicolas Cage as the villain "Chudnofsky" in Michel Gondry's THE GREEN HORNET. That, my friends, is what we call a bingo.

Though many were disappointed when Cage dropped out of the film (reportedly over $$$), I love the idea of Waltz goofing around with what will presumably be a more cartoony bad guy than INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS' charismatic, but deeply evil Col. Hans Landa. This could be a nice, post-Oscar victory lap for the fifty-two-year-old Austrian actor, who, prior to his appearance in Tarantino's film, was all but unknown here in the states. This is incredibly well-deserved, and will hopefully vault Waltz into bigger and better (and, perhaps, less villainous roles) in the near future.

Waltz will join Seth Rogen, Jay Chou and Cameron Diaz in the Gondry-directed film, which is currently shooting and set to hit theaters December 17, 2010.

Don't care about the movie, but more Waltz can only be a good thing. but wait, Gondry is helming this?! Hm, I'm not a Gondry fan either, but I'm curious to see what he does with the material.

[ledfloyd]

so he's went from being 'the jew hunter' to a guy that terrorizes seth rogen? he's already being typecast!

[Sycophant]

Jay Chou for Kato, huh? Wild.

[megladon8]

Yikes. (http://iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9029%3Abad-news-for-green-hornet-a-lobo&catid=41%3Anews&Itemid=71)



We're hearing the Sony executives are displeased with the results. The tone is too campy, they're not happy with the work from director Michel Gondry and Seth Rogen does not look the part. At all. In fact, the feeling at Sony is the movie is a disaster.

[eternity]

Yikes. (http://iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9029%3Abad-news-for-green-hornet-a-lobo&catid=41%3Anews&Itemid=71)
They have no right to complain about the results of this. They had to know what they were getting into.

[EyesWideOpen]

Green Hornet is a pretty damn campy property on it's own so what did they want it to be?

[transmogrifier]

Funny. Gotta love execs. You've got to wonder about the mentality of people who would hire both Gondry AND Rogen for a spandex movie, and then complain that it is too campy. Did they pick two names out of a hat or something when choosing the director and star?

Anyway, this is the only spandex film I was halfway interesting in. Mainly because of the two names they picked out of the hat.

[Rowland]

The studio assholes don't like it, that's a good sign. What the fuck did they expect, hiring Gondry? Fucking idiots, I swear.

Anyway, ESotSM is a masterpiece, and both Be Kind Rewind and The Science of Sleep are underrated, so I'm still eagerly anticipating whatever Gondry has made of this conceptually inane project.

[Raiders]

And Sony denies it: http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2010/04/14/

Who knows. The real tell will be if they stick with its ridiculously competitive release date.

[Spun Lepton]

$1 says it'll get an August or a February release.

[Ezee E]

Nothing wrong with an August release.

[Spun Lepton]

Nothing wrong with an August release.

2nd worst month for movies.

[Ezee E]

2nd worst month for movies.
I'd say September is.

[Spun Lepton]

I'd say September is.

My point being, Sony's gonna shit on the release.

[Spun Lepton]

My point being, Sony's gonna shit on the release.

Case in point...

http://io9.com/5522647/airbender-and-green-hornet-line-up-to-be-ruined-by-3+d

[Ivan Drago]

Case in point...

http://io9.com/5522647/airbender-and-green-hornet-line-up-to-be-ruined-by-3+d

And Warner is doing the same thing for Harry Potter. God help us.

[number8]

And Warner is doing the same thing for Harry Potter. God help us.

The last two Harry Potter movies were 3-D.

[Ivan Drago]

The last two Harry Potter movies were 3-D.

True, but wasn't that IMAX only? I read that these last two movies are going to be released 3D in every theater.

[Winston*]

Why does it matter? It's not like you can't see these films in 2D too.

[Henry Gale]

True, but wasn't that IMAX only?.

Yeah, it was. I saw Order of the Phoenix that way and it was basically everything from the scene where they fly to the final battle up until the last couple of dialogue-driven scenes at the end. The presentation wasn't too great, the characters suffered from "cardboard cutout syndrome" (just as they did for Superman Returns) as its more commonly known, but the CG stuff around them looked smooth. The parts where the glass shattered around Voldemort leading into the stuff in their heads afterwards were the most impressive. Half-Blood Prince was just the opening sequence with the smoke monster attack, I believe.

But Green Hornet... At first the idea seemed terrible and as if Sony really was worried about it and had to to give it something marketable (because most understood it to be a campy comedy with $100 million behind it), but then today I saw Rogen's statement about it:


Evan Goldberg, Michel Gondry and myself could not be more excited about going 3D. The truth is that this is something that we have wanted since the very first conversations we all had about the film. A lot of the visually driven sequences Michel came up were first conceived for a 3D movie. After watching the first third of the film and working with Sony Imageworks, the studio decided now would be a perfect time to commit to 3D. Since it was always a dream of ours, the look of the film complements it perfectly. None of the effects shots have been started, none of the blue screen shots have been composited, and this lets us do all of it in 3D. What gets me most excited is the fact that Gondry is so enthusastic about it. I think that Gondry's visuals done in 3D will give us something we've never seen before.

...and started to feel a bit better about it. I know it's something released to calm fans and that he basically has no choice but to say it's going to be good. But everything there sounds like the sort of thing that could make a post-converted 3D movie work well. Plus, they have a lot more time to get it right than Titans conversion most saw as a hatchet-job simply done by some foreign company far away from Leterrier (who reportedly was against the idea) in only 7 or 8 weeks.

Hopefully this leans towards seeing more filmmaker-intended 3D films (even if done after the fact), but this will be one that proves if even that asterisk of approval makes it any more effective.

[number8]

A Michel Gondry film in 3D would be great actually. I think Science of Sleep and Be Kind Rewind would've benefited from it.

[Ezee E]

A Michel Gondry film in 3D would be great actually. I think Science of Sleep and Be Kind Rewind would've benefited from it.

Agreed.

[Grouchy]

A Michel Gondry film in 3D would be great actually. I think Science of Sleep and Be Kind Rewind would've benefited from it.
http://trueslant.com/level/files/2009/05/science-of-sleep-splash.jpg

[Spun Lepton]

Why does it matter? It's not like you can't see these films in 2D too.

There's only been one movie to get released with the retrofit-3D, and they were kind enough to release both 3D and 2D versions. The 3D version was the successful one. How many more films do you think will get released in this manner before they remove the 2D option in favor of more 3D screens?

Keep in mind, I'm probably one of the few people on the board who enjoys 3D. This retrofit-3D stuff is bollocks, however.

[Watashi]

http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/green-hornet-official-1.jpg

http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/green-hornet-official-2.jpg

I'm looking forward to this.

[Henry Gale]

Apparently Rogen is on Jimmy Kimmel tonight to premiere the trailer. Seems a bit early...

[Sxottlan]

I didn't see him on Kimmel, but I saw it on E.T.

I was immediately reminded of The Mask. But I thought it looked fun.

[B-side]

Trailer (http://www.collider.com/2010/06/21/green-hornet-trailer-new-images-seth-rogen/#more-33571)

[B-side]

It looks terrible.

[number8]

What the fuck? That's really... astoundingly generic.

I'll see it for Christoph, I guess. Sigh.

[Ivan Drago]

I think it looks cool. But the new January release date isn't a good sign.

[Morris Schæffer]

I guess I never saw the inherent potential in this character. Which is another way of saying that looks about what I expected. And it doesn't look too bad. Definitely not enough Waltz in this trailer though.

[Watashi]

So much for them playing it straight.

I thought this would be an interesting role for Rogen. Guess not.

[BuffaloWilder]

I can dig it. It's not a serious role for Rogen, but it's a serious action movie role.

[eternity]

Looks like January fodder.

[Sven]

That's really... astoundingly generic.

Wasn't that part of Gondry's design?


I'll see it for Christoph, I guess. Sigh.

He does look pretty badass.

[Sxottlan]

I like the looks of it. The double-barreled Desert Eagle looks like something I'd see in a Gondry film.

http://www.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/Green-Hornet-movie-image-600x406.jpg

[Morris Schæffer]

Wasn't that part of Gondry's design?

And wasn't the original show's only claim to fame that it gave the world Bruce Lee?

[number8]

And wasn't the original show's only claim to fame that it gave the world Bruce Lee?

No. Green Hornet used to be as popular as the Adam West Batman.

[Morris Schæffer]

No. Green Hornet used to be as popular as the Adam West Batman.

Popular sure, but in terms of quality? I've enjoyed the Adam West show in my time, have fond memories of it, but nowadays I doubt I could watch it.

[Dukefrukem]

I didn't think it was that bad and I was expecting generic.

[number8]

Popular sure, but in terms of quality? I've enjoyed the Adam West show in my time, have fond memories of it, but nowadays I doubt I could watch it.

I dunno, but you asked about its claim to fame, not its quality.

I've always liked the concept.

[Grouchy]

I didn't expect that to look good and it looks fucking terrible.

Did anyone else notice the upside-down sign in the first shot?

[Dukefrukem]

Did anyone else notice the upside-down sign in the first shot?

HAhA! What the hell?

[number8]

It symbolizes how upside down his life was before he became the Hornet.

[Henry Gale]

I must be the only person that thinks the trailer wasn't bad at all.

This could definitely become another Speed Racer financially, critically and with general audience impressions. That trailer is so generically put together, I basically block out how the footage is presented and find myself pretty intruiged as to how some of the stuff there will fit into a final film, and what its tone will actually be.

With Gondry directing, Seth and Evan writing, it being Waltz' first role since Basterds, Sally Menke editing among promising factors, I find it hard to believe that the movie they've actually made is marketable at all, so what we're seeing is what Sony thinks is the best way to make it work for them. But then it'll just be people here liking it.

[Sxottlan]

Reviews for this appear to be pretty evenly split for now.

[Sven]

...Sally Menke editing among promising factors...

Hmmm.

[Henry Gale]

Hmmm.

Yeah, seems like so long ago. But at the same time, it seems like it was somewhat misreported back then and she was merely brought in by Gondry to help give ideas of how to punch up certain action pieces. You can see him talk a bit about it in this interview (http://collider.com/michel-gondry-interview-green-hornet-noam-chomsky/69943/#more-69943).

It also seems really odd to me that the pre-tomatometer buzz for this (mostly magazines and websites breaking embargo) seemed so positive but suddenly the main consensus, especially with mainstream critics, seems so outright dismissive of it. Things like a 1-star review from Ebert were not the sort of reaction I was expecting. Not that those first reactions were touting it as an action masterpiece, but "light-hearted fun" seemed to be happily thrown around a lot in a non-condescending way.

Also, I'm thinking of maybe just seeing it in 2D since I haven't read a single review that hasn't said it does anything but muddle the image or even offer very much comin' atcha! visuals. It's also a post-converted 3D job, and the only other one of those I've seen is Piranha 3D, which I thought looked pretty terrible when it wasn't CGI'd underwater shots of killer fish lairs and such. Plus, the normally projected screenings will likely be less crowded on opening weekend.

I still find myself pretty excited to see it.

[Sxottlan]

I still find myself pretty excited to see it.

Same here. Although I may use a gift certificate now instead of paying for it. :|

[Henry Gale]

To even further confuse me, Cinema Blend wrote a pretty convincing and thorough article here (http://www.cinemablend.com/new/To-3D-Or-Not-To-3D-Choose-The-Right-Green-Hornet-Ticket-22618.html) that makes this out to be the best post-coversion job we've seen in this recent boom of 3D releases. Though they do say it's much more slanted towards things going on with the depth of the screen rather than things popping out of it.

But seriously guys, watch Gondry's Jimmy Kimmel Live episode from last night. It's incredibly, hysterically good from the very beginning to end. Not sure if the whole episode is on Hulu or anything in the states, but it started out like this:

fcibJ7pgQKs

tktUAmsoTac

Rrb2pB1ms0E

[Sxottlan]

This was rough going.

There is a lot to like about it. Gondry's style bursts through here and there, especially towards the climax where we get ESOTSM lighting and weirdness as Britt is working out the backstory in his own head. The action scenes are perfectly fine (looks like Vic Armstrong was a 2nd unit director) and the visuals are fine. There's an amazing shot that goes from one and keeps dividing until it's about a dozen cameras going in different directions.

Some of the humor doesn't work however and the plot turns are very contrived. From the trailer, it seemed really implicit that Britt's father was a first or earlier iteration of the Green Hornet. Why else then would Britt dress up in 60's clothing? So his dad's car had Ben-Hur blades and he wasn't a secret crime fighter? Whaa? Seriously?

I think the trailer is even explicit about the idea, but the bit with the closet full of guns wasn't in the movie. There's tons from the trailer that's on the editing floor. I guess given what I heard was a troubled (?) production, I can see why the film had a couple editors go over it a few times.

Christophe Waltz was pretty good and he had the best line of the film:
"I'm ungassable!"

I'd like to see a director's cut some day. That might help with some of the pacing issues too. Right now I'd give it a positive bent on an average rating.

[TGM]

I can see why the film had a couple editors go over it a few times.

If you ask me, they didn't go over it enough.

The Green Hornet was alright. There were a number of scenes that overstayed their welcome. And there was one scene in particular which flat out should have been cut from the movie, as all it did was hold the viewer's hand and treating them like a complete idiot. Some things were obnoxious, but overall, I'd say it was generally an enjoyable film. There were plenty of laughs, and most of the action scenes were fun to watch. Nothing special, but nothing horrible, either.


where we get ESOTSM lighting and weirdness as Britt is working out the backstory in his own head.

This is the exact scene I thought should have been cut. It didn't tell us anything that anybody actually paying attention didn't already know. Waste of time, and felt entirely out of place, taking me completely out of the movie throughout the duration of this sequence.

[elixir]

Honestly didn't like this at all. I tried to enjoy it, but I couldn't.

Seth Rogen's character has to one of the most unlikeable protagonists in a long time. And he's meant to be liked, right? He's meant to be funny? Well, I just found him smug and the smirk he gave after every joke was really bothersome.

In addition, the humor in general was soooooo forced--it just sounded like it came off a writer who wanted to make AWESOME jokes...I'm not quite sure how to describe that type of humor, but I know it when I see it, and it didn't work and was way overused.

The two leads had no chemistry. Cameron Diaz is there just to be a pretty face, and to spout information.

Christoph Waltz was maybe the only semi-enjoyable part of the movie, along with the 12 split-screen scene.

Also, I know you can't expect realism or whatever, but it annoyed me when a cop pulled a gun on them at the beginning when all they were in was a car chase and also when they went up to the drug dealers, the guy pulled a gun on them right away. Weird. Also, they killed innocent people and it was just "whatever," I guess because they are drug dealers. I know, I know, maybe I shouldn't be concerned about it in this type of movie (?) but it still rubbed me the wrong way.

Mostly though, the humor didn't work and Seth Rogen is dull and unfunny. And I agree about cutting that scene--just awful.

[Henry Gale]

*Minor spoilers*

Disappointing, but mainly because it feels like way too many of the minds involved competing to have their very different ideal versions of the movie be the one we see on screen. In a way, I feel like the whole picture can be summed up with three scenes:

The first scene of the movie. Ideally, the first scene of something like this should be intruiging, maybe mysterious or even instantly exciting, but really be something inviting that we can jump in with as things get ready to go on the ride of the movie. Instead we get a completely flat and overly dramatic scene of Tom Wilkinson's character and a boy playing a young Seth Rogen where the father rips the head off of his son's superhero toy and then into the garbage (in 3D!) while spouting dialogue that only sort of seems like it's going to play a role in the rest of what we see from the film. This is our introduction to these characters and the world of the movie? It doesn't give anything any sort of jumping point into the actual plot of it, and barely provides background about his father trying to stop him at a young age from being a superhero or anything like that. It's awkward, strange and stalls the pacing of it before it's even been given a chance to lift off. If they were going to start the movie anywhere, it should have been the scene right after it between Christoph Waltz and a rival crime boss that's also a surprise cameo. This scene sets up the danger of the criminal underground of the L.A. of the story, the fact that there is going to be shades of comedy, but also unflinching menace and stakes to it when it wants to, often while trying to look cool doing so. I know the opening is one of maybe two real scenes we realy get with Wilkinson, but we also get Britt retelling the whole thing later on to Kato, and it works better there. It just brings the movie down to an odd place as its first scene. But not knowing where to place the right dramatic beats is something the movie seems misguided about elsewhere, it's just sad that we know this from the get-go.

The scene where we go into of Britt's head. Visually and conceptually, it's one of the only times I was reminded (and then shocked, confused, saddened) that we were actually watching a film directed by Michel Gondry. It has the sort of lighting and effects we saw in the dream sequences of Eternal Sunshine, the whiz-bang editing and sound of much of his commercial and video work, bringing many images together in moving collages, and just in general feels like the only point of the movie where Gondry was really allowed to have fun in his signature style. It's just such a shame that what we're seeing is a that's essentially backtracking at the point it shows up (even trying to save that fact by having the other character in the scene point out that the information has already been stated and that he's stupid for trying to piece it together again) as well as stylistically not jiving with anything that came before it. It's unlike any other scene in the movie (or most movies for that matter) and it's right as the film is trying to gain momentum for the big action climax, deciding then and there that suddenly wants to try something new.

The smallest of all: The shot where Kato spins the beer caps offthe bottle and into the air with his bare hands. Seems like an odd and pointless choice, but it sums up the whole experience of this film for me in a small way. As an audience member, I see the potential of all the elements on screen hoping for them to come together in a way that's very cool, and in a scene where we really start to see Kato's full abilities, he offers Britt a beer by twisting them off in one quick motion that sends the bottle caps flying through the room, going straight for the audience but then back around and then-- and then... they... fall on the floor towards the corner of the screen. The camera then lingers on them for a little bit before continuing on with the dialogue. They couldn't hit a button or do something to help seque to another reveal in a scene of many? It just seems like a quick visual idea that stuck around in the script for a long time until it was something they did the CG on and then had no other purpose than to have in the trailer (which cuts away from the effect at the halfway point). And also, for such a seemingly gimme effect, the 3D on it barely seemed to go beyond "the window" of the frame towards the audience. The 3D is still probably is some of the best post-conversion stuff I've seen, but it's also still obvious that it's not genuine and seemed to also darkens the visuals in a much more intrusive ways than most 3D movies while not adding very much to the movie at all.

It all comes down to the fact that The Green Hornet clearly had a lot of unique ideas, some better realized than others, but it simply didn't seem to know which ones (good or bad) worked for the movie at hand. There's never moments where you feel like the lead characters' insecurities about their individual skills and functions come together to resolve things in a gratifying way, nor does there seem to be much of an arc or real story to take away from it at all. It's like how some comedies are sloppily structured but it feels like it's because the filmmakers just wanted the jokes the play well, hoping the laughs would hold everything together. Except it's not really a comedy (and despite some of the more recent marketing) and even if it instead wants to be a simple action movie that only serves those bigger setpieces, at two hours long with all sorts of characters and storylines it doesn't know what to do with it gets sidetracked far too often. And with all of those detours it simply drains any real excitement of whatever melding of genres it's going for.

You have aspects like some of the better, wittier dialogue along the way, as well as certain character shades like Waltz's midlife crisis as a crime boss and how Diaz is very keen on suing Rogen for sexual harassment instead of being the easy route of a love interest, small touches like Britt's solution to a gunshot wound and an amazing sequence like the twelve-way splitting screen; those are the moments where I'm extremely impressed and entertained about as much I could have expected a film like this to offer. And then there's everything that sets the stage between them that never really clicks. It's a shame, and the best I can hope from the film is that it makes a lot of money and gives Gondry future pull to make whatever he wants from here on out. But as it is, being in the theatre watching it... it's just not that satisfying.

**½

[Sycophant]

Still haven't seen this film, but David Bordwell wrote about Chow's departure:

I take comfort in learning just last weekend what terminated Stephen Chow’s directorship of The Green Hornet. According to one report he proposed to plant a microchip in the hero’s brain and have Kato control him with a joystick. In an Entertainment Weekly article not online, director Michel Gondry claims that Chow’s plans were too far out. “Really, really crazy ideas that you would not dare bring to a studio. AIDS was involved. Plastic boobs were involved too.” That Gondry, one of Hollywood’s approved Wild Things, can find something Chow proposed over the top gives you hope.

[Qrazy]

Gives us hope in what? That someone else will give Chow the money to make his presumably much more interesting over the top film?

[Sycophant]

Ah, yeah, it makes more sense in context (http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2011/01/13/planet-hong-kong-the-little-industry-that-could-then-couldnt/). Should've provided that up front. It comes from an article where Bordwell examines the decline of Hong Kong cinema, using that as evidence that the entirety of the HK film industry is not necessarily creatively bankrupt and lacking in the old spirit.

[Dukefrukem]

There's a really cool scene where the camera splints into 8+ pieces and each piece takes on it's own camera in different directions. Not sure how they did it, but it came out pretty cool.

This is the 5th movie i've watched today.

[Ezee E]

Gondry wastes perfectly good talent on a shitty script in The Green Hornet. Jay Chou and Christoph Waltz are good fits, but I think Rogen should've switched roles with Franco here. Franco would be a little more self-aware (perhaps too much though?) in the role.