THE GREEN HORNET 3D

Director: Michel Gondry

Starring: Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz

AFTER about ten minutes waching this film I was wondering what else I could be doing more constructively. But then I had an epiphany.

Instead of watching the movie as a remake of the classic Green Hornet TV and radio series, I just treated it as a knockabout comedy in true Seth Rogen fashion (Step Brothers, Pineapple Express).

Rogen plays Britt Reid, a complete loser who wastes his father’s money on non-stop partying and who has little to commend him.

After his dad’s death (Tom Wilkinson playing yet another American), Reid meets up with the old man’s assistant Kato (Chou) who has martial arts skills and can construct all manor of amazing machines that would make the A-Team jealous.

More out of boredom than anything they embark on clearing criminals off the streets but run into the town’s big baddy Chudnofsky (Waltz).

The rest is all action, punch-ups and a fair amount of half-decent comic one-liners.

On the down side, Cameron Diaz has a pretty pointless role as a secretary, the superb Edward James Olmos’ skills are totally wasted in his part of a newspaper editor and Chou’s heavy accent meant I couldn’t understand much of what he said. Plus the joke of no-one being able to pronounce Chudnofsky’s name wore a bit thin the third or fourth time.

However, if you enjoy those frat-party type movies where the main characters act like a bunch of out of control kids then this could be for you.

The music’s pretty decent and the 3D effects are OK, though it’s always worrying when the best 3D bits are the ads before the film starts.

Film screening courtesy Cineworld Crawley.

three out of five stars

Steve Payne