The Green Hornet - 2011

Director: Michel Gondry

Writers: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg

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

"We've been completely wasting our potential. This city needs our help. We could be heroes! We will pose as villains to get close to the bad guys. That way, no one will suspect we're really the good guys." Heir to a newspaper mogul, Britt Reid (Rogen) is inspired by the death of his father to rid the city of nefarious forces, including crime boss Chudnofsky (Waltz), with the help of his executive associate Kato (Chou).

Unlike most comic adaptations (yes, I know it started out as a radio serial), I have virtually no ties with the character, and was expecting quite a different film. This is action- and comedy-heavy, nearly to the point of camp, so if that's you're thing, then by all means, go see it. However, I don't think that the Rogen/Goldberg duo has matured as screenwriters to the level where something like this is necessarily considered good cinema. The villain's words are written virtually the same as those of the (should-be) very different protagonist. There are huge jumps in logic near the film's end, as well as a maltreatment of one of the film's few redeeming qualities: the scenes that actually look like Gondry had something to do with them. On top of all this, the (postconversion) 3D is, as always, utterly pointless. See it in 2D if you can, if what I've described is your kind of thing. C