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A fragile plot and an outlandish story make for a dull fare in Michael Gondry’s The Green Hornet
WhAT does one say of a millionaire playboy son, who succeeds his upright newspaper baron father after his sudden death? That he is all at sea in an alien atmosphere. That his hatred for his strict, disciplinarian father is manifest in telling ways. But what next? Not much, except a dose of mediocrity. A fragile plot and outlandish story makes for a dull fare in The Green Hornet. A deep bond of friendship with his Chinese mechanic employee Kato (Jay Chou) gives playboy Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) a great fillip though it raises the eyebrows of dad’s loyal journalist colleagues. He goes about on night raids with his sidekick posing as the bad guys, Zorro-like and depending much on Kato’s wizardry. But then, where does Green Hornet come in? That the film will tell. The death of a friend by the drug mafia shakes Britt up and makes him want to get even with the mafia led by Chudnovsky (Christoph Waltz). It is a long and somewhat lacklustre road to his goal, strewn with base American humour and spurts of action, super action that is, which are alternated with a benign story in with his sexy secretary Leonore Case (Cameron Diaz) supposed to provide romantic relief. But robot-like, and switching readily from lovey-dovey to grim and combative. She is only of nuisance value. There’s also an American Senator lurking in the background who has a part to play.
Director Michael Gondry who has shown such expertise in the cerebral Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has to pull the strings of this inane story. If he is trying to show his versatility, it is not the right vehicle. The screenplay by Seth Rogen is appalling. Of course, as far as gadgets go, it is a 50-year update of the James Bond formula. Girls are not there but the guns are far more explosive as is the in-your-face action. The 3D technique helps and Gondry slips in a few trademark tricks, including a Kato-fight sequence (shades of The Matrix) and a flashy multiplying split-screen scene, which may be visually satiating but these sparks of opulence scarcely make up for the 119-minute-long ordeal one is forced to endure. No light at the end of the tunnel. Sadly this seems to be Hollywood’s idea of good entertainment, 70 per cent form and 30 per cent (that too generously) content. As for the acting, apart from Jay Chou, who steals the show thanks to his well-fleshed cameo, the rest of them are just about tolerable. Cameron Diaz, who makes her entry well into the film, is wasted as a blonde bimbo as is Christoph Waltz, whose role in Quintin Tarentino’s Inglorious Basterds is still spoken about. Seth Rogen is, at best, moderate. May be, the scripting job has probably told on his performance. But The Green Hornet is barely tolerable, that if one has nothing better to do.
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