Friday, May 06, 2011

Movie Review: The Green Hornet

Yesterday I took a break from work and watched The Green Hornet, a $120 million movie that may have been the worst superhero action film ever made (though I hate to give short shrift to the equally terrible Spiderman III or the relatively dull Wolverine). Under the tutelage of the generally likable Seth Rogan (who both stars in the "movie" and co-wrote the script), the film was a disaster from beginning to end, with a narrative so tired I'm surprised it didn't put the camera to sleep during shooting and dialogue so flat it made Matzoh seem like it was bursting with yeasty vibrancy. The story, to those who haven't seen the film, revolves around a poor little rich kid (well not that little) who is lost, disappointing his father as he parties all day and night and sleeps with beautiful women that the story doesn't even bother to name. Then his father dies and our hero realizes he has to change his life, with the assistance of his father's mechanic Kato (Jay Chou) and Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), who seems to have no role in the film but to provide some utterly uninteresting factoids about crime and a smile to Kato and Britt Reid (Rogan). The characters are as thinly developed as a finely cut slice of Swiss cheese, and the plot even less profound than an average Ziggy or Family Circus comic. Kato and Britt decide, after cutting the head of a statue of the fallen hero boss and father (Tom Wilkinson), to become criminals themselves to take down the criminal syndicate led by the Chudnofsky (played by the usually wonderful Christoph Waltz), who suffers from low self-esteem and salves this internal wound by simply killing all his enemies with a double barreled gun. Rarely has there been a less interesting evil antagonist matched against an equally uninteresting hero. The plot then turns around a corrupt politician (how original!), in this case a DA who is in cahoots with the criminal kingpin, and the attempt to stop him.

Lots of pointless action scenes follow, of course, culminating in a final shootout and the anti-Oedipal moment of returning the head to the dead father's statue -- as we learn he was an okay billionaire after all. Yet does the protagonist really grow? Does he get the girl? Do we even give a shit? The film was directed by Michel Gondry, who crafted what I consider one of the best movies of the just past decade -- the sublime Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. Since then, like too many directors of his generation (including most obviously Wes Anderson), he seems to get worse with every movie. Aronofsky has certainly worked against this trend, but too many seem to revel in their own press too much and lose the edge that defined their early work. Like so much blockbuster fare of late, The Green Hornet, is a pointless piece of entertainment thrown together as a vehicle for the new crop of tepidly talented comedic stars. Where once we had the veritable brilliance of Eddie Murphy, John Belushi, the early Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, today we are stuck with Adam Sandler and his many brethren. Even Michael Myers has fallen into disrepair, losing his comedic touch to the point that I'm not sure he's even making films anymore (and don't really care if he is).

The deeper problem appears to be the low expectations we hold for comedy today and an underlying assumption that the American public cannot digest anything with a deeper intellectual backbone (except in Oscar season, if even then). Has the failure of the education system finally caught up with us? Has popular culture offered even a semblance of a commitment to quality? Or has America just gotten so stupid we don't know any better? I don't think the last question should be answered in the affirmative, but I fear that Hollywood has come to that conclusion -- or that it has simply lost its will to give real talent the freedom to create films really worth the $12 cost of entry.

No comments: