Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the son of a media mogul. When his father dies and his newspaper is business is handed over to him he vents all his issues with his recently deceased father by taking to the nights with Kato (Jay Chou), his father’s mechanic, as The Green Hornet.

The movie is based on a property that originated as a radio show in 1936. Eventually it became a TV show in the 60s and was closely related to the now infamous Adam West Batman show.

The movie itself is Michel Gondry’s second attempt to enter into American mainstream cinema. His first attempt was with Be Kind Rewind which was a financial as well as a critical failure. So does this movie succeed where Be Kind Rewind failed? Not completely.

The movie was, I think, the best use of Gondry’s style without beating the audience over the head with some of his strange French likeability. However, what definitely held him back in this sense  I believe – a lot more than any American studio telling him what parts of himself would work with the US – was the utilization of the 3D.

Since this movie was converted to 3D, like Clash of the Titans and Alice in Wonderland, as opposed to shot in 3D, like Avatar, the effects suffered miserably. There were numerous times where there was an explosion or some special effect that if left in 2D would’ve been perfectly fine, but since they felt the need to have it in 3D they just came off as flat. They would add a few elements of debris to be the layer that was coming at me in the film but it felt like an after-effect more than anything else and didn’t even look like it was part of the movie. I’ve voiced my complaints with the conversion process of films to 3D and pretty much written it off, unfortunately this movie was too tempting for me to pass up the opportunity to check it out.

The comedy in this movie works and the action works even better. Kato is kick ass, just like when Bruce Lee played him in the TV show. While the character of Britt Reid is not likable at all, the line delivery from Seth Rogen as well as the overall relationship between him and Jay Chou was so enjoyable at times that I have to admit I was in stitches often enough that I can’t call the execution of the movie a failure at all.

My favourite aspect of this movie however is the villain, Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). Waltz brings the same kind of style of a villain that he gave us in Inglorious Basterds. He has this ability to start out being welcoming and civil and quickly turn into this frightening man. It’s like the businessman who comes asking you kindly for something and the moment that you refuse he reminds you that he’s can just take it if he wants, all he wants is you to know that and give it to him. From the opening scene, which has a great cameo role, where he takes over a certain club and we’re introduced to the ridiculous double barrel handgun he has to the very end I loved his acting.

This is the comic book movie that keeps the whimsical alive in a genre that’s being overtaken by the dark and gritty style that’s become popular as of recent. It’s not the best movie of the year and it’s completely forgettable but it’s fun and definitely worth a watch when it hits DVD later this year.

IMDB says 6.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 43%

I say 6.0/10