Once again we have a director making a movie he shouldn't be making with an actor that shouldn't be in the movie. Michel Gondry directed one of my favorite movies of all time, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a beautiful, mind bending science fiction love story with an Oscar nominated performance by Kate Winslet and an Oscar snubbed performance by Jim Carrey. He's had some fun in the past, helming Dave Chapelle's Block Party and episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live and HBO's Flight of the Conchords, but he's known primarily for his quirky sensibilities, taking on projects like The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind, and Eternal Sunshine; all lower budget dramedies. To see him take a step back and jump behind the wheel of this schlock is almost heartbreaking. It raises so many questions, namely, why he would give up on his art. The answer is obviously, money, and that's really, really sad.
The Green Hornet stars Seth Rogen which is also pretty bizarre. Whoever thought casting Rogen as an action hero (bumbling though he may be) was an acceptable alternative to just about anything else, should be shot.
The movie is choppy and all over the place. The movie opens wit a scene in the past in which Rogen's character (as a child) is being berated by his father... only so that Rogen could tell the story later. He could have just told the story; we didn't need to see it first. Later after his father's funeral, he apparently fires his entire household staff, an emotional scene during which we see the character's vulnerability, resentment and mourning... but they didn't show it. They told us it happened by having Rogen ask the only maid left where the staff is. The literally left every ounce of humanity on the cutting room floor, I assume because the cast couldn't act it.
The Green Hornet is solely a money machine and you are supposed to be the cogs. Don't be a cog.
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