THE GREEN HORNET

Dir. Michel Gondry US 2011

This movie had a lot working against it now that I think about it. It's based on a comic book character that most people under 50 have never heard of. It was coming out in the middle of a nearly decade-long glut of superhero movies. It had been in development for about 15 years, before finally being handed to Michel Gondry, an acclaimed indie filmmaker with no previous experience directing action. Coupled with potential Seth Rogen backlash and a co-star with a questionable grasp on the English language, this is not a movie I would have bet on (and I guess I technically didn't, since I didn't see it in theatres). It was not really surprising when Green Hornet opened to mostly negative reviews and middling box office. What DID surprise me when I finally got around to watching it was how goddamn good it was.

The Green Hornet is the story of Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), the drunken, hard-partying slacker son of a major newspaper publisher in Los Angeles (the always excellent Tom Wilkinson). Following his father's sudden death, Britt befriends his personal assistant, a mysterious, multi-skilled man named Kato (Jay Chou). Moved to action by the passing of his crusading father and a crime wave perpetrated by a maniacal drug kingpin (Christoph Waltz), Britt marshals Kato's martial arts and engineering skills to turn himself into an underworld scourge known as the Green Hornet.

Michel Gondry got his start in music videos, most famously the visually striking "Fell in Love with a Girl" and "Hardest Button to Button" videos for The White Stripes, and made his major film debut with 2004's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In addition to his off-kilter camera work and whimsical, low-tech special effects, Gondry brings something else to this film that sets it apart from other superhero films: a shaggy, loose sense of plotting that opts for the characters screwing around and hanging out rather than sacrificing such moments for the sake of steamrolling the plot forward. This is also a testament to the skills of Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg (there last script, Superbad, displays a similar inclination to chuck its characters into random situations and see what happens, rather than push them through a narrative), who keep the film consistently funny and clever, while also hitting all the necessary beats for a buddy action-comedy. At two hours, the film feels a little long, but it never wears out its welcome.

For a guy with no previous action cred, Gondry puts together some pretty interesting sequences for this movie. The slo-mo "Kato-vision" is a little trite on the surface, like so many other derivatives of bullet-time, but the weird camera effects and creative choreography keep the fights fresh and engaging. The finale is a combination car-chase/shoot-out/martial arts blowout that ranks as one of the most fun action scenes I've seen in a long time. My favorite though, comes at the end of the second act, where Britt and Kato have their obligatory "falling out before they can team-up for the ending" argument, which manifests as a clumsy, creative fight through Britt's mansion with some pretty hilarious choreography and appropriation of household items as weapons.

I can't really call the character Seth Rogen plays here that much of a risk for him, given his predilection toward irresponsible, caustic louts, but Britt does seem like a twisted extreme of his previous performances. Whereas Rogen's characters in Knocked Up and Pineapple Express ultimately learn valuable life lessons and grow as people, Britt plunges through this film with the enthusiasm and arrested development of an old Looney Tunes character. He is narcissistic to the point of delusion, utterly selfish and mostly incompetent. Yet his reaction to all the craziness around him mirrors the amused reactions of the audience and so you feel as though he's watching the movie along side you and commenting, rather than acting as the idiotic impetus for everything that's happening. Jay Chou's Kato, despite being hyper-competent and highly skilled at basically everything, is only slightly more responsible than Britt, which is to say, not really at all. The film takes some brief time out at points to contemplate the extremely skewed morals of its two leads, but never really condemns them for it, another factor that probably contributed to the films poor reviews.

Cameron Diaz is in this movie as well, ostensibly as the love interest, but the film has the good sense (unlike the film I previously reviewed, Ironclad) to realize that no one usually cares about the male/female relationships in these films and instead chooses to focus on the bond between Britt and Kato, while simultaneously ridiculing it with tons of gay innuendo. Diaz doesn't show up until about 40 minutes but, to her credit, plays a fun straight man to Britt and Kato's wackiness. The true MVP of this film though, is Christoph Waltz. Best known for stealing the show as refined SS officer Hans Landa in Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, plays another quirky villain here, the self-obsessed but hilariously insecure Chudnofsky. Waltz still possesses that same irrepressible charm that he displayed as Landa, but he paints Chudnofsky with broader strokes, with goofy asides and a strangely adorable sense of self doubt that makes for a highly entertaining villain. His jealously of the Green Hornet's fame and his attempts to replicate his success gets more and more hysterical as the movie goes on, and his showdown with an uncredited cameo (who is amazing, but I won't spoil who it is) in the first few minutes is possibly the best scene in the movie.

It's nice to be reminded that reviews aren't always right. I'll probably get more rewatch value out of Green Hornet than Kick-Ass or any of the other self-aware superhero movies popping up now. Good stuff.

UP NEXT: Attack The Block

IRONCLAD

Dir. Jonathan English UK/USA 2011

I'm happy to live in an era where even low-budget films have the means to make history look and feel realistic. This is the primary saving grace of Ironclad, a film with a solid premise and a fun cast that manages to never really gel.

Set in England shortly after John I (the evil Robin Hood king, for those of you who learn history via other movies) signed the Magna Carta, the film deals with the First Barons' War, which erupted after John tried to reclaim control of the country from the newly empowered nobles. Specifically, Ironclad is a siege film, depicting the pivotal Siege of Rochester during the winter of 1215. Leading the cast is James Purefoy as Marshall, a Templar Knight who finds himself adrift after the Crusades and seeking vengeance for his fellow knights who were slain by the king. John is played by Paul Giamatti, who has plenty of fun turning him into a snarling, bitter megalomaniac. Also on hand are the always great Brian Cox as a rebel lord and British character actors Jason Flemyng and Mackenzie Crook as some of the rag-tag peasants assembled to defend the castle.

Now, I'm a big sucker for siege movies, so I was pretty excited about this going in. And if you go into this movie knowing what's good and and what's bad, it could actually be pretty enjoyable. The director opts for the shaky-cam, Bourne-style shooting when it comes to the action scenes, which isn't too bad when you've got guys fighting hand-to-hand. The editing is a little sloppy at points, but overall, it works. The violence itself is the highlight of the film. You will find no gory discretion shots here. The film is adamant about showing you exactly what a mace or an ax will do to somebody's face. Some of the blood sprays were definitely CGI, but all of the injuries were done with very impressive prosthetics and practical effects. If you're in it for the action alone, I'd say it delivers.

The rest... gets a little spotty. The gaping hole of lameness in this film is the relationship between James Purefoy's character and the Lady of Rochester, played by Kate Mara. Now, love stories generally feel superfluous from the start in action/war movies, but if the acting and writing are strong, they can be made interesting. Not so here. I haven't seen Kate Mara in much else, but she's extremely flat in this film, and what little chemistry she has with James Purefoy is kind of awkward and weird. The worst part is that SO MUCH TIME is devoted to their relationship, and I can't imagine that anyone watching this movie would care about it. Especially since the film already feels a bit too long with its 2 hour run time, I do not understand why they didn't trim this plot down, if not jettison it all together. If they wanted to keep the long runtime, I'd've much preferred it spent on building the relationships between the men defending the castle.

The rest of the cast is pretty solid, but the writing does them a disservice by not really fleshing out their characters to the degree that it should. James Purefoy, badass as he is, seems somewhat miscast as a silent, brooding Templar, especially given the affable villainy he brought to the role of Mark Antony in HBO's Rome. Paul Giamatti is the performance that makes the movie, playing King John as a Napoleonic super-villain. He's got a giant rant about two-thirds of the way through the movie that he completely knocks out of the park. He manages to seem like he's taking the role very seriously while also seeming like he's having the time of his life. And even though his character was extremely stock, I was rooting for Aneurin Barnard as Guy the squire, the idealistic young kid who wants to fight for honor and democracy. As I said, the character is stock, and his modern ideas about democracy are very anachronistic, but I thought his relationship with Marshall was one of the better ones in the film. That being said, this movie does go the Braveheart/Gladiator route of giving the good guys all these lofty ideals about freedom and democracy that wouldn't have been common nearly a millennia ago. It's not as egregious as the religious views of some of the characters in Kingdom of Heaven, which positions its characters to the left of most modern Americans, but it's still a little annoying.

Ultimately, if you're looking for some vicious Medieval action, I'd say Ironclad is well worth your time. Just maybe fast forward through any scene that just has James Purefoy and Kate Mara.

UP NEXT: The Green Hornet and Attack The Block.