The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet is a Seth Rogen vehicle, and nothing more.

The story is very average, uninteresting and bland, the movie is not very funny, the visuals are ordinary at best and since it takes place in Los Angeles, the environments are ugly and drab, the acting is subpar for the most part and the music, even though we get nice rock tunes, generally the pieces don’t fit too well with what’s on the screen.
The Green Hornet has a few good moments, but most of them are ruined by Seth Rogen’ man-child idiotic antics.
Rogen’s Britt Reid is obnoxious and completely unlikable from start to finish. Rogen doesn’t even act He just plays the same character he’s been playing for ten years: a slacker pothead with no ambition.
I could probably write about the performances of Christoph Waltz (awesome), Cameron Diaz, Edward James Olmos, Tom Wilkinson and Jay Chou, about the cool cars and gadgets, the action and the 3D, but ultimately it’s all ruined by Seth Rogen’s overacted incompetence.

By the way, why is this film in 3D? It’s completely useless, and I had to add 3$ to get those stupid headache-inducing glasses. NO MORE 3D PLEASE!

If you still like Seth Rogen, you will probably like The Green Hornet because the film is all about HIM. If not, skip it and go see something else.

The shortness of this review compared to the others I’ve written should be a good clue to STAY AWAY!

3/10

Tron Legacy

Tron Legacy is a difficult film to review. It’s good, but it follows the Hollywood recipe so closely that it also becomes forgettable. The events depicted in the story are predictable, but there is a strong nostalgia factor that is difficult to ignore. It is visually stunning, even in normal D, and the acting is exceptional, especially from Jeff Bridges who steals the show as always. The rhythm of the film is smooth and regular, even during the excellent action pieces, and the soundtrack, composed by Daft Punk, is beautiful and very appropriate.

The story of Tron Legacy follows Sam Flynn (Garret Edlund) as he searches for his father Kevin (Jeff Bridges), who vanished 20 years before, after telling his then 7 year old son of a miracle happening in The Grid, a virtual world he created within a computer. Sam is eventually trapped in this world, and with the help of his father and Quorra (Olivia Wilde), a program within The Grid, he plans his escape from this world, and to bring his father home.

The comparisons with The Matrix would be embarrassingly obvious if Tron Legacy wasn’t a sequel to a film released twenty years before the Wachowski brothers’ Magnum Opus. However, if The Matrix “borrowed” ideas from the original Tron, it is difficult not to wonder if Tron Legacy also “borrowed” ideas from The Matrix. Some scenes are filmed almost shot for shot, most notably a fight in a hotel/club with guns and sword-like weapons, and the Zuse character, which is a carbon copy of The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson).
Other scenes are reminiscent of Star Wars, such as a dog fight where Sam mans the turret of a transport ship (for those who don’t know, the Millennium Falcon is a transport ship) and proceeds in shooting down Tie fighters… I mean light jets. He even gets cocky!

Visually, Tron Legacy is absolutely marvellous, even in Double D (2D). The Grid is a beautiful place, clean, crisp, full of light, colours and detail; this world is complex and believable. I can’t wait for the Blu-Ray goodness that this film will provide.
Although personally I am not a fan of electronica/pop music, I was very surprised at the beauty of the score. Daft Punk’s work with Tron Legacy is one of its best features, along with Jeff Bridges’ acting. If there is one soundtrack I will be buying this year, so far it will be Tron Legacy.

Tron Legacy has great visuals, great music and sound with an average story depicted by average actors, with the exception of Jeff Bridges.
It is a movie that is best described as a burger on the BBQ. It’s fast food, but it tastes so good that you want to take your time and savour the flavour.

Enjoy.

7.5/10