Britt Reid is supposed to be a newspaper publisher with a plan. He isn’t. He’s a rich playboy who spends his days driving expensive cars and his nights throwing parties, until his father dies and he inherits the Daily Sentinel. That’s the setup for The Green Hornet, a 2011 action-comedy directed by Michel Gondry from a screenplay by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, starring Rogen as Britt Reid and Jay Chou as his sidekick Kato.
The film wants to be a crime-fighting buddy movie, a parody of superhero tropes, and a romantic comedy all at once. It mostly fails at all three.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Britt Reid’s Aimless Life
The movie opens with Britt living a life of luxury, but the source material describes him as a playboy who has been happy to lead an aimless existence. His father, James Reid, runs the largest newspaper fortune in Los Angeles, and Britt has done nothing with it. When James dies, Britt takes over the paper and fires most of his father’s staff, then rehires Kato, a martial arts-skilled mechanic and coffee brewer, as his assistant. The two become friends, and Britt convinces Kato to join him as crime-fighters.
Kato builds an Imperial car outfitted with gadgets and weapons, which they call the “Black Beauty.” Britt’s target is Benjamin Chudnofsky, a Russian mobster who wants to unite the crime families of Los Angeles under his command. To draw Chudnofsky’s attention, Britt uses the Daily Sentinel to publish articles about his alter ego, dubbed “The Green Hornet,” and leaves calling cards marked with the green hornet symbol at crime scenes.
The problem is that Britt has no actual plan beyond showing up and blowing things up. He blows up several of Chudnofsky’s meth labs, leaving calling cards behind, but he never seems to be working toward anything. The film treats his actions as spectacle rather than strategy, and that lack of purpose drags the middle section into a series of disconnected set pieces.
Kato’s Martial Arts Expertise
Jay Chou plays Kato as a resourceful company employee with martial arts skills, and he is the one constant force of competence in the film. He develops the Black Beauty, saves Britt and Lenore from Chudnofsky, and manages to escape when Chudnofsky tries to kill them at a peace summit. His performance grounds the film’s more absurd moments, but he is repeatedly sidelined by Britt’s impulsive decisions.
When Britt fires both Kato and Lenore in a fit of rage, the film loses its center. Kato returns later to help Britt, but the damage has been done. The relationship between the two men, which started as a partnership of equals, becomes one-sided, with Britt making all the calls and Kato reacting to them. This shift is the film’s biggest flaw, and it undermines the central dynamic that should carry the entire story.
Lenore Case and the Romance Plot
Cameron Diaz plays Lenore Case, Reid’s top secretary at The Daily Sentinel and his love interest. She invites Kato to a date instead of Britt, which makes Britt jealous. Later, Kato learns from Lenore that mobsters often offer a peace summit to rivals in order to get close enough to kill them. Britt then tells Kato that Chudnofsky has offered them such a meeting, and Kato tries to dissuade him, but Britt ignores him.
The romance plot is thin and predictable. Britt asks Lenore out, she rejects him, and the film moves on. There is no chemistry between the two leads, and the love triangle feels like a requirement rather than a character-driven thread. The source material describes Britt asking Lenore out and her inviting Kato instead, which sets off the jealousy, but the film does not explore the consequences of that rejection beyond the peace summit scene.
Chudnofsky’s Madness
Christoph Waltz plays Benjamin Chudnofsky, a paranoid Russian gangster who plans to join all of the crime families of Los Angeles together to form a “super-mafia.” Throughout the film, he worries that he is losing his edge, and eventually starts calling himself “Bloodnofsky” in a misguided attempt to intimidate his enemies. The character is meant to be a menacing presence, but the name change comes across as a joke rather than a threat.
Waltz is the best actor in the film, and he plays the role with commitment. His Chudnofsky is unhinged and cruel, but the script does not give him much to do beyond being the villain. The film’s attempt to make him funny backfires, and he reads as a cartoon rather than a dangerous opponent.
The source material notes that Nicolas Cage was wanted for the role of Chudnofsky. Cage had been in talks to play the part, and he expressed interest in the project in 2009. He said he thought Michel Gondry was talented and that he had hoped it would work, but he felt Seth Rogen and Gondry had a different direction for the character than the one he wanted to go. Cage wanted to give the villain some humanity and a reason for his actions, but he felt there wasn’t enough time to develop it.
That statement captures the problem with the final product. Waltz is stuck playing a one-dimensional villain because the writers were unwilling to give him depth.
Frank Scanlon’s Corruption
David Harbour plays Frank Scanlon, a district attorney who is an ally of Chudnofsky. He bribes town officials into downplaying the city’s crime level in order to help his career. When Britt discovers that Scanlon is corrupt, he finds out that Scanlon revealed James Reid had found out about the corruption and tried to expose it, so Scanlon had Chudnofsky assassinate James.
The twist is effective, but it arrives late in a film that has already lost its audience. The revelation that Scanlon killed James adds weight to the story, but it cannot fix the structural issues that preceded it. Britt records Scanlon’s confession, and when Chudnofsky and his men arrive outside the mansion waiting for the “Hornet” to kill Britt, the confrontation finally gives the film some tension.
The Cameo That Wasn’t
The filmmakers had wanted Van Williams, who played the Green Hornet in the 1960s television series, to make a cameo appearance as a cemetery guard. Williams declined to play the role. That missed opportunity speaks to the film’s failure to honor its own history. The Green Hornet character was created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker in 1936, and the film could have used that legacy to ground its story. Instead, it treats the character as a blank slate for jokes.
The Mixed Reception
The Green Hornet was released to theaters in North America on January 14, 2011, by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $227.8 million against a $120 million production budget.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1936 | Green Hornet created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker |
| 2009 | Nicolas Cage talks about the project |
| 2011-01-14 | Film released in North America |
What Works
There are flashes of brilliance in The Green Hornet. Michel Gondry’s direction is inventive, and the action sequences are energetic even when they lack meaning. The car chase involving the Black Beauty is a highlight, and the scene where Britt and Kato escape Chudnofsky’s men is tense. The film also benefits from a strong supporting cast, with Edward James Olmos as Mike Axford, the managing editor of The Daily Sentinel, and Edward Furlong as Tupper, a meth dealer associated with Chudnofsky.
What Doesn’t Work
The film’s central weakness is Britt Reid himself. Seth Rogen is a capable comedian, but he is asked to play a character who is supposed to be a crime-fighting genius and comes across as a spoiled idiot. The script never explains how Britt’s newspaper fortune, martial arts training, or investigative skills translate into a crime-fighting career. He blows things up and leaves calling cards, but there is no plan behind the chaos.
The romance plot is a mess. The peace summit is a setup for a fight, not a character moment. The film’s attempts at humor often miss, and the tone shifts from satire to slapstick without warning. The final act, where Britt apologizes to Kato, is a step in the right direction, but it is too late to rescue the film.
Final Word
The Green Hornet is a missed opportunity. It has a great premise, a talented cast, and a director with a distinct visual style. But the script is thin, the lead is unlikable, and the villain is a cartoon. The film is watchable in brief stretches, but it does not hold together as a coherent story.
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