The Green Hornet (Blu-ray)

With most of the big name superheroes having been given their shot on the big screen, it would appear that recent years have begun to focus more on the lesser known cult crime-fighters. The results thus so far proven to be pretty effective – often more than their household name counterparts. Oddly enough, despite having radio serials, a Bruce Lee-starring TV show and a load of comics following his and Kato’s exploits, The Green Hornet was a name whose utterance would have been met with blank expressions from young people just a year ago.

Fast forward to today and a new generation has now been made aware of the antics of millionaire Brit Reid and his trusty sidekick – only this time with a bigger budget, longer runtime and a big dollop of comedy courtesy of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s script. On one hand, these changes make the old noir-ish superhero a little easier for today’s mainstream to get on board with, but on the other hand they could spoil the fundamental charm that got older generations interested in the first place. Well, thanks to decent pacing, nice interplay between Rogen and Jay Chou and some great gags, the result covers all bases – maybe not brilliantly, but certainly enough to make the film worth a peep.

Seth Rogen plays Britt Reid – the loutish millionaire playboy son of a newspaper mogul, who finds himself in charge of his family empire when his dad snuffs it due to a bee sting. Between feeling he’s done nothing with his directionless existence and discovering that the household mechanic, Kato, has a knack for kung fu and latte art, he naturally sets up a superhero duo that aim to clean up the streets of LA.

The Green Hornet is pretty good. It’s funny, the effects are nice and the relationship between Reid and Kato makes for some great viewing. On top of that, there are enough nods to the TV series to have older fans smirking at the subtle references. Still, in a sense it does spread itself a bit thin in trying to please everybody, but not enough to make you regret investing two hours.

In terms of the Blu-ray, it’s a nice disc. The image is amazingly crisp and detailed while the contrast between the jet blacks and bold colours is handled perfectly. Still, it never quite has to deal with fast movement due to every action scene being rendered in slo-mo for the sake of 3D at the cinema.

In terms of audio, it’s unsurprisingly great. The HD track covers everything – from massive explosions to the claustrophobic sound of dirt falling on a trapped car – with stark sonic clarity. It’s awesome.

As for those extras, there’s a wealth of stuff on the disc including a commentary, a gag reel and a few featurettes as well as a heap of neat Blu-ray exclusives, such as another pile of featurettes and some deleted scenes. It’s a neat batch of loot even if it doesn’t really take advantage of Bonus View and BD Live features (other than the increasingly obligatory MovieIQ functionality). Nevertheless, it’s a hefty batch of stuff to fill out an already impressive disc. 

Overall Verdict: A light-hearted, funny superhero caper that shouldn’t offend anyone – particularly as it makes for a pretty nice Blu-ray.

Special Features:
Jay Chou Audition
Double Barrel
movieIQ
The Green Hornet Cutting Room
Filmmakers' Commentary
Awesoom: Gag Reel
Trust Me: Director Michel Gondry
Writing The Green Hornet
The Black Beauty: Rebirth of Cool
The Stunt Family Armstrong
Finding Kato
The Art of Destruction

Reviewer: Jordan Brown