The Film:

The superhero genre, like all genres, has conventions and conventions are good, because we love formula. The Green Hornet comes during the fever pitch of the genre, where all seek realism with hyper-seriousness. Since Hollywood is a copying machine, each superhero film is basically taking the hero out of the pages of the comic and treating them as real life individuals. This sells, and while it works for some adaptations. The genre has seen its heights, and like an insomniac each superhero is seen as a copy of a copy of a copy. Michel Gondry achieves what Werner Herzog did in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans: using the conventions of the genre, Gondry adds irreverence – in humor, in action – and purposely uses misconception of those basic superhero conventions for a film that returns the superhero back to where he belongs: in adolescence. The Green Hornet is the anti-superhero movie.

That might be a tough task for audiences to accept, especially when they stroll into the theater for those very conventions. If you seek those, The Green Hornet disappoints. The film-noir styling of the 1940 serials are gone, but not forgotten, and those who seek the Leave it to Beaver trappings of the famous two season TV series, only made famous in hindsight for casting Bruce Lee, won’t get that from this version. It’s an odd bird of a film, but it’s important to note its themes, since the film is essentially and purely a comic book movie. Young American boys who read comic books, didn’t flip the page to grow into a self-loathing, tormented angel of vengeance, but simply for the ‘wow’ factor of the superhero; the POW! BOOM! CRACK! of the action, and that in itself is the origin of why Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) in this version of The Green Hornet becomes a hero. Because it’s cool.

As boys, we seek the mask that will hide us until we grow into a man. The mask gives us the courage and power to do something extraordinary. This child-like assessment of adulthood is the foundation of why superheroes have grow substantially in our increasing tough world, and is also the sense of wonder Gondry uses to craft his version of the superhero film. Even Kato (Jay Chou) isn’t perfect. The villain? He’s equally unsure of himself, constantly measuring his evil against someone else’s evil. The old “mine is bigger than yours” game. All of this, I’m expecting, will get lost to most under the film’s silly and often humorous boyish charm. That’s what is so refreshing about what The Green Hornet is offering.

If you never grew up reading comic books of superheroes doing something actually far more super than your own father did, I pity that you missed the American boy experience. Sure, it’s pop art manhood. Boys don’t see their fathers as anything more than a man they can never please, and it’s only until they’re older that they can appreciate their dad. Gondry knows this, and The Green Hornet stings a little nostalgia that the increasingly bloated genre has missed.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Sony offers their usual top-notch HD presentation again here. The picture is near perfect; deep blacks, strong details, eye-catching (greens) colors, with little softness. Now the DTS track is just stellar. Given the nature of the film, it’s loud, aggressive, and never allows the dialogue to get over-shadowed. It’s again, near perfect. No complaints here.

Commentary: Seth Rogan, Producer Neal Moritz, Director Michel Gondry, and Writer Evan Goldberg offer a pretty laid back and funny track, but one that’s also kind of candid. They talk about the film in the usual making-of chat, but also go into some scenes that don’t work as well as they had hoped. It’s pretty refreshing to hear on a big budgeted, studio film.

All extras are in HD.

Trust Me – Director Michel Gondry: About a 10 minute salute to Gondry from the cast and crew about his style and vision for the film.

Writing The Green Hornet: I found this to be really good. Writers Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen talk about their direction of the film, making an anti-superhero movie, which is one of the highlights of the extras, due to their interesting take on the subject.

The Black Beauty: A nice little featurette on the building of the classical looking 1965 Imperial.

Finding Kato: Here’s a quick look at how Jay Chou was found and cast in the role made famous by Bruce Lee.

The Art of Destruction: Here’s a fun 15 minute look at the love affair Hollywood has with blowing stuff up. Not as silly as it sounds.

About 25-minutes of Deleted Scenes in HD, a Gag Reel, a clip generator that allows you to share you favorite moments from the film online in The Green Hornet Cutting Room, a look at the family stunt team from the film in The Stunt Family Armstrong, and your typical Trailers and BD-Live stuff.

The Film: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Shi-Jie (Jay Chou) grows up in a martial arts school and he is well versed in kung-fu. With his skills and his good reflexes, Shi-Jie also excels in basketball, especially the slam dunk technique. On the pretext of helping Shi-Jie find his family, Wang-Li (Eric Tsang) invites him to join the university’s basketball team in hopes of making money out of him. There Shi-Jie faces new challenges on the basketball team, especially with team mates Ting-Wei (Wilson Chen) and Xiao-Lan (Baron Chen). With the upcoming championship games and the appearance of Li-Li (Charlene Choi), the team must put aside their differences and personal emotions to face their common rivals. Shi-Jie (Jay Chou) grows up in a martial arts school and he is well versed in kung-fu. With his skills and his good reflexes, Shi-Jie also excels in basketball, especially the slam dunk technique. On the pretext of helping Shi-Jie find his family, Wang-Li (Eric Tsang) invites him to join the university’s basketball team in hopes of making money out of him.

The disc includes an interview with Jay Chou and a behind-the-scenes featurette. If you loved Shaolin Soccer, then here’s a similar themed film you should enjoy.

Source: Well Go

The Green Hornet

To me, this was a surprise. At first, it looked campy and lame, but that’s sort of the point. If viewed as a typical superhero blockbuster, you’ll probably be disappointed, but its intentions were to showcase why adolescents love heroes, and at that notion it excels. Loud, clever, and silly, it was a pleasant kick. (Formats: 3D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD)    Jon says: Buy     Donny says: Buy

Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula

It’s been sitting around for awhile, yet recently its played at some festivals to some acclaim. B-movie goodness or B-movie forgetfulness? It could be worth the rental price, just for Tiffany Shepis… (Formats: DVD only)    Jon says: Rent    Donny says: Rent

New to Blu

SuperCop

Crow: City of Angels

From Dusk til Dawn

Fat Girl: Criterion Collection

Halloween: H20

That does it for another week! Keep it here at Killer Film for news and reviews of these discs and more!

Special features include:

* Filmmakers’ Commentary

* Jay Chou Audition

* Double Barrel

* The Green Hornet Cutting Room (BD-exclusive)

* “Awesoom”-Gag Reel

* “Trust Me” -Director Michel Gondry (BD-exclusive)

* Writing The Green Hornet

* The Black Beauty: Rebirth of Cool

* PS3 Theme (BD-exclusive)

* The Stunt Family Armstrong (BD-exclusive)

* Finding Kato (BD-exclusive)

* The Art of Destruction (BD-exclusive)

* movieIQ (BD-exclusive)

The 3D Blu-ray will have 3D animated storyboards.

Source: Blu-ray

Looks like Natalie Portman is riding the box office wave, with two films expected to be in the top ten for the weekend.

Source: THR

That might be a tough task for audiences to accept, especially when they stroll into the theater for those very conventions. If you seek those, The Green Hornet disappoints. The film-noir styling of the 1940 serials are gone, but not forgotten, and those who seek the Leave it to Beaver trappings of the famous two season TV series, only made famous in hindsight for casting Bruce Lee, won’t get that from this version. It’s an odd bird of a film, but it’s important to note its themes, since the film is essentially and purely a comic book movie. Young American boys who read comic books, didn’t flip the page to grow into a self-loathing, tormented angel of vengeance, but simply for the ‘wow’ factor of the superhero; the POW! BOOM! CRACK! of the action, and that in itself is the origin of why Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) in this version of The Green Hornet becomes a hero. Because it’s cool.

As boys, we seek the mask that will hide us until we grow into a man. The mask gives us the courage and power to do something extraordinary. This child-like assessment of adulthood is the foundation of why superheroes have grow substantially in our increasing tough world, and is also the sense of wonder Gondry uses to craft his version of the superhero film.  Even Kato (Jay Chou) isn’t perfect. The villain? He’s equally unsure of himself, constantly measuring his evil against someone else’s evil. The old “mine is bigger than yours” game.  All of this, I’m expecting, will get lost to most under the film’s silly and often humorous boyish charm. That’s what is so refreshing about what The Green Hornet is offering.

If you never grew up reading comic books of superheroes doing something actually far more super than your own father did, I pity that you missed the American boy experience. Sure, it’s pop art manhood. Boys don’t see their fathers as anything more than a man they can never please, and it’s only until they’re older that they can appreciate their dad. Gondry knows this, and The Green Hornet stings a little nostalgia that the increasingly bloated genre has missed.

3D Note: It’s post-conversion and while at times, it adds a little depth, it also annoying clutters the screen up, especially during action scenes. While it’s not that bad of post-conversion, it’s far from necessary.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Source: IMPAwards

Check them out below!

Source: IMPAwards

“I usually identify with the nerds but these ones just reinforce the social rules. Their values are fascistic. All those people marching around in capes and masks and boots. The superhero imagery is totally fascist!”

“When you step into this genre, they feel it belongs to them. They want you to conform, or they won’t like you. They want the conventional. But it’s fine. The movies has been doing very well, I think, whenever we’ve screened it to normal people.”

“I’m attracted to working with comedians because they don’t have that stars’ idea of what a hero should be.”

Or, know your source material. Either way, fans can get picky even if all they see is a trailer. Unfair, sure, but fascists? Is The Green Hornet’s fan base like a Batman or Spider-Man? Uh…find out January 14th, 2011.

Source: The Playlist

Source: IMPAwards

With The Green Hornet coming out in just over a month, the advertising for the film is in full swing. There are 3 new TV spots which have shown up, are you excited yet? Thanks to ComicBookMovie for the heads up, you can check the videos out below.

Source: IMPAwards

Source: Y! Movies

However, a test-screening was held on Tuesday night in Long Beach that has Sony putting faith in the movie. So much that Sony Executive Amy Pascal is already talking about a sequel, according to the LA Times. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it will happen, and it all depends on whether or not the film is successful at the box-office. The fanboys/girls have already expressed their intentions to not see the film, but may be this will change their minds.

The Green Hornet opens on January 14, 2011.

The film is set for a January 2011 release.

Source: The Playlist