THE GREEN HORNET

title: THE GREEN HORNET
year: 2011
cast: Seth Rogan, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz, James Franco
rating: *1/2

Actor Seth Rogen produced and co-wrote this Superhero story of THE GREEN HORNET who, along with his Asian sidekick Kato, assumes the role as a renown villain to fight crime.

Many problems here, the first being Rogen's performance, no different than his usual deep-voiced slacker sarcasm displayed in many light comedies, acquiring him the fame to leap into something "serious," which this is anything but.

The means of how Rogen's Britt Reid, playboy son of a millionaire newspaper tycoon, goes from party animal to the titular crime fighter is rushed and forced. After his father's death, Reid discovers dad's Asian mechanic (Kato) can not only make coffee better than Juan Valdez, but creates extraordinary cars and weapons (and just about everything) like Zeus wields lightning.

And with a few conversations, the template is set: the boys drive off to thwart any wrongdoings, all the while causing havoc to assume their villain roles. But the real baddie, Christoph Waltz, makes for a dull antagonist, providing no real threat to the boys, who really don't seem like legitimate criminals on their own.

The fight scenes, as Kato's brain becomes a virtual grid-computer to zero in on his targets (taking away from what the original Kato, Bruce Lee, acquired with good old fashion karate skills), turns all the action into a video game consul.

And Kato himself (played decently by Jay Chou) fills too many holes, making it possible for everything to happen, while Reid, a weak character to begin with, is rendered practically useless. Cameron Diaz, as Brit's new personal assistant, providing helpful clues that, unbeknownst to her, the duo apply in the field, is the only interesting player... with an assertive, no-nonsense personality, she's slightly more dimensional than the two leads, both seeming part of a banal buddy flick that's not sure what it is.

Being too goofy for a superhero movie, and not funny enough for a comedy, we're left with an overlong, dysfunctional mess.