I typically buy DVDs (or Blu-Rays) to watch rather than rent them. As you might imagine, this limits my movie viewing a bit to things I'm really interested in or highly anticipating. On the rare occaision, I will sometimes watch a movie a friend has downloaded and passed on to me on recommendation.
Just yesterday I saw the movie Ironclad thanks to one of my friend. Loved it.... and I would have never watched it in a million years if not for my friend. And now that I have seen it.... you can be sure that I will get the Blu-Ray when I get the chance. It is a low budget film.... but damn I loved every second of it. And once in a blue moon.... I will borrow a DVD from a friend. In this case... a friend of mine just bought the Green Hornet DVD... and since I had not seen it... I figured that I might as well finally see it.
... and it was....
...AWESOME!!!
Damn that was a fun film. I can almost understand that people... who from now on expect every super-heroe movies to be a rip-off of the Dark Knight... were dissapointed from a lighter movie such as the Green Hornet. But damn... that was fun.
Why did I not see that film before??? Pretty much the same reason why it took me forever to see the Spirit film. The reviews. Although once I got my hands on a Blu-Ray copy of the Spirit for $5... I HAD to agree with the critics. Damn... that was all sorts of bad. But when I finally saw the Green Hornet movie.... not unlike with Green Lantern.... I ended up scratching my head wondering why the critics were so hard on that film.
Yes... all the characters act like immature teens.... but when you look at the extras... all the crew who worked on that movie seems to be immature teens.... although they are no longer teens. ;) So they pretty much wrote characters that acted like the people in their circle of friends. I can understand if that was a turn off for some... but I did not mind that. Heck I know more then a few people like that.... so sometimes I would recognise a friend on two in those immature characters.
Seth Rogen and his gang seem to be stuck as eternal teenagers.... and it is reflected on how they have their characters act in the movie.... and on how they made that movie. That film is pure escapism. A lot of that movie is made up of what some immature teenagers would find cool. But a lot of it actually is cool. Does that make me am immature teenager?? ;)
I liked everything about it: The over the top action scenes with Kato. The over the top gadgets. Heck even the over the top insecure villain.
So yes I get that many didn't like how childish and immature the characters were acting.Yes it might have been fun to have seen Seth Rogen in a more serious role... but once you knew that Seth Rogen would be the Green Hornet... it was to be expected that he would bring his "naivete" to the film.
It reminds me of how people were pissed that Will Smith was cracking joke in Independence Day. But as soon you knew that Will Smith would be in the film.... what did you expect?? Heck even in the trailers he was cracking jokes. So why expect the movie to be different??
Although... I did not watch the Green Hornet TV show as a kid. So I have no idea to how faithful they were to the source material.
I learned of the Green Hornet a few decades after it was on TV... and I never read the comic. So I do not have any nostalgia... or childhood memories attached to that show. So if it is drastically different from the show.... I don't really know. So if some fans hate the film for not being faithfull to the show.... that went right over my head... because in that case.... I don't have a clue.
So depite what the critics said.... I had a great time watching that film and the extras. Guess I will have to add it to my list of films to buy right next to Ironclad. ;)
So if you did not see it yet do yourself a favor... ignore what the critics have said... and see the film. It is a fun ride.
Until next time.
-Pierre
Like you, I enjoyed this film very much, and I am a HUGE fan of the Van Williams/Bruce Lee series. They are poles apart, in terms of tone. But each taken on their own, they are both very enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the things I don't get from other fans. They're always complaining when someone has a different take one their beloved characters. It doesn't matter. It's all fiction. The Batman of the 30s was vastly different from the one in the 50s, 60s, 70s and so on and so forth. That's the beauty of it. You can make up any kind of stories with these characters. What matters is if the story was good and enjoyable.
That's why I also watched Frank Miller's The Spirit without preconceived expectations. But I have to agree with you, that film was terrible (in my opinion). Pity, since I liked Gabriel Macht in the role.
You probably didn't see it because the movie was in theaters for like 10 minutes. The tv series as I recall played it fairly straight even though when they teamed-up with Adam West and Burt Wards Batman and Robin it didn't feel totally out of place. The character dates back to the 40's in radio.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched it myself but the main thing for me is that I'm not sold on the casting or the idea of making GH himself a total goofball.
I'm not the type to expect every superhero movie follow the DK paradigm either of course but just based on what I have seen of it I going hyper-jokey with it seems like a bit of a cop out.
I totally missed this earthquake event...I rarely feel tremors when they come through Ohio. I'm glad you folks are safe.
ReplyDeleteI was a big naysayer of the movie BEFORE I saw it. Afterwards, I really liked it. I *still* would have liked to seen a more serious take, but the Rogen version was fun and interesting.
ReplyDeleteSeth Rogan as me?
ReplyDeleteYuk!