‘The Green Hornet’ buzzes to failure

Seth Rogen, Seth Rogen, Seth Rogen.

There really is no one else to blame for The Green Hornet’s abysmal failure than Mr. Rogen. He stars as the unlikely superhero and also co-wrote the script with Evan Goldberg. It seems to be a labor of love on his part, but unfortunately the results are fair to middling.

Rogen plays Britt Reid, the ultimate spoiled child. His father, James Reid (Tom Wilkinson), is a media magnate in Los Angeles, owning a highly influential daily newspaper. The extravagant riches that Britt enjoys are a bit much: He has servants; he has cars; he has a palatial estate. In the back of my mind, I was thinking, how could a newspaper owner have so much money? Aren’t newspapers supposed to be a dying industry?

When his father dies, Britt finds himself at the reins of the family fortune. He decides to make himself editor of the newspaper, much to the chagrin of Mike Axford (a wasted Edward James Olmos), who has been loyal to the publication for years. Britt hires a sexy new secretary, Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz) and befriends his father’s old assistant, Kato (Jay Chou).

Adding icing to this already unbelievable cake, Britt and Kato decide to become vigilante superheroes and play up their efforts on the newspaper’s front page. They are Robin Hood-type heroes, going after the bad guys and trying to keep the streets clean. This upsets Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), L.A.’s crime king.

Somehow, Rogen was able to attract the directorial talents of Michel Gondry, the artistic mastermind of such neo-classics as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep. The director does his best, but his efforts are in vain. The Green Hornet is simply lacking in too many categories to register more than a blip. The comedy is overbearing, and the script relies too heavily on one-liners. Rogen has written his part so obtrusively in the way of the plot that it suffocates the rest of the picture.

The laughs are mediocre, and the action is OK. The plot is far-fetched (even for superhero fare) and pretty much everything dealing with the newspaper is unbelievable.

Count this one as a miss, and a rather big one at that.

• The Green Hornet

• 2011

• Directed by Michel Gondry

• Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

• Starring Rogen, Edward James Olmos, Cameron Diaz, Jay Chou, Tom Wilkinson and Christoph Waltz

• Running time: 119 minutes

• Rated PG-13 for sequences of violent action, language, sensuality and drug content

• Bubble score: 1.5 out of 4

• Click here to purchase The Green Hornet on DVD.