There was a Green Hornet screening here this week, but I had a prior engagement and couldn’t make it. Sorry to disappoint you, but I have the next best thing to my own review: quotes from Armond White‘s. Armond White’s reviews are my favorite to read if I haven’t seen the film, because he never spoils them. In fact, seeing a film after you’ve read an Armond White review just gives you this new, alien perspective on it, like staring at a carpet on mushrooms (“Whoa, it really is the extemporaneous extension of the nouveau proletariat’s delectation for relentless subterfuge!”).
Anyway, enough foreplay. It’s time to let A-Dubz impregnate your mind. With KNOWLEDGE.
“The incognito superhero role seldom used Williams’ dazzling smile except as public figure Britt Reid, who embodied the straight-arrow WASP handsomeness Hollywood idealized until the counterculture revolution of the ’60s validated ethnic facial irregularities.”
“Exchanging WASP handsomeness for ethnic childishness means The Green Hornet‘s best moments are actually about something.”
“This time, affluent crime fighter Britt Reid is also the embodiment of the Jewish schlemiel, a satirical take on superhero convention that responds to the inanity of Hollywood’s contemporary franchises. Now Britt Reid displays father issues, obnoxious infantilism and ineptitude from the Woody Allen archetype of ambitious Jewish self-deprecation.”
“Now The Green Hornet’s entire law-and-order pretense instantly cuts to the secret of superhero fiction: Gondry examines the childlike neediness of masculine insecurity also at the heart of his previous films.”
“There’s an egalitarian frisson in Britt’s rivalry with Kato: Jewish-Asian competitiveness; white party boy privilege vs. yellow man sacrifice; wealthy condescension vs. proletarian efficacy.”
“Rogen and Chou thoroughly demystify that sexual threat. Instead, the Britt-Kato rivalry gets dispelled into their jealous pursuit of Lenore (Cameron Diaz), the newly romanticized ideal of WASP attainment. It’s like a Hope-Crosby road movie of challenging bromance.” [Source]
As if it’s not plainly obvious by now, Armond really liked it. Also, “a Hope-Crosby road movie of challenging bromance!” absolutely needs to go on the poster. “Action! Adventure! Wealthy Condescension vs. Proletarian Efficacy!”