More suitable for a summer popcorn movie than January Oscar season, this has a lot of laughs, a kick-ass soundtrack, cartoony battles in 3-D, really fun gadgets, and is perhaps a respite from some of the serious films now and upcoming on local screens. With Seth Rogen as an unlikely slacker action hero, and Taiwanese music star Jay Chou as his brainy sidekick, this radio-drama-turned-TV-show-turned-movie-turned-comic-book-series-turned-21st-century-high-concept seems to have made the journey from 1936 to 2011 just fine (here's some history of the franchise from the New York Times). Back to my more comfortable place as the volunteer "critic" who likes movies more than the critics who pan everything yet still get paid, I had a good time, as did Jack, watching this on opening day, Friday. Not a big Rogen fan (I liked Superbad (2007), The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005), Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000), Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Funny People; hated Pineapple Express and Observe and Report), I wasn't as bothered as much as usual by his character Britt Reid, though he was immature start to finish. Chou is adorable as Kato, the mechanical genius/inventor/martial arts expert/cappuccino maker. Jack's favorite line was, "I thought Kato was the pool boy?" Apparently Kato Kaelin, O.J. Simpson's pool-boy-houseguest, adopted his nickname from the original Green Hornet.
There are many trademarks of quirky French director Michel Gondry (his features Human Nature (2001), The Science of Sleep (2006), and Be Kind Rewind (2008) showed much imagination but paled in comparison to his brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)) (according to the above history, he was attached then detached then reattached to the project), for example, cluttered sets full of tiny details and low ceilings made for 3-D. In fact, I thought it was fun to see what Gondry could do with a big budget for hi-tech effects, cool picture cars, and lots of property damage. Our favorite gadget is the turntable in the back seat. Jack had a friend in college who had a factory-installed record player that played 45s in place of the glove compartment. Our favorite stunt is the car in the elevator--worth the price of admission right there.
Apparently Rogen used his power as producer/writer/star to make a few decisions that Gondry didn't want to make, e.g. the use of Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise for source music, which they play on the car turntable while barreling though the streets of L.A. This link has that song (showing Michelle Pfeiffer in a clip from Dangerous Minds (1995)) and six more in the list of 15 songs in the movie, and once again imdb comes through with the same 15. No soundtrack CD release has been announced, despite the big names on the list plus a score by James Newton Howard (I wrote about him in Salt).
The critics are hatin' on this one, though not as bad as the aforementioned Country Strong or Little Fockers. But we wonder, with its 43% critics' rating on rottentomatoes, why the synopsis line on that page is so wrong. Did they even see it? We're glad we did. The pop art credits are awesome and you should stay in your seat just to watch them. And wait a few more minutes after that to hear Chou rapping in Chinese.
No comments:
Post a Comment