Loosely based on the 1966 TV series, The Green Hornet is a modern reboot of this crime fighting superhero. However unlike most superhero films, there is a role reversal in progress here and even though The Green Hornet (Seth Rogen) is the main character, his sidekick Kato is actually the "real" brains behind this crime fighting duo.

The story centres around Britt Reid, aka The Green Hornet who is the son of a wealthy media mogul called James Reid (Tom Wilkinson) and instead of helping his father run the business, he spends his time partying and living the high life. However Britt is becoming bored with his life and when his father dies, he comes up with the idea to become vigilantes where he draws Kato (Jay Chou) into his schemes.

Thankfully for Britt, Kato is not only a genius but also a talented martial artist who not only saves his employees butt a few times but creates the wonderful gadgets of the Green Hornet. Given these ideas, they soon come up with the idea to clean the streets of Los Angeles when they learn that crime lords Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz) is murdering his competition, it's time to intervene. The solution? The two attempt to save the town by pretending that they are criminals in order to get closer to Chudnofsky.

Needless to say, The Green Hornet is steeped in action and involves some rather cool car chase scenes and lots of fights with Rogen once again playing his comedic role. Chou on the other hand plays the perfect straight man to Rogen but the star is Christoph Waltz as the flashy villain Chudnofsky, not to mention Cameron Diaz... although she is a little wasted here.

With more property damage than you can poke a stick at, The Green Hornet is an interesting take on the original idea, however falls a little flat due to ad nausea. Unfortunately much of the charm is missing from the original premise and director Michel Gondry seems to rely on the humour of Rogen and of course, larger than life action scenes. It's not a bad movie per se but it does seem a little too scripted but ironically Rogen actually works as the slightly unfit and overweight masked vigilante.

It's just that the story needed some more tweaking.

Video, Audio & Special Features

The image quality of The Green Hornet boasts vibrant colours, deep blacks with a minimal amount of errors thanks to the 1080/AVC-encoded picture. Sony should once again be commended on the transfer, especially with the sharp image quality like seeing the skin tones of the actors and detailed textures of their clothes.

In terms of audio, the films support a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack that is a lossless mix and makes good use of all your satellite speakers. There are some powerful scenes in this movie that makes your speakers come to life with the roar of its bass and the cool car of The Green Hornet. Dialogue is crystal clear as is the music and sound effects.

When it comes to special features, The Green Hornet features;

• The Green hornet Cutting Room

• Filmmakers Commentary

• Deleted Scenes

• Awesome Gag Reel

• Trust Me - Director Michael Gondry

• Writing The Green Hornet

• The Black Beauty: Rebirth of Cool

• The Stunt Family Armstrong

• Finding Kato

• The Art of Destruction

• Previews

The special features are quite diverse and give you a real insight into creating this Hollywood remake.

In the end, The Green Hornet comes across as a rather average action comedy film that is too  clichéd and relies on the stock standard archetype of action/comedy from its predictable plot and as Rogen as the funny man. There is however some very cool action sequences, especially the fight scenes with Jay Chou but unfortunately the type casting of Rogen gets in the way, even though he has some good scenes. It's like the director told Rogen to act a certain way but deep down, he wants his superhero to come out. Even so, it's definitely worth a watch.