The Green Hornet (2011) starring Seth Rogen, Jay Chou and Cameron Diaz

Originally posted Tuesday, January 25, 2011 1:06:32 PM

Recently I won free tickets to this new movie and off I went see it yesterday. If you were expecting another episode of the Bruce Lee TV series, expect to be disappointed. Having said that, there was a lot I did like and some I didn't.

Firstly, the movie was shown in 3D and really didn't need to be. The only part of the movie where I felt the 3D process added anything to the whole movie was the closing credits.

I really liked the idea that we get to see Britt Reid as wastrel playboy in the mode of Paris Hilton and we get some justification for that in the opening scene where young Britt is chastised by his father James Reid for fighting at school. Britt tries to explain that he was trying to stop some bullies but his father tells him that there is no point trying if he is only going to fail. (We can presume that Britt is fully aware of his family history hence his fascination with being a hero here and throughout the film as well a Lone Ranger image in Britt's room)

The elder Ried then takes Britt's superhero doll and breaks off the doll's head. For the next 20 years Britt doesn't bother trying. It is the death of Britt's father that causes Britt to start trying again.

The problem is that we don't see enough of the Britt as played by Rogen is essenitally an idiot and stays that way for almost all of the movie. This causes the bigget problem of the film - The Green Hornet is useless.

Kato invents all of the gadgets and cars that they use in fighting crime and does nearly all of the fighting.

Lenore Case is the mastermind of the operation, offering information and advice to the crime fighting duo unwittingly at first then with a purpose after discovering the identities of the The Green Hornet and Kato.

Britt is totally clueless - his one plan consists of Kato fighting the two henchmen and The Hornet kicking the leader in the balls.

In the earlier versions of the Hornet (Radio/Serial/TV) Britt Reid is the master strategist - at one point in the movie there is homage to one of the TV series episodes when The Green Hornet is shot in the shoulder and is unable to see a doctor as this would give away his identity. The solution is the same in both cases but in the TV series it's Britt who comes up with the plan, in the film it is Lenore Case who gives them the plan.

Another thing that I did like was that whilst both Britt and Kato try flirting with Lenore Case but she rebuffs both of them keeping both men on a professional level.

There is potential if there is a sequel for a really good Green Hornet movie.


I did also like the villian Chudnofsky, an old time crook who is constantly trying to remain relevant. His move from old School gangster to a more modern flashy crook to comstumed criminal Bloodnofsky which echoes the similar move from traditional gangster to the costumed supervillian as seen in the recent Batman films.


Overall I liked the film had they made Britt Reid a slightly more mature and intelligent character I would have like this far better

The Green Hornet Strikes Again (1940) Warren Hull, Keye Luke

I went to the library the other day and I see that they had a copy of the second  Green Hornet Serial.  I grabbed it and I watched my first serial. 

This was so good.  My previous exposure to The Green Hornet had come from the 1960's TV series starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee and the 2011 movie with Seth Rogan and Jay Chou.  In both versions, Kato was a very important part of the team, providing the fighting skills.  In this version, Kato does little more than drive the Black Beauty but there is the suggestion that he does invent many of the gadgets The Green Hornet uses.  So that was surprising, but I liked Keye Luke and I'd seen him before as Number 1 Son in some of the Charlie Chan movies I'd watched a few years back.  (Funnily enough I'd read that Bruce Lee had been involved in a series "Number 1 Son" as Lee Chan that never got made - so there's that connection as well)

Warren Hull makes a good Britt Reid/ Green Hornet.  According to IMDB he took over from Gordon Jones who played the role in the first serial.  Hull had also played Richard Wentworth/The Spider in two serials and Mandrake The Magician in a serial.  I'm curious why Jones didn't come back but Hull does fine in the roles.

Lenore Casey also has a smaller role than I expected.  There was a lot of fun banter between Michael Axford and Ed Lowery as rival reporters.  Axford in particular made me laugh several times with his exaggerations.  Lowery plays a trick on Axford knocking off his hat several times through the serial, that gets a nice payoff in the final chapter where Axford gets his revenge.

Axford is a reporter but he also serves as Britt's bodyguard and lives in Britt's apartment which causes several problems for The Green Hornet.

It was interesting to watch this as each chapter was mostly  a standalone story with the Hornet tackling a different racket from the syndicate each one bringing him closer to the mastermind.  In many ways I can see the influence on shows like Teen Wolf that has a season long arc (although the latter works in the opposite way teasing what comes in the next episode).

I loved this serial and was surprised to see that there were two episodes of the radio show on the second disk.  I'll be looking out for the first serial and the other serials that Warren Hull made.

The Phantom 1996 starring Billy Zane, Kristy Swanson, Treat Williams & Catherine Zeta-Jones

There are certain movies that pulp fans will mention in any discussion as being underrated and should have done better, The Rocketeer, Sky Captain, John Carter, and The Phantom.

 

The 1996 movie was filmed in Thailand and in Australia (some of it was filmed in Brisbane City Hall) and there is a lot to like, the 1930s setting is pretty good, I really like the Phantom outfit that Billy Zane wore with what looked like tribal markings that looked like a skull on his chest.  Kristy Swanson makes a feisty Diana Palmer and Catherine Zeta-Jones is great as Sala, the leader of the Sky Pirates in her first movie role.  Treat Williams' Xander Drax is wonderfully over the top.

 

The action moves from the Bengalla jungle to New York to a rousing finale in The Devil's Triangle base of the Singh brotherhood. 

 

As a fan of the comics, I thought the supernatural aspects - Kit being visited by the ghost of his father and the three mystical powerful skulls - were a mistake.  Also there were some interesting story choices, during the New York section The Phantom discovers that the jade skull is in the New York Museum and has been there since Jimmy Wells 12th birthday, Jimmy looks about 30 so it's been there for at least 18 years.  The Phantom and Diana rush there and are met by Drax and his men who have decided to acquire the skull at the same time.  Drax therefore obviously knew that it was there and would have been smarter to acquire it quietly through the Museum board.

 

But aside from those things I love this movie, nearly everyone is perfectly cast Hero and Devil look incredible.   There is a scene where one of Drax's henchmen tells the Singh Brotherhood he has killed The Phantom, the response is laughter and  that everyone there had killed The Phantom.

 

Well worth watching.

Bruce Lee Lives? by Max Caulfield (1975) Star Books

Okay I'm sucker for some Bruce-spoitation., I previously reviewed Legend of The Fist here on this blog.  I've also enjoyed The Last Dragon and No Retreat, No Surrender (Student trained by the ghost of Bruce Lee vs Jean-Claude Van Damme)

So when I spotted this little gem I had to grab it.  Max Caulfield had previously worked with Linda Lee on her book Bruce Lee: The Man only I knew (which was the basis for the Jason Scott Lee movie Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story).

If you go in expecting to read what could be another Bruce Lee movie, be very disappointed.  The story opens with Caulfield getting a call from a friend George Bitters offering him the chance to write up the notes of an investigative journalist Ivor Wishart.  Wishart had gone to Hong Kong to investigate corruption in the Hong Kong Police.  During the investigation, he begins to hear about Bruce Lee rumours like he was murdered by the CAS (Chinese Asian Syndicate) through a number of obscure martial arts moves like the Death Touch.

Wishart continues his investigation and after an assassination attempt meets up with a lovely Chinese girl Nu San.  Wishart moves in with Nu San and begins a relationship with her. This plot is complicated when Wishart discovers that she is junkie.

As part of the investigation, Wishart meets Jo Foi who is a BNDD (Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) agent.  Foi suggests that perhaps Lee wasn't dead but sick when they flew the coffin to America.  This hint suggests that Lee is working undercover to smash the CAS drug rings in Thailand. 

So it's off to Thailand in the Golden Triangle to see the opium fields, where he meets a Captain in the Thai army who has a familiar voice and bears a passing resemblance to Bruce Lee (as did most of the Brucesploitation actors).  The investigation leads the BNDD to a major drug processing plant and the mystery Captain is in the raid.  There is a brief scene where Wishart watches the Captain in action fighting and Wishart is convinced it's Bruce Lee.  And by brief I mean less than half a page.  (page 135 of 142 page book if you're interested) . 

Wishart is convinced but is unable to confront the Captain.  The book ends with Wishart vowing to return to find out the answer.

As I said there are two scenes in the book with our potential Bruce Lee with lots of rumours and speculations.  There is nothing concrete in this story.  The brief fight scene is so vague as to be useless to convincing anyone this was really Bruce Lee. 

Also the idea of the frame didn't work for me.  Wishart is a journalist but he uses a ghost writer (at one point he even mentions that a ghost writer will be writing up his notes) to write up this story. 
Caulfield writes everything up in third person which is confusing initially as the story is supposedly based on Wishart's recorded notes. 

If you are Bruce Lee fan and find this for a reasonable price grab it -  I love the picture on the cover of the British edition. 

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886) by Fergus Hume

Before Sherlock Holmes, there was The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.  From what I can gather it was very successful at the time and in the introduction to the revised 1898 edition Hume tells stories of his arrival in London and finding out that people were impersonating him.  It was like a prototype of The Da Vinci Code.  (want to see what was popular and has gone out of favour go to a charity book sale - I've seen entire tables of The Da Vinci Code, Twilight and 50 Shades.)

After Conan Doyle read this story, he was inspired to write the Sherlock Holmes stories.  Doyle was less than impressed with the novel, calling it 'a slight tale." But the sales of Hansom Cab were greater than A Study In Scarlet.

It's one of the first Australian works to be successfully sold internationally.

The story opens with a murder - a dead body is found in a hansom cab.  Victorian State Detective Gorby is assigned to the case.  He successfully identifies the body as Oliver Whyte and discovers that Whyte was chasing Madge Frettlby who is in love with Brian Fitzgerald.  Fitzgerald, oddly enough, took exception to Whyte chasing his girlfriend. and had been reported to have made threats against his rival. 

Gorby finds out that Fitzgerald saw Whyte on the night in question but has no alibi for the time of the murder and Whyte's missing glove is found when he is arrested.  The trial is a sensation and is the talk of the colony.  It is revealed that Fitzgerald does have an alibi and the witness arrives on the last day of trial. 

I feel poor Gorby gets the short end of the stick in this story -  his arrest is perfectly reasonable.  Fitzgerald is seen with victim, and the cab driver says Fitzgerald got in the cab with the victim. His arrival home fits with the timeline. 

It's only for that Fitzgerald's barrister Carlton hiring Gorby's rival police Detective Kilslip to continue the investigation that we ultimately discover who the killer was and his motive.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is not just a murder mystery but a family drama as the investigation of Oscar Whyte's death brings to light many secrets of the Frettlby family as we discover secrets from when Madge's father was a young man and just what connection he had to Oliver Whyte and why he was so keen to marry Madge off this man he hardly knew.

I won't spoil it but one of the themes of the novel is that the suns of the father are visited on the children and that destiny can be changed.

Fergus Hume wrote a lot of other novels and I may dip into his other works.  I wonder if he revisited Gorby or Kilslip in any of them.


There was once scene that had me intrigued - Carlton is trying to get Fitzgerald to reveal his alibi and mention that he telegraphed "I telegraphed home to a friend of mine, who is a bit of an amateur detective, ‘Find out the name and all about the woman who left England in the John Elder on the 21st day of August, 18 — as wife of Oliver Whyte.’ Mirabile dictu, he found out all about her, and knowing, as you do, what a maelstrom of humanity London is, you must admit my friend was clever."

I wonder who this clever amateur detective could be? 


After I watched this I was able to watch the 2012 TV movie made by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation - It was excellently cast and I really enjoyed it.

The Three Musketeers (1948) Gene Kelly, Lana Turner

When you say Gene Kelly most people think of him as a dancer - dancing with Jerry Mouse in Anchor's Away or singing and dancing in the rain from Singin' in the Rain - which is accurate but there is much more to him.  In Singin' in the Rain he plays Don Lockwood, a Hollywood star who started as a stuntman.  So I was surprised at how swashbuckling he was.

So I decided to rewatch The Three Musketeers.  I'd watched it many, many years ago as a young lad but didn't remember much.  I remembered enough to get my youngest to watch it with me.  His fight with Rochefort at the start of the movie was a joy to behold, Kelly displays a great athleticism as does everyone involved but Kelly is clearly having the time of his life.  He leaps around, whacks his opponent on the bum with his sword.  Both my daughter and I were laughing at this, and I said to the wife "this is how they should do fights. None of this jerky cam business we see today."

I felt the movie lost some momentum after D'Artagnan recovers the Queen's jewels, It may be that I felt that was the conclusion of the story (crisis averted) or it might have been that the daughter was getting restless.  (Looking at the summaries on IMDB that seems to be the dividing mark for 1974 The Three Musketeers/ The Four Musketeers ) 

At 38, Gene Kelly was probably too old to play D'Artagnan but that didn't worry me too much, I was constantly reminded of Mandy Potempkin in The Princess Bride (although the inspiration would be the other way around) watching him.

I really enjoyed this movie, seeing a very young Angela Landsbury as Queen Anne was a pleasant surprise.  I now have a hankering to rewatch the 1993 version (Don't judge me) and check out the 2011 version to compare the versions.

The Soldier Legacy's Strange Tales: Night of the Warrior (2013) Chris Sequera and Paul Mason Black House

This story originally appeared as a back up feature in Sherlock Holmes; Dark Detective issue 7-9.

I've spoken before about The Soldier Legacy on this blog and how much I love that series.  This back up really opens up the universe of that series.

This story is set in 1887 before the events of the first Nikola book A Bid for Fortune.  in this story Nikola is hunting for a green opal set in a ring. It turns out that the man in possession of the ring, Jack Smeight, is responsible for the death of a friend of the current Soldier Legacy and we see Nikola and The Soldier Legacy battle over the ring's bearer.

It turns out that the ring has mystical properties - it is the Lifestone of Cantong and when Smeight kills a man it makes him stronger and he is able to overpower Nikola and Soldier Legacy.

In the end, Smeight is defeated and Nikola hands the ring over to Soldier Legacy for sale to benefit the family of Smeight's original victim. Nikola rejects the ring while it may prolong the life it steals the intellect.

Sequeria and Mason give us a Nikola who is an honourable man with hypnotic abilities, in a story that foreshadows many of the events in the Nikola books.  I read this before reading the Nikola books and I enjoyed it but rereading it after the Nikola books the story is that much richer as I picked up on the small hints that the pair dropped.

Mason's artwork is top notch and the 1887 Soldier Legacy is clearly similar to the designs seen in the WW2 and modern day Soldier Legacies seen in Mason's book yet is unique enough that this is a different man (unlike the various incarnations of Shi from that comic series)   I really like his Doctor Nikola drawings)