Jerkypants

If you are a fan of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and would like to have your mind blown away some more, you need to check out this video series by Rob Ager.

Part 1: http://bit.ly/n0GGSv

Part 2: http://bit.ly/pG2vZR

Part 3: http://bit.ly/pA0NrR

Apparently it was because of Rogen’s attachment to the project that a big studio (Sony) finally put its full weight behind the production. Kudos to Seth Rogen for using his star power to bring Green Hornet to the screen. But seriously… Seth Rogen as The Green Hornet?

OK let’s see. Britt Reid is a debonair, daring, young newspaper publisher. He goes to to toe with thugs and hardened criminals and prevails because he is shrewd, calculating, and possesses serious survival skills and physical prowess. Based on the trailer, it looks like Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet prevails — or survives — only because of the superior acumen of Kato. That scenario might work as a comic caper movie, but please don’t call it The Green Hornet.

Seriously, Seth, couldn’t you have gracefully bowed out of the starring role and served as executive producer or something? Maybe play a wacky best friend to Britt Reid? Please tell me that you tried to, but that Sony would only pony up the cash if you stepped in to star. Otherwise I may have to assume that you are just another victim of Hollywood ego inflation.

Finding the balance between comedy movie and action movie is risky and fails most of the time. Robert Downey, Jr. finds a near-perfect pitch in Iron Man because A) he is physically believable as the dynamic Tony Stark and B) he is an incredibly gifted actor. Seth Rogen, you are a funny dude, but you are no Robert Downey, Jr.

Unfortunately, judging by the trailer, it looks like Seth is taking a classic and beloved property and squishing and smashing it through a Pineapple Express-shaped cookie cutter. That is unfortunate because the resulting movie may turn out to be passably entertaining, middling fare, but it won’t be the treatment that The Green Hornet deserves.

Starring: James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow, Charles Drake, Cecil Kelloway
Based on the play by Mary Chase
Director: Henry Koster
Universal Studios, 1950

This delightful story centers on the affable but eccentric Elwood P. Dowd and his presumably imaginary friend Harvey, a six-foot, three and a half inch-tall rabbit, who is unseen to all but Elwood. Elwood is the sole heir to his mother’s fortune and home, which he shares with his sister Veta Louise and her daughter Myrtle Mae. Veta is trying to find a husband for Myrtle Mae, but her efforts are always thwarted when Elwood introduces his niece’s would-be suitors to Harvey. Veta hosts a soiree to introduce her daughter to polite society, but despite her best efforts to keep Elwood away from home, he finds his way to the party and begins to introduce Harvey to the society matrons. As she watches her influential guests fleeing their home, Veta reaches her breaking point and decides that the following day she will take Elwood to be committed to Chumley Rest, a nearby sanitarium, in order to spare Myrtle Mae and their family further embarrassment.

After a comedy of errors at Chumley Rest, one of the doctors, Lyman Sanderson, commits a very agitated Veta to the sanitarium and releases a blissfully unaware Elwood. As he casually makes his way out of Chumley Rest, Elwood meets Mrs. Chumley and politely tells her about Harvey, whom he calls a “pooka”, a michievious spirit of Celtic folklore. After Mrs. Chumley describes Elwood and Harvey to her husband and Sanderson, the doctors realize their mistake, release Veta, and begin searching for Elwood. Chumley, Sanderson and his nurse, Ruth Kelly, eventually find Elwood and bring him back to the sanitarium. Veta arrives in a cab and insists that Elwood be given Chumley’s Formula 977, a serum which will cause Elwood to stop seeing Harvey. Her taxi driver, who regularly shuttles patients to and from Chumley Rest, meets the ever-cheerful Elwood and agrees that if he is anything like the other patients who receive Formula 977, Elwood will indeed become a “perfectly normal human being. And you know what stinkers they are!” At this point Veta realizes that she would rather live with Elwood as he’s always been — carefree and kind — even if it means that she’ll also have to live with Harvey.

Synopsis written by Rene Flores