The lost serials thread...

Post by **Randall** » January 10th, 2011, 11:20 pm

I've preordered that Green Hornet serials set. I have them on VHS, and have been hoping to upgrade. It sounds like VCI did a nice job on them. I held off 'til now due to the price for them individually, but the new set with both serials is a bargain (I got it for $20). From what I recall, they're really quite fun.

The Captain America serial, as you may know, was intially written for another comic book character, but when the rights deal fell through, they cobbled together another costume and pretended it was Captain America! The serial is okay aside from that (I also have that one on VHS).

Post by **Ben** » January 11th, 2011, 6:50 am

From a friend I saw last night who has seen it at work (he's a lab technician and they get to check prints), the Green Hornet movie doesn't know what it wants to be: a straight comic book style actioner or a comedy. Sounds like Starsky And Hutch, which took a semi-serious concept and just added lame jokes. Can't say I'm a Rogen fan (though Kevin Smith's film that he was in was pretty amusing) and I know that re-shoots on Hornet were done to alter the tone (one way or the other), but it does sound like a mish-mash (perhaps hence the opening date!).

I suspect people will stay away from this like they would a Hornet's nest (haha, see what I did there?)!

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » January 11th, 2011, 10:42 am

Rand,
I was not aware the Captain America serial was written for another character! You learn something new every day... Still, from what I've seen of it, it looks like it sucks...! Too bad as I do love the Captain America character.

Ben,
Sometimes I think it's very lucky to have friends that work in entertainment. At least they can tell you what films to steer clear of!

Hornet's nests are no fun! Speaking as somebody who's had to deal with those pests on many occasions!

(Goes without saying that I wasn't expecting much of this Green Hornet after hearing about the casting and seeing the first trailer last year. Darn shame -- it had a built-in audience and squirreled away the good will that was there!)

I still intend on eventually getting more serials on DVD. I have the Captain Marvel, Flash Gordon, Batman, and Superman serials. Would like to add Green Hornet and some of the rocketmen serials eventually.

It would be very nice to also see at least The Green Hornet TV series with Bruce Lee get released to DVD, too. That series and Batman (1960s live-action) are long overdue for home video. With the fighting going on with the Batman rights, nobody's making money! The same could be true for the Green Hornet series especially since you-know-who is a screen legend.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » January 11th, 2011, 11:18 am

Son of a gun!

SyFy is showing the Green Hornet TV series today!

I've never seen this show before in my life but I'm very impressed by it so far.

Unlike the Batman series produced by the same company, it's a straight adaptation (not company) of the character... and it seems to work!

High quality production, fine casting. Bruce Lee is very good and the guy cast as the Green Hornet is excellent, too!

Love the theme song... Always liked that! I've had a recording of the theme for years on two of my sci-fi/action/adventure series CDs.

Post by **EricJ** » January 11th, 2011, 2:26 pm

Ben wrote:From a friend I saw last night who has seen it at work (he's a lab technician and they get to check prints), the Green Hornet movie doesn't know what it wants to be: a straight comic book style actioner or a comedy. Sounds like Starsky And Hutch, which took a semi-serious concept and just added lame jokes. Can't say I'm a Rogen fan (though Kevin Smith's film that he was in was pretty amusing) and I know that re-shoots on Hornet were done to alter the tone (one way or the other), but it does sound like a mish-mash (perhaps hence the opening date!).

Think the original concept was as a Vince Vaughn comedy (that got confused with the fan rumors of a Jack Black Green Lantern), then turned into a serious straightforward action-comedy when Stephen Chow was going to direct--And at one point they gave it for a while to Kevin Smith hoping that Smith would finally do that big-budget comic book movie script he was supposed to have in him, and everyone else thought that meant Smith would be doing a slacker comedy, and that meant Seth Rogen had to be in it....But then Smith dropped it, the producer tried to go back to selling kung-fu to the Rave crowd, and now Seth's like the guy who arrives at the party thinking it was going to be a costume party:
"Uh, wait, I was supposed to be playing a serious action character?

"

Starsky & Hutch was a deliberate Ben Stiller parody which pretended it wasn't after the studio wanted to sell the rerun boxes on DVD, but here, it looks like neither the writers nor the actors could keep up with the memos by the time the thing was finished.

Post by **Dacey** » January 11th, 2011, 3:29 pm

I actually quite like how "Green Hornet" looks.

Obviously, it's meant to be funny, but the action looks solid, and since so many superhero movies are ultra serious these days, I have nothing wrong with the apparent tone.

I'm just surprised that the marketing hasn't showcased Diaz and Waltz more. Diaz may not bring in people on her own, but she is a dependable actress, and Waltz just won an Oscar for "Inglorious Basterds." Since he's playing the villain no less here, it would seem that they'd like to advertise that.

Post by **Randall** » January 11th, 2011, 10:29 pm

I finally found the link to the story on the Cap serial. I knew I'd read it somewhere in the past year:

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2010 ... tml#018754

------------------------------------------------

As for the Hornet movie, I've warmed up to it since seeing the trailer. It might be a fun flick, if I can put away my preconceived notions of what it should have been. (At least the serials are really good, and I'll always have those. Too bad the TV show is in the same rights hell as Batman.) Early review comments on AICN for Green Hornet have largely said "surprisingly good."

Post by **Randall** » January 12th, 2011, 12:48 am

More reviews will follow soon, but here's one of the first:

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2 ... en-hornet/

Bottom line: The direction makes it better than it should be. Just a really entertaining action film.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » January 14th, 2011, 2:39 am

http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/13/the-green-hornet

Another view on the film...

PASS.

I'll wait until it heads Red Box...

Even then, I'll rent the cheaper DVD version.

WHY do they even bother doing 3D? Most of it looks lousy!
Loved the line about how only the credits looked good in 3D!
Poor Diaz... apparently somebody (most likely Rogen) really didn't like her and tried to make her look as haggard as possible. Rogen obviously suffers from ageism-prejudice. Pretty much confirms my opinion of the guy...

I have a feeling this film will die fast.

Sort of sad since the Green Hornet is an interesting concept and there's really nothing else quite like it in comics.
I caught a few of the episodes when they had a full-day marathon of the 1960s series on SyFy on Tuesday. Never had seen an episode of this show until then! Couldn't watch all of them, naturally, so I just left the old DVD Recorder (HD) on for 11 hours to record what I didn't catch.
The TV series definitely has a charm. Flawless? No. Could have used more Bruce and a bit less starch, too. The cast was generally pretty good.
Batman (1966) definitely had better opening titles, though... The Hornet arguably has the more classic theme even though it's just a popped-up version of "Flight of the Bumblebee."
Both shows were produced by the same man, William Dozier, who was also the narrator for both series, too!

The lost serials thread...

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Re: The lost serials thread...