Actor Seth Rogen didn’t star in a film called “Funny People” by accident.
The 28-year-old’s career blossomed with wry turns in films like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” But his leading man performance in “Knocked Up” convinced Hollywood he could command the screen all by himself.
Which is why “Pineapple Express” proved such a peculiar movie experience.
The comedy, casting Rogen as a stoner who gets mixed up in a murder case, delivered some of the laughs promised in its red-band trailer early on. But the final reel felt more like Rogen auditioning for an ’80s action movie.
This viewer had a tough time embracing Rogen in that capacity, especially since he looked like he would pull a groin muscle getting off the couch to refill the Doritos bowl. And hearing him on “The Howard Stern Show” extol the virtues of the real Pineapple Express – a marijuana mix inspired by the film - hardly helped matters.
Now, Rogen is slimmer and itching for a fight in “The Green Hornet,” the superhero flick hitting theaters Jan. 14. Rogen stars as a slacker who dons a mask to fight crime after the death of his father. The film is based on characters introduced initially via radio show serials but later embraced by both the comic book world and the small screen.
Will audiences buy Rogen in a full-blown action film? He’s got all the cool trappings of the genre at his disposal, including a righteous sidekick, Kato (Jay Chou) and a slick looking car.
It’s a tough sell, but if he pulls it off his career will branch out in ways he couldn’t imagine even in his pot-filled dreams.
(Photo: Jay Chou and Seth Rogen play masked crime fighters in “The Green Hornet.”)
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It was necessary to cast Rogen as the Green Hornet due to the racial issues inherent in the character’s house boy/side kick “Kato”. In the 1970s this wasn’t a problem, in today’s hyper-racialized culture it’s a huge issue.
The writer’s solution was to make the main protagonist, played by Rogen, a goofy comedic screw up and his houseboy/sidekick the competent/smart member of the team. Very much like those annoying phone commercials from a few years back, which I suspect was the inspiration for the technique.