Green Hornet, The 3D

Based on The Green Hornet radio series by George W. Trendle, Britt Reid (Rogen) is the son of LA's most prominent and respected media magnate and perfectly happy to maintain a directionless existence on the party scene—until his father (Wilkinson) mysteriously dies, leaving Britt his vast media empire. Striking an unlikely friendship with one of his father's more industrious and inventive employees, Kato (Chou), they see their chance to do something meaningful for the first time in their lives: fight crime. But in order to do this, they decide to become criminals themselves—protecting the law by breaking it. Britt becomes the vigilante The Green Hornet as he and Kato hit the streets. Using all his ingenuity and skill, Kato builds the ultimate in advanced retro weaponry, The Black Beauty, an indestructible car with equal parts firepower and horsepower. Rolling in a mobile fortress on wheels and striking the bad guys with Kato's clever gadgets, The Green Hornet and Kato quickly start making a name for themselves, and with the help of Britts new secretary, Lenore Case (Diaz), they begin hunting down the man who controls LA's gritty underworld: Benjamin Chudnofsky (Waltz). But Chudnofsky has plans of his own: to swat down The Green Hornet once and for all. (Gary Reber)

The three-disc Blu-ray™ 3-D Combo Pack includes a 3-D high-definition disc, a 2-D high-definition disc, a standard-definition DVD, and a digital copy of the film. Special features on the 3-D Blu-ray include commentary with filmmakers and 3-D animated storyboards. The 2-D Blu-ray includes a filmmakers' commentary; "The Green Hornet Cutting Room" game; deleted scenes (HD 26:33); an "Awesoom" gag reel (HD 07:18); six featurettes: Trust Me—Director Michel Gondry (HD 09:33), Writing The Green Hornet (HD 10:35), The Black Beauty: Rebirth Of Cool (HD 07:17), The Stunt Family Armstrong (HD 07:39), Finding Kato (HD 06:00), and The Art Of Destruction (HD 14:04); up-front previews; Movie IQ; and BD-Live functionality.

Originally exhibited in 70 mm (horizontal) 1.44:1 IMAX DMR blowup dual-strip 3D and 2.39:1 D-Cinema 3D, this 3-D Blu-ray 1080p MVC picture is framed at 2.39:1. The film was shot natively in 2D and converted to 3D, for theatrical exhibition by Stereo D LLC, Legend3D Inc., Venture 3D, Sassoon Film Design, Sony Pictures Imageworks Culver City and India, and Polygon Entertainment. A serious effect was employed during the post-production conversion to ensure that the 3D translated to enhance the overall experience. The conversion is very good, and in some respects the 3D is amazing, particularly during the action scenes. While the film was shot in 2D, using anamorphic lenses, various reshoots were done using a pair of RED ONE MX cameras. The digital footage in four scenes was intercut with the film footage. Grain was added to better match the film characteristics. The integration of the two is seamless. The overall look of the conversion delivers a unique depth, scope, and visual style that is more appealing than the 2-D version. This is particularly evident during the fight scenes and the slow motion sequences, which exhibit real depth and perceptible realism. The characters are off-set against the backgrounds, but the 3-D effects do not feel gimmicky nor do the characters appear as out-of-place flat cut-outs. Instead the conversion manages to really enhance the dimensional perspective and depth of each scene. The sequence that shows the creation of the Black Beauty is engaging in 3D and is the "comic-styled" end credits. This is a well-crafted conversion and demonstrates that conversions can effectively enhance the overall experience. As for the fundamental picture attributes, the 2-D version exceeds in quality, with excellent contrast and deep, solid blacks with revealing shadow delineation. The color palette is nicely balanced with saturated, yet naturally hued tones that are punchy. Flesh-tones are nicely rendered throughout. Resolution is superb, with revealing fine details displayed in facial features, clothing, and object textures. While the 3D appears a bit darker overall, experiencing the film in 3D is much more fun and enjoyable than just watching it in 2D. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is a high-energy experience, with a very dynamic and "loud" presence driven by sound effects and a sweeping music score by James Newton Howard and recorded by Shawn Murphy. The music is dynamic and powerful, yet surprisingly reserved in the background against the sound effects and dialogue, which manages to stay intelligible during the loud action scenes. Low-frequency energy also is impactful during the action scenes, extending to the sub-25 Hz region in the .1 LFE channel. Dialogue is production sound and ADR and sounds "produced" throughout. Surround envelopment is aggressively directionalized, which enhances the dimensionality of the soundfield, for a holosonically immersive experience. Overall, this is a busy soundtrack that manages to sound loud, at times, distorted and jumbled. (Gary Reber)