Warner Bros. Home Entertainment // Released October 12, 2010 // Rated PG-13
The Pitch
Out of the pages of the legendary comics and graphic novels steps Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin), a scarred drifter and bounty hunter of last resort who can track anyone…and anything. Having survived death, Jonah’s violent history is steeped in myth and legend and has left him with one foot in the natural world and one on the “other side.” His one human connection is with Lilah (Megan Fox), whose life in a brothel has left her with scars of her own. But Jonah’s past catches up with him when the U.S. military makes him an offer he can’t refuse: to wipe out the warrants on his head, he must hunt and stop dangerous terrorist Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich). But Turnbull, now gathering an army and preparing to unleash Hell, is also Jonah’s oldest enemy and will stop at nothing until Jonah is dead.
The Review
Jonah Hex is less of a bad movie and more of a disjointed one. With a too brief running time of 81 minutes, the film feels like there was once a more interesting film that’s been chipped away to almost nothing. Even the supernatural elements of the film (which don’t exist in the comic) feel like reshoot material, not blending cohesively with the rest of the tone or narrative.
The performances themselves also seem to be reminiscent of a larger work. The ensemble, including Brolin, Malkovich, Fox, Will Arnett, Michael Fassbender, Wes Bentley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Michael Shannon, and Tom Wopat all deserve better. Brolin’s Hex (simply thanks to the amount of screen time) is pretty entertaining as he chews the scenery and sets a tone hinting at what might have been.
For a studio so focused on comic book properties, recent releases including The Losers, Whiteout, and now, Jonah Hex, have suffered from tinkering and focus groups. If there’s a two hour director’s cut of Jonah Hex out there, I certainly would be interested in seeing it. It might not be good, but at least it would be something. Extras include several brief deleted scenes that don’t amount to anything.
I can’t say that Jonah Hex is worth seeing, except it is interesting to see just to imagine what might have been.
