Jonah Hex (2010) Reviews

• A Complete Guide to a User Ratings Travesty

  witster182010-10-19

  Sometimes I wonder if people that reviewed this film actually watched it, or if they gave it a chance, not like second glancing at it because they're cooking dinner at the same time. Jonah Hex is an entertaining little movie based upon the DC Comic Book character. To be honest, I've never read the comic, had little expectations coming in, and wouldn't have gone to see this in the theater. This genre is admittedly, 'right up my alley'. Usually I check some ratings on here before renting movies so that I avoid the flops. Thankfully, I didn't look on IMDb until AFTER I had already rented it. So when I looked at IMDb's 4.6 user rating AFTER renting it, but BEFORE watching it; my expectations were lowered even further, and I nearly put off watching it, again. Nevertheless, it was due the next day and I popped it in the DVD player when the other-half went to bed(too bad - she would have liked it). I have a good sound system and a nice TV - both made this action/western/fantasy even better. Let's take a look at some of the films on IMDb with similar user ratings - specifically some of the worst films that I have ever seen/wasted my time and money on. Ready to Wear(Pret-A-Porter)4.8 Actually rated higher than Jonah Hex. This was two hours I will NEVER get back. A terribly boring movie with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. King Solomon's Mines 4.6 Tied with Jonah Hex. This may be the worst movie I have ever seen. A literal walk out of the theater. And I know what you're thinking. I talked about giving movies a chance earlier, but I revisited KSM years later, and it still remains the worst film I've ever seen in my lifetime, 1 and a half times. Toys 4.6 Enough said. Jonah Hex' style is true to the comic book theme. The opening of the film is excellent, and gives us a good foundation for an entertaining storyline. John Malkovich is ALWAYS a good adversary/bad guy, and Josh Brolin IS Jonah Hex. Megan Foxes' role is small, and she serves every purpose, much like a smoking hot Bond girl. Her Body alone makes this film worth 4.6. But, Jonah Hex is much more. It's interesting, it's action packed, and it's well-paced. Now, is it believable? No. What comic book based film is? Is it Oscar worthy? No. Will it appear on any legitimate 2010 Top Ten lists? No. Jonah Hex is the pure definition of a popcorn flick. Not just one that rare movie watchers might over-rate(It's no nine or ten), and one that critics will annihilate, but one that is sure to surprise many who give it a chance. It's worth the rental - especially if you have a TV and sound system that can give you a near theater experience. I like some of the subtle touches to this movie, and Malkovich and Brolin really help the cause. 58/100 You'll like it if you liked: Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer, Brotherhood of the Wolf, and Timecop.

• Potential for great summer popcorn flick wasted

  cadillac202010-06-21

  I wasn't really expecting much out of this film. And I thought that it coming out the same weekend as Toy Story 3 was pretty laughable. But it seemed like fun, so I thought I'd give it a try. Sadly, it turned out pretty much how I expected, and it's no wonder there was such little advertisement paid to this film. Jonah Hex is pretty straightforward in it's story. Jonah Hex witnessed his family die at the hands of John Turnbull. Unfortunately, for Hex, Turnbull died mysteriously in a hotel fire...or did he. Turns out Tunrbull is still alive and a danger to the US. Now, Jonah must get his revenge and save the US. A lot of people have compared this film to The Wild Wild West. Thankfully, this is not that film. Granted, it's not all that grounded in reality (actually, it's not grounded in reality much at all), but there's no giant walking spiders or head slicing, flying discs. The action here is pretty ridiculous and outrageous, but at the same is fun. It helps that Josh Brolin, as the titular Jonah Hex, is pretty damn cool. He plays off Dirty Harry pretty well, with only a few one liners and a pretty well drawn out character. In fact, I would say that if they ever do a remake of Dirty Harry, I would vote for Brolin to take up the reins. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the cast is not as good. John Malkovich plays Turnbull lazily. Sure, he's not as hammy as he could have been, which I am grateful for, but I can't help but feel that he isn't the least bit interested in what he is doing. And with the kind of character he's supposed to be, there should be more passion, but it's sadly missing. As for the third big name, Megan Fox does what she does best and looks hot in some slutty western dresses. For a film like this, I guess you can't ask much more from her. The action is obviously where this film is at, and it mostly delivers. It's far from the biggest action film this summer, but there are some pretty outrageous and entertaining pieces, like the Gatling gun-mounted horse and the dynamite gun scenes known from the trailer. And when there isn't action going on, Brolin saves the film. Besides the action, he is the best thing here. I would also even argue that the film does a good job translating the comic book style. While it could have been much better, it could also have been a lot worse. I guess I can at least be thankful for that. Suffice to say, I pretty much got what I thought I would get out of the film: a cool Josh Brolin, a hot Megan Fox, a wooden John Malkovich, and a lot of crazy action. Was I satisfied? I suppose. It was a decent way to kill about an hour and a half. Would I run out to the theater for this? Nah. If you really care about the ticket price and your time, I would just wait to rent it on DVD.

• Pretty bad, but not as bad as some are saying.

  cletus-112010-06-25

  First, I want to mention some of the good stuff. Josh Brolin is excellent as Hex, perfect casting, great job by Brolin, thoroughly enjoyable to watch. John Malkovich was very good in a role that could have easily been too over the top to be taken seriously. Fassbender was genuinely creepy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was great, and Megan Fox looks gorgeous and her acting is not that bad. Combine that with an amazing soundtrack by Mastodon, (and a surprise cameo by Brent Hinds) I have to say I enjoyed the movie. The negatives: "The Weapon" - a weird, quasi-science, completely unexplained "nation-killer" invented by Eli Whitney... WTF? Stupid. While on the subject, why does the world have to be at stake? A simple revenge tale would have sufficed. Aidan Quinn was awful, but it probably wasn't his fault, unless he wrote his own lines. Why tell Hex's backstory with a couple of minutes of poorly animated crap with a voice-over when they could've filmed Hex's origin sequence and made it a much better movie? No idea, but I can't explain many of the choices that were made on this movie. Why was it only 80 minutes long? Who thought that was a good idea? Who cast Will Arnett in a straight role? I kept waiting for him to do something funny. To sum it up, there was some really good work done on this movie, but there were too many terrible decisions made that left it a disjointed mess in spite of its potential. As a life-long Jonah Hex fan, I was happy to see him captured so perfectly by Brolin, but disappointed as hell that the studio screwed up the movie so badly, and ruined any chance of this becoming a successful franchise.

• hmmmm....

  on_the_can2010-06-19

  I'm hesitant to call this an out and out terrible movie as some have labelled it simply because it was mildly entertaining. There's a lot of action, some cool ideas, a great performance by Josh Brolin and the short 80 minute running time doesn't hurt it either. The sad truth of the whole thing is that it just didn't come close to its potential. For starters, Jonah Hex didn't have to be macabre and supernatural...to my knowledge this wasn't even part of the original comic books that the movie is based on. The original story is simple, Jonah Hex's family is murdered, he's horribly scarred and left for dead. He gets better and sets out for revenge. It's a pretty classic western tale...one that we've seen before but given the general lack of western movies these days, that doesn't matter...there's plenty of room in theatres for a fun out for revenge Western. Having said all that, the supernatural ideas that they came up with are actually kinda cool, and I would've been happy to see them mixed in, if only they'd been handled better. Instead these elements seem tossed in as an excuse to include CG effects that the box office loves oh so much. The end result is an unfortunate mash up of a good ideas...that maybe could've worked if more time had been put into development, it feels like it was either slapped together too hastily or suffered from a massive reedit...during most of the film I couldn't shake the feeling that there was maybe a 2 hour+ director's cut lying on the floor somewhere which may or may not be a superior and more coherent film. I was looking forward Jonah Hex based on a short appearance he had in a Batman cartoon years ago...from that alone I thought the character had a lot of movie potential but I was let down. Brolin's performance is the best part of the movie. Malkovich is good but nothing too spectacular considering his track record, and even Megan Fox is half decent but she doesn't have a lot to do with her pretty much useless character.

• Short and not bad enough to offend at least

  mjk2802010-06-27

  I'm a fan of comics and westerns so even though I knew of Jonah Hex in name only this was something I knew I could probably at least sit through. I've seen some reviews and they seem a little harsh. It wasn't anything special but it moved a long fairly quickly and I wasn't bored for what that's worth. I agree with others that Brolin was a good choice for Hex. I was glad to see Malkovich there but he seemed a tad underwhelming. I think he's a great actor so I trust he nailed the character though. Will Arnett stuck out like a sore thumb in the small number of scenes he was in. He's a goofy, funny guy I just don't really want to see him in a serious role. You almost can't tell if he's for real or being sarcastically serious. Megan Fox is Megan Fox. Why people are complaining so much about her acting I have no idea. She's there for sex appeal. No one thinks she's the next coming of Meryl Streep or something. The movie looked a little too synthetic for me especially some of the "ultimate weapon" stuff. It looked a little too clean for a western too. I don't know why some movies like There Will Be Blood can look so authentic and suck you in to the setting but others like this just look too fake. I figured there would be some fantastic elements involved even though it was grounded in real life, just because of the comic influence. That might have prepared me a little more for the stuff others might have found to be out of place. In fairness movies are a little bit like watching a sporting event for the first time. If you don't know the rules or know what to expect you're likely to not enjoy it much. After the first 5 minutes or so I figured as much to not be jarred by some of the more out of place plot elements, so all in all I thought it was a short, somewhat entertaining movie. Glad it wasn't much longer though.