Cynthia Fuchs (17 May 2012)

Slight but sluggish, murky but not effectively dark, Jonah Hex is caught in a limbo rather like its hero's.

(17 May 2012)

DVD

This review is from: Jonah Hex (Ws) (DVD) The dvd came and it is great . Case is in great shape and the movie is wonderful . No problems at all , thanks guys !

(11 May 2012)

Jonah Hex Movie Review

Jonah Hex Movie ReviewJonah Hex; gunslinger, bounty hunter and outlaw. The DC Comic Book classic recently turned motion picture; chronicles the life of Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin). Directed by Jimmy Hayward, (Horton Hears a Who), Jonah Hex details one man's life after his run in with psycho General Quentin Turnbull, (John Malkovich). Quentin blames Jonah Hex for the death of his son, and in-turn enacts revenge on him by brutally slaying Jonah's wife and son. Jonah immediately swears revenge and dedicates his life to dishing out justice as he sees fit. Good or bad, Jonah is forced by the government to help fight General Quentin, who has stolen secret government weapons. The movie which is only 83 minutes long, (including credits) failed to deliver a storyline that will keep fans of this supernatural western comic book hooked for years. Not only because the original Jonah character has been filed down and drastically changed; but this movie is short, confusing, and very hard to follow. I was very disappointed in this comic book adaptation; it would have been nice to see Jonah Hex follow in the footsteps of other DC Comic book greats such as, Superman, Batman and Wonder woman.

tubetha (10 May 2012)

Loved it!

Don't know what everybody is complaining about?! This movie was funny,action-packed, great to look at, and the acting was much better thaneverybody says. Josh Brolin was great, Megan Fox was quite good andhello people, it has Malkovich as a bad guy! I am not a snob but wentin with very low expectations because of what I have read about JonahHex and was so absolutely pleasantly surprised! Within the first 3minutes I knew I had NOT made a mistake watching it. I really enjoyedthis movie, possibly as much as Planet Terror or The Missing. I ratedit a 9 out of 10 because the low ratings are totally unfair. Give it achance if you like comic books and/or westerns. A really good story anda fun twist on a western. I hope they make a sequel, so there...

yellowtreesy (05 May 2012)

commercials & trailers are the only good parts

hm. if I were to sum this movie up in 1 word it would have to be "dull." everything -- i mean EVERYTHING -- in this movie has been done in some other movie 100x better. that being said, i really had wanted to like this movie (and i tried).some bad points i feel worth mentioning:The camera cuts from scene to scene way too haphazardly to make any sense. there is ZERO building of tension (you have got to let things simmer). you can't understand what the heck Jonah is saying cause of his facial scar. the villain is fat. he also can't maintain his accent. the big bad threat to america that requires the president to say "JONAH HEX IS AMERICA'S ONLY HOPE!" (not exactly in those words, but close) is some 6 shooter cannon that shoots big cannon balls that land in the ground and then shoot some glowing DBZ orb to detonate it (WTF?). megan fox is only in the movie for 10 minutes. jonah hex is not impressive at all -- the only thing that makes him special is that he can talk to dead people. story and rushed and poorly fleshed out (was never attached to the characters and really wanted the movie to end). lastly, the last grand finale fight between jonah and fat bald man is so poorly shot and edited that i actually laughed out loud. it was just so.....so so bad..the only way i see anyone suggesting that this was a good movie is if they were an amish 8 year old child that hasn't seen an action flick in their life.

(05 May 2012)

AW HEX!

It seems that Hollywood has fallen in love with comic book characters once again. Of course Hollywood tends to do so when a genre makes money. The success of BATMAN BEGINS and IRON MAN as well as their sequels has Hollywood realizing fans are willing to pay top dollar when their heroes are done right. But on occasion those in Hollywood still think they can do the original better and anger fans, as was the case with the release of JONAH HEX. But when looked at on its own instead of through fans eyes, this movie isn't all that bad.Josh Brolin stars as the title character; a Confederate soldier who decided there'd been enough bloodshed, killed his best friend/commander and turned in his fellow soldiers so he could get on with his life. Unfortunately his friends father was a maniacal leader named Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) who didn't take kindly to his son's death of Hex' becoming a traitor. So he burns Hex' wife and child alive while forcing him to watch and brands his face with the letters QT. Hex survives the ordeal, is rescued by Crow Indians and finds himself with a power to communicate with the dead, apparently due to his near death experience. Revenge escapes him though with Turnbull dies in a fire. Hex, scarred for life inside and out, takes on the role of bloody avenger and becomes the deadliest bounty hunter around, taking out those who would prey on the innocent in the most brutal ways possible. And you learn all this within the first 5-10 minutes of the film!But this is a movie that last 81 minutes so we need a story. It turns out that Turnbull never really died. Instead, he's been leading a group of mercenary soldiers who still think there's a chance for the south to rise again. So much so that they've discovered a secret weapon the Union had and never put together and are now gathering the pieces to do so. Once built, cities will be set aflame and their cause will bring about a new order in America.Knowing of his past relationship with Turnbull, President Grant orders Hex be turned lose on his trail and bring Turnbull to justice. In return, Hex will receive a full pardon for any crimes he may have committed as a bounty hunter (like the killing the dirty Sheriff early in the film). Knowing who he's after means Hex cares less about the bounty and more about the man he's pursuing.Just before being "recruited" to set out after Turnbull we get the chance to meet Hex' girlfriend for lack of a better term. Suffice to say that Lilah (Megan Fox) uses her womanly ways to earn a living in the Wild West. Get it? Good. But she has a soft spot for Hex who passes on the chance to be with Lilah forever because anyone who gets close to Hex has a tendency to end up dead.As Hex follows leads to find Turnbull, we get to see his abilities come in handy. He questions a recently deceased member of Turnbull's army and later digs up his old friend, Turnbull's son, to get more information that will bring him closer to the living Turnbull. A final confrontation is sure to follow and it does. To find out if Turnbull is successful in bringing down the USA, you'll have to rent or buy the movie.The movie is beautifully shot and looks great in scene after scene be it the desert, a town out west or an abandoned fort taken over by the bad guys. The special effects, especially when Hex talks to the dead, are top of the line and believable as far as raising the dead goes. And the make up, most notably that used on Hex which involves a sort of hole in the cheek burnt face look, is done to perfection.Brolin does a solid job as Hex, a man tormented by his past, afraid of his present and uncaring of his future. One risen corpse tells him that they're waiting for him down below but it doesn't seem to faze him. He knows he'll get there eventually but he has work to do on Earth first. Fox does little more than look good but for the most part I think her fans expect little more than that. Does she have acting ability? Sure, but when your roles all call for you to be scantily clad or topless (not here) then your acting isn't what most people are looking for. I think she has the talent, let's just hope we see more of that instead of skin next time around. Malkovich does a great job of being the over the top bad guy. Heck, he does a good over the top good guy too (see his performance in RED for that). Here he has little to work with but makes what he has work for him. He's mean as can be and that makes you root more for Hex.On the whole the movie offers an enjoyable night's entertainment, delivering plenty of action and story to boot. While it may not be the movie die hard comic book fans expected, everyone else will have a good time with it. Give it a rent and afterwards you might even consider adding this one to your collection of westerns.One last note. In watching this I was expecting something that was one of the most terrible films ever made. The online world has portrayed this film as deserving of a Golden Turkey award. Viewing it from that perspective made the film far more enjoyable and less a struggle than perhaps a fan of the comic series might have with it. Viewed on its own merits as a piece of fluff entertainment, it does a great job.

(02 May 2012)

NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!!!

I must say that this was quite a messy and rushed movie that had so much potential but was thrown out as a mass produced commercial film whose only goal was to make money off of comic-book/movie geeks and unsuspecting western/action patrons with just enough curiosity to gander at a comic to film product that may satisfy their hunger for the next great western. Unfortunately, all the pretty "bells and whistles" spent in effects and on the horrible Megan Fox could not save this poor excuse of a comic book adaptation. Even the great John Malkovich was sucked into Fox's talentless vacuum by portraying an unconvincing villain that is as intimidating as my next door neighbor's toy poodle. With all this said, Josh Brolin was one of the redeeming qualities in the film that made it watchable and entertaining. When I say "entertaining" I mean in a "MST-3000" meaning where you sit around with friends and make fun of it while intoxicated on your choice of poison. I believe Brolin knew what he was getting into and said to himself, "Screw it! Im going to have fun with the role while I'm getting paid millions for this turd!!". And it really shows in his performance. This is the beauty of the film if you choose to acknowledge it or not. So, if you watch this film with no preconceived notions of a comic book geek or a western/action fanatic you will enjoy the "not to be taken seriously" JONAH HEX. BTW, don't forget the alcohol!!!!!!

(01 May 2012)

jonah hex

This review is from: Jonah Hex (DVD) a good revenge movie, story line was ok but not a good ending, the movie is better if ur into megan fox.

(01 May 2012)

Jonah Hex: What happened?

Why, oh why, did this film suck? It had so much potential when brought up at last year's Comic-Con, but like 2005's 'Constantine' before it, the cool premise went ker-plunk. I had an interest in JH when I first read a couple of '90s comic mini-series, which is where the supernatural parts got slipped in. They were great. This, on the other hand, should have been on cable or straight-to-video. Yeesh! Hold your nose and rent it once and wait for 'Cowboys And Aliens' in 2011 to hopefully get the stink out. (And Constantine should have been a Brit. Sorry Keanu.)

dragon_tail-100-689610 (01 May 2012)

Not a complete flop

So I may be a little late seeing this one, but hey, theater ticketsaren't cheep nowadays. I love comic based movies (for the most part) sowhen I saw it in a redbox for a dollar I picked it out.I may not have read all of the Jonah Hex comics, but I knew the gist ofthe character and setting so I wasn't completely blind going in to thisas I think some of the other reviewers might have been.There are quite a few reviews on this already, most of which havealready driven into the ground that Brolin pulled together Hex'scharacter nicely, Fox was eye candy and nothing more, and Malkovich wasokay but a bit of a snooze so I'll leave those topics alone.I'm going to talk about the plot/character development, makeupFX/costumes, and cinematography/sound.The plot was a little scattered and ADD. It seemed to want to pull youin one direction but would find itself in odd places that would takethe viewer out of the story from time to time. However, the pace wasperfect for a comic action flick. I suppose what I really wished wasfor more of the characters aside from Hex (and even Hex himself in theend) to be defined, given a little more dimension as the plot broughtthem in and out of the story. Every time I would meet a new character,I got excited, thinking that I was going to get more insight into theback story, either of the new character or of Hex. Several things wereleft unexplained that kind of left me wanting. I will give the plotcredit for never lagging or leaving me waiting for a scene to finish.I, as a viewer and as a small time costumer myself, always immediatelypick up on and examine make up and costume designs. For this movie,both areas get two thumbs up. Hex's make up (obviously key to hischaracter) is extremely demanding as he speaks frequently through themovie. His scarring needed to move with his jaw but still maintain thestiffness of scar tissue while appearing real and painful and the FXteam really pulled that off brilliantly. As for the costumes, I foundthem reassuringly authentic and nicely rough around the edgesfiguratively and literally. I would however, like to point out thatMegan Fox seemed to be an out of place entity in the movie beyond justher non-acting. While all of the other characters were realisticallydirty, greasy, and of poor hygiene, Fox had perfect makeup, skin, hair,and teeth. The costumes helped a little as they were -a bit- ragged,but an old western whore would not be quite that well kept, especiallyin the scene where she is kidnapped when she is "done working fortonight."The cinematography had its ups and downs. The strange half comic styledrawing/half slightly crappy CG landscape rendering that was used inthe beginning for a little back story -could- potentially have workedif it had just been comic style stills AND if it had been used at leasttwice more in later parts of the movie to further the plot and helpdefine the secondary and tertiary characters at the vary least inrelation to Hex. As is, it was disjointed from the rest of the film andeven within itself. The only other complaint I have about thecinematography was the darkness of it. I watched this movie at nightwithout any lights on and still there were pretty significant chunks ofit when I had a hard time just seeing what was going on which, again,throws the viewer out of the story and back onto the couch. Aside fromthat, I thought that the camera angles were not particularly creativebut certainly did their job sufficiently, the day scenes were wellthought-out (as far as filming them at least) and the multitude ofexplosions were captured nicely.The sound was very good... except when they were talking. I loved themusic choices, they were perfectly placed and pulled me back into thethrill of the movie. A little unusual for the old west, it was perfectfor a comic book movie. As for when the actors were talking, let me saythis first: okay, I get it, the manly men of the old west areapparently supposed to grumble out their words like bears grunting ateach other. However, with a movie, where your audience is supposed tobe able to understand your actors, there has to be annunciation. Twiceduring the movie I had to rewind it and crank the volume up even higher(though my couch would already rumble with each explosion at the volumeI started on) and play it back to try to understand what was beingsaid. That is the best way to take the viewer out of the experience.After all this critiquing I will say this: I still enjoyed it.A bad-ass antihero who can talk to the dead, bears death with himwherever he goes in the form of a murder of crows and uses fantasticalweapons like hidden Gatling guns mounted on his horse and spring-loadedclip-fed mini crossbows that shoot darts with explosive heads??Absolutely.No Oscar winner, but perfect for a rainy day or a night with a coupleof friends over and a big bowl of popcorn.

Joshua Tyler (27 April 2012)

Jonah Hex would hate this movie. He would make fun of this movie.

chaos-rampant (27 April 2012)

Too much cliché for a fictional 'Old West' where everything seems possible

I hadn't heard anything about how dismally this performed in the boxoffice and I wasn't planning on seeing it either, until I saw it was awestern and a superhero movie about a bounty hunter who communicateswtih the dead rolled into one. We've had so few westerns the past 20years I'll look for them in the most unlikely places, here or TheBurrowers. The animated intro of 15 minutes basically tells us "JonahHex was this guy and he died and came back and has superpowers and is abadass", an abomination of exposition.Then the movie rides out of the desert into a small dusty frontier townfor the best scene in the movie; a set piece of badass gunfightingviolence that is a patchwork of spaghetti western references. Jonah Hexsays to the town authorities who won't pay him his bounty "you brought5 coffins, maybe you'll need 8", then he fills them full of lead usingtwo gatling guns like a slicker Django would do. Lovely stuff happensthere, tongue in cheek like in the best of spaghettis, a man shoots athim out of a coffin and Jonah shoots him back into the coffin. In theend he picks up the sheriff badge and pins it onto the drooling townidiot. There's a spaghetti western, an Eli Wallach comedy if I'm right,where the protagonist names mayor of town a pig (or a dog) and warnseveryone that it better be there when he comes back. It's all verytongue-in-cheek and carried with an air of devilmaycare recklessness.That's all this movie does right.We get the President of the United States saying things like "onlyJonah Hex can help us" and John Malkovich making grand 'movie villain'declarations like "on the 4th of July America will burn in flames".There's a secret superweapon involved in that proposed destruction, andpersonal revenge is the motive behind it and Jonah Hex had something todo with it so he must save the day and get the girl in the end. MeganFox plays the girl and love interest and only looks sassy and makes cateyes when she has to.Josh Brolin is looking to see here if he couldn't cash in his snarlingpersona into a badass antihero type that at different times would havebeen played by Kurt Russell or Franco Nero or Clint Eastwood, JohnMalkovich as the Confederate general adds another demented villain tohis resume, and Michael Fassbender probably can't hope to live offfilms like Hunger so he's spending 2010 picking up paychecks for actionfilms like this and Centurion.I wonder if we can't fault a comic book adaptation for being silly andcartoonish. It's not so much that the film doesn't take itself serious,but that it takes itself light in the most cliché/unimaginable waypossible. For a fictional 'Old West' universe where everything seemspossible, Jonah Hex dully falls in the footprints of the blockbusteraction movie - a dozen different locations, contrived backstories, aclimax where things blow up. I'm not saying this couldn't have beengreat, but at least it should have been decent. At barely 70 minutes ofmovie, this seems like everyone lost interest at some point.It's closer to Van Helsing in that aspect than any Batman movies of thedecade. A lot of CGI noise thrown in together with a measure ofmystical nonsense about the other world. At some point Josh Brolinspits out a crow. Even Conan had a more dignified "death and rebirth"scene in Conan the Barbarian.

miguel-a-g (23 April 2012)

What is Going On With You People?

I felt like posting a comment, not because this movie is one of myfavorites or something like that, but only because I don't understandhow it's getting such poor reviews. I like several types of movies, andrarely go to the cinema to see commercial ones. The only thing thatmakes me buy expensive tickets to the cinema these days, are directorslike David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky, Terrence Malick, ChristopherNolan and not much more. At home, I'm also peculiar selecting movies,but I also like seeing now and then, a movie that is just cool, simple,not too serious, but also not too stupid. So here's the key-point, toostupid, and although this movie isn't like genius, it isn't that stupideither. Why is being treated like if it was, is beyond me. I don't knowif it's just in the States, or also in Europe. So Megan Fox is miscast,yes, but her character isn't relevant to the story anyway. She's justin it because she's hot, and to bring some publicity to the movie. Whenshe's with Josh Brolin, he compensates her lack of performance, andwhen she's alone, she's showing off her legs and body, which is a goodthing too. I don't understand how really dumb movies like Transformers2, Wanted, Blade, Terminator3, Lara Croft, XXX and even Scary Moviehave higher ranking than this one. Is this a great movie? No. Is it aworth watch movie? Yes. This one is simple: if you liked the trailer,you'll like the movie, if didn't liked the trailer, skip the movie.

Rob Taylor (23 April 2012)

Nothing special but a bit dull.

It's not that Jonah Hex is a bad film. It's just not terribly good.Sure, there are special effects galore, action by the bucket-load and aplentiful supply of eye-candy. But despite all that, and a simple, butcoherent, plot, Jonah Hex fails to engage the viewer very well.Brolin's titular character is dour and expressionless to the point ofbeing uninteresting. Despite the tragedy that made him, its almostimpossible to feel for the character. Megan Fox's pseudo-love interestprostitute is equally bad at evoking much sympathy from the viewer.The plot, as I say, is simple. Basically the War on Terror comes tocowboy-land. Add in a dash of the supernatural (which is poorlyunder-utilized) and the recipe should make for a solid actioner. Butagain, despite the decent pacing, the movie feels flat and dull.The running time for this is barely eighty minutes, yet at least twiceI found myself wondering how much longer it would go on. That's not agood sign! As I say, not a terribly awful film, but not terribly goodeither. A nothing film, if you like. Has all the right ingredients, butthis is one soufflé that just didn't rise.

jeffro45 (21 April 2012)

Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of this year's Razzies . . .

I admit, I knew from the trailers that this movie might be horrible,simply because the dialogue of the 'highlights' was so badly done, Iwas wondering why the editors that cut the clips for the commercialshad even chosen these . . . I had hoped they were saving the betterones for the paying customers. Since I was a fan of the original comic(the Weird Tales and subsequent Jonah Hex DC series before it got intoweird plot twists and pointless cross-overs), I was willing to give ita shot. I wasn't convinced that Brolin was the best choice for Hex . .. truth is, I didn't think he just didn't fit the part due to hisinability to be as dark as Jonah needed to be. I'm not a die-hard, 'ithas to be just like the comic' sort of movie-goer, but I usually expectthe directors to try and exceed the original source with their ownversions as Raimi did with the first and second Spiderman . . . appeasethe comic fans, but step it up from the books with a good story, a goodcast, and give you a feeling that you just stepped into a modernversion of the comic itself. Hayward's version didn't, and Brolindidn't. Part of that was due to a bad casting choice, while the bulk ofit was the stupid dialogue, and the hokey direction the film took whicheven had a 'medal/sheriff's badge presentation from the president'scene that had a line in it that pretty much provided a long overduelaugh.Malkovich was the highlight of the film, but it was clear he had littleto work with. As enjoyable as he is to watch, I found myself wincing insympathy more often than not as he struggled to work with what littlehe had.Megan Fox . . . well, as pretty as she is, she should stick to playingthe parts she's best suited to . . . the attractive person modelling incar commercials rather than acting next to ones that transform intorobots. It was bad enough listening to C-movie lines, but to hear thembutchered even further with a southern/western accent that she tried toattempt made the experience that much more uncomfortable.All in all, unless you're 12, and/or have low standards for actionflicks that usually at least provide SOME clever banter and plot linesthat make sense, give it a miss . . . don't even rent the DVD. Even ifyou're not a fan of the comic, it's just not worth it. If you do happento be an old-school, die-hard comic fan and you saw this movie, you'relikely going to want to open your old box of comics and read themagain, trying to wash away the abomination you just experienced.

(21 April 2012)

great movie

This review is from: Jonah Hex (Amazon Instant Video) this was a great movie...the plot was good the effects were good and the acting was good..what more can you ask for

Manohla Dargis (19 April 2012)

Though it has bad word of mouth, "Jonah Hex" is generally better, sprier and more diverting than most of the action flicks now playing, The A-Team included.

Matt Pais (18 April 2012)

The film runs about 72 minutes in between the credits; it unfolds like a kid not understanding what he's reading but turning the page anyway.

MLDinTN (17 April 2012)

terrible idea

I thought this movie was awful. First of all, a supernaturalgunslinger, that idea sounds awful to begin with. And then, it isn'teven a western. The movie takes place in the south during the CivilWar. It seems Hex was left for dead my Turnbull, a man that has chosento attack civilians, hospitals, etc with his gang. Hex was brought backby Native Americans and this is where the supernatural part comes intoplay because he can now talk to the dead. And these scenes are not verygood. They have the dead person come to "life".Hex has becomes a bounty hunter and believes Turnbull to be dead.However, he is not and is planning to attack the government. So, thePresident hires Hex to hunt Turnbull down. So Hex eventually finds himthrough a series of boring events. Then to through in a femalepresence, Megan Fox plays Hex's favorite prostitute and she kicks alittle #ss in the end. And the overall ending is really bad.FINAL VERDICT: Terrible, don't waste your time.

Z MAN (16 April 2012)

disappointing

I'll make this one short and quick.I was very disappointed. I honestlythought Jonah hex would have a decent amount of work put into it but itseemed the entire was film was rushed and done quickly. Quality filmrequires quality time. The acting I did not believe. Meagan Fox onceagain proves to us she can't act. Josh Brolin was alright. He playedhex well to a certain extent but again i was disappointed at the lackof depth to the character. The script was very choppy and overall thewhole thing was a mess. Lucky it gets five form me because there weresome nice shots and Josh Brolin was alright but either way Jonah Hexwas a huge disappointment.