Jonah Hex (2010)

The U.S. military makes a scarred bounty hunter with warrants on his own head an offer he cannot refuse: in exchange for his freedom, he must stop a terrorist who is ready to unleash Hell on Earth.

Director:

Jimmy Hayward

Writers:

Mark Neveldine (screenplay), Brian Taylor (screenplay),

Stars:

Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Josh Brolin	...	Jonah Hex
John Malkovich	...	Quentin Turnbull
Megan Fox	...	Lilah
Michael Fassbender	...	Burke
Will Arnett	...	Lieutenant Grass
John Gallagher Jr.	...	Lieutenant Evan
Tom Wopat	...	Colonel Slocum
Michael Shannon	...	Doc Cross Williams
Wes Bentley	...	Adleman Lusk
Julia Jones	...	Cassie
Luke James Fleischmann	...	Travis
Rio Hackford	...	Grayden Nash
David Jensen	...	Turnbull's Henchman
Billy Blair	...	Turnbull's Gang - Billy
Sean Boyd	...	Turnbull's Gang - Preacher

Storyline

During Grant's presidency, Jonah Hex is a remorseless bounty hunter. In the Civil War, he was a rebel whose honor put him afoul of a Confederate general, Quentin Turnbull, who murdered Jonah's family while Jonah watched. As a result of the ordeal, Jonah's face is disfigured and he can talk with the dead. After staging his own death, Turnbull, with a group of rebel stalwarts, hatches a plan to bring the Union to its knees. Grant wants Hex to stop it. While the nation readies to celebrate Independence Day, Hex and an unlikely ally have little time to stop Turnbull and his weapon of mass destruction.

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Plot Keywords:

independence day | death | terrorist | bounty hunter | military | 

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Taglines:

Revenge Gets Ugly

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Fantasy | Thriller | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, disturbing images and sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Warner Bros. [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 June 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Jona Heks

Filming Locations:

Bayou Gauche, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$47,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$5,085,000 (USA) (18 June 2010)

Gross:

$10,539,414 (USA) (6 August 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Legendary Pictures, Mad Chance

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jonah Hex's ability to bring the dead back to life and speak to them is confined to the film only. He does not possess this ability in the comic books.

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Goofs

When Turnbull is explaining the origin of the "super weapon" to Burke, he attributes it to Eli Whitney, Senior. In fact, it was Eli Whitney, Junior he is describing.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jonah Hex: War and me took to each other real well. It felt like it had meaning. The feeling of doing what you thought was right. But it wasn't. Folks can believe what they like, but eventually a man's gotta decide if he's gonna do what's right. That choice cost me more than I bargained for.

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Crazy Credits

When the Warner Bros logo appears, its accompanying theme is played in a western riff.

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Connections

Referenced in Bad Movie Beatdown: Gamer (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Ring da Banjo"
Written by Stephen Foster
Arranged and Performed by David E. Bourne

User Reviews

A Few Decent Moments but a Real Letdown

Jonah Hex (2010)

** (out of 4)

After seeing his family murdered and himself brutally mutilated by Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich), Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) turns bounty hunter to capture any bad guy he can but soon the President asks Hex to track down and kill Turnbull who has stolen a massive weapon that could take out the country. Without the ending credits this thing clocks in at 73-minutes, which is rather amazing in today's world when it seems movies keep getting longer and longer. I don't mind the short running time as I feel it something we need more of but at the same time this film is a mess. For starters, while watching the thing it's clear this was meant to be longer and more violent. The film jumps around from one bit of the story to the next and it appears the short running time was done to build the "style" of storytelling. Well, it just doesn't work because you feel as if you're watching something that is missing footage. This continues with the violence because at times we're watching a rather dark and moody film but then we get quick edits when the violence happens so to my eyes it's rather obvious that they wanted to get this a PG-13 rating. Would the more graphic violence had helped? I'd say probably so because, again, it's obvious the film had it cut out. I put the majority of the blame on director Hayward and his style. The quick edits, fast zooms and the various other "cool" objects he throws at us is just distracting and in the end they become very boring. This isn't a complete bomb as we do get some nice stuff and that includes Hex's ability to talk with the dead by touching them and bringing them back to life. I found some of these special effects to be off but at the same time it gave the film a certain darkness that I enjoyed. The best moment in the film happens when Hex brings his dead friend back to life, a friend he just happened to kill. The film takes place just after the Civil War and I thought they got the look of the land pretty good and this here was another plus. What does keep the film moving better than it deserves was the performance by Brolin who managed to make the character his very own. I loved the laid back approach to the role and Brolin's dry sense of humor worked perfectly as we do get a few nice one-liners. Malkovich appears to be having fun but the film doesn't get to spend too much time with him. Megan Fox plays the prostitute who Hex cares for and delivers a rather blah performance. There's nothing bad with her but there's nothing good either. She's obviously just here for eye candy as she's constantly in skimpy clothes and it's never made clear why she's in love with a disfigured Hex. I normally don't go for a film like this but the subject matter, cast and trailer made it look interesting but sadly the end result is extremely mixed and all in all a major disappointment. This film should have been so much more but the poor direction and ugly style just kills it in the end.