Jonah Hex

Plot synopsis:
During the American Civil War, Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) served as a Confederate cavalryman until his commanding officer, Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) ordered him to burn down a hospital. Hex refused, and was forced to kill his best friend, Turnbull's son Jeb. After the war, a vengeful Turnbull and his right-hand man, Burke (Michael Fassbender), tie up Hex and force him to watch as his house is burned down with his wife and son inside. Turnbull then brands Hex's face with his initials and leaves him to die. Days later, American Indians revive Jonah with their mystical powers. As a result of his resurrection, Jonah acquires the ability to temporarily resurrect the dead. When Turnbull apparently dies in a hotel fire, Hex satisfies his hunger for vengeance by turning to bounty hunting. He also sears the branded side of his face with a hatchet blade, preferring a mass of scar tissue to Turnbull's initials.
In 1876, Turnbull, alive and well, hijacks a train carrying components of an experimental "superweapon", slaughtering its military guards and civilian passengers alike. When informed of the theft, President Grant (Aidan Quinn) surmises that Turnbull is planning a terrorist attack for July 4, during the celebration of the American centennial. Grant instructs Army Lieutenant Grass (Will Arnett) to find Hex and hire him to stop Turnbull.
Jonah spends the night in a brothel with Lilah (Megan Fox), a prostitute attracted to the disfigured man for more than just professional reasons. As he prepares to leave the next morning, Grass' men burst in and tell him that Turnbull is still alive. They show him a captured thug from the train hijacking who told them Turnbull is headed northwest, before dying during interrogation. Jonah briefly resurrects the man, who knows only that he was recruited by ex-Confederal Colonel Slocum (Tom Wopat), who is running an illegal deathmatch pavilion in South Carolina.
With the help of a corrupt Washington aristocrat, Adleman Lusk (Wes Bentley), Turnbull tracks down and steals the remaining components of the weapon, invented by Eli Whitney.
When Hex confronts Slocum in South Carolina, Slocum refuses to talk, sarcastically telling Hex to ask Turnbull's dead son, Jeb, where his father is. Jonah says that is a good idea, then overpowers Slocum's men and throws Slocum himself into the ring, to be killed by his own fighters. After setting fire to the ring, he frees a dog being tormented by Slocum's handlers, which starts to follow him around.
In a cemetery in Gettysburg, Jonah digs up and resurrects Jeb (an uncredited Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Jonah apologizes for killing Jeb, and says that his father has to be stopped before he murders more people. Jeb reveals that his father is at Fort Resurrection, and then returns to the afterlife.
After entering the fort, Jonah confronts Turnbull, killing several of his men, but Turnbull escapes and Hex receives a near-fatal wounding from Burke, but is able to escape. He collapses in a field, hovering near death for several days. Turnbull, anticipating that Hex will return, sends Burke to bring him "something Hex loves," so Burke kidnaps Lilah from the brothel. Turnbull test-fires the "superweapon" on a small town in Georgia, which is leveled to the ground, killing hundreds of civilians. When President Grant receives the news, his aide reports that they have no idea where in the country Turnbull will strike, and that they do not have enough military manpower to guard every centennial celebration.
Hex is found by his Native American allies, who perform a ceremony that heals him. Back on his feet, he relays a message to Lt. Grass that Turnbull plans to attack Washington, D.C., then rides to Independence Harbor alone to stop him. When Jonah attempts to infiltrate the harbor where Turnbull's ironclad warship is anchored, Burke spots him and attacks him. Hex overpowers and kills him, then resurrects him just so Hex can incinerate his body completely. Turnbull holds Lilah at gunpoint and forces Jonah to surrender. With Jonah and Lilah captive in the hold of his ship, Turnbull steams toward Washington, D.C. A monitor commanded by Lt. Grass intercepts Turnbull, but is quickly destroyed with the weapon, which has been mounted on the bow.
In the hold, Lilah picks her handcuffs and frees herself and Jonah. She holds off the guards while Jonah rushes up to the deck to stop Turnbull. Turnbull gains the upper hand and orders the weapon to fire. The weapon blankets Washington with a volley of delay-action bomb shells, and Turnbull gives the order for the trigger shell to be launched. But Hex and Turnbull's fight takes them down into the engine room, where Hex throws his tomahawk into the weapon's belt feeder, trapping the trigger shell. He then brutally beats Turnbull and traps his neck in a gear, before saving Lilah. The pair jump into the water just as the trigger shell ignites in the engine room, killing Turnbull and all his men. The next day, President Grant rewards Jonah with a large sum of money, a full pardon, and offers him a job as Sheriff of the entire United States. Jonah declines, but assures the president that if they need him, they'll be able to find him. Lilah is waiting for him outside the White House, and they leave the city together.
In the last scene, Jonah visits Jeb's grave to apologize for having to kill his father, then rides out of the cemetery with his dog.

Tags: boring, gothic, murder, violence, historical fiction, flashback, psychedelic, revenge, sci-fi

Review:
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
I mean I could go on all day.The only thing good about this movie is Josh Brolin, he gives a good performance as Jonah Hex, he tries to save this complete mess of a film.
A star studded cast that includes Josh Brolin, John Malkovich and modern day starlet Megan Fox. With familiar faces  like Wes Bentley (P2) Michael Fassbender and Aidan Quinn to name a few.
With its short running time Hex is not as good, bad or ugly as Jonah lovers or critics would lead you to believe..
It has all the elements for a good action film and the his personal crusade with his nemesis general turnbull makes it worthwhile to watch.IMDb rates it with a poor 4,6 I rate it with a 6,5 (G.O.O.S.) ( for the original effects and surprisingly OK acting from megan fox and entertaining storyline).
This fantastic/terror/science-fiction/Western deals with a disfigured gunslinger named Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) , a scarred bounty hunter with warrants on his own head , he is wanted dead or alive , reward 50.000 dollars .
back to the movie,I can say the directing is great,act is superb ,especially John Malkovich and josh Brolin not to forget Megan Fox as Lilah a prostitute with a clear view of the on going battle between good and evil and she is in the right side of the conflict.
Jonah Hex is in the history books as one of the biggest flops in movie history, not only did it bomb financially but it was connected to a whole host of negative awards such as worst actor, worst actress, worst on screen couple and worst movie.But how do you make a movie that stars Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Michael Shannon and co bad?!
It's like there is a template that people use and just interchange the setting and characters.It's not THAT bad, but it's a generic paint by numbers dumb movie that is too violent for kids and too moronic for adults.The Good:Fassbender's was excellentThe Bad:Megan FoxContains one of the dumbest movie deaths of all timeThe whole thing is just so very bog standardThings I Learnt From This Movie:I want me some of those explosive crossbows!Megan Fox isn't entirely useless, just 98.5%.
I thought this movie was way too short for a perfect superhero film and there were moments where the plot was confusing.This film is about an outlaw in Jonah Hex and he was hired by President Grant to capture or kill Turnbull who is bent on destroying the country using futuristic weapons and killing Jonah Hex.The acting is solid especially by Josh Brolin and John Malkovich.
There was action, romance, adventure, and laughs.I can't say that if your a Johnah Hex fan that you will like the movie because again I know nothing about the comic..
sure, but we see many of these types of movies, if you can take the leap and accept the world created by this movie I thought the characters, acting and motivation kept the story going and held my interest, in short I thought the character Johah Hex was different and kind of cool, John Malkovitch always makes a good villain and Megan Fox, while not a great actress, delivered in the expected role as eye candy and damsel in distress with a little fight in her very well.
I was never a big Jonah Hex fan, but I have a handful of the comics from the 70s and was therefore mildly interested in this cinematic adaption from 2010, especially since Megan Fox looked so good in the promo pics, lol."Jonah Hex" reminds me of those gazillions of spaghetti Westerns from the 60s and 70s, like "Django" and Leone's "Man with No Name" trilogy except that it's more modern and entertaining.To be expected, the atmosphere is very comic booky and the filmmakers do an outstanding job with the title character's hideously scarred face.
Imagine the style and pizazz of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" updated to 2010, but half as long, no tedious stretches and less one-dimensional characters and you'd have a pretty good approximation of "Jonah Hex."One of the film's highlights is the incredible metalized score by Marco Beltrami and none other than Mastodon.
from everything i'd heard about this movie from friends and the media,i expected it to be a bomb.turns out it wasn't.it was actually pretty decent if a bit too short at seventy three minutes without the end credits.it could have been more substantial.in other words longer,and it would have been nice to know a bit more about the characters.but the movie is fast paced and entertaining.Josh Brolin is good as the title character,and Megan Fox is OK in a small role.John Malkovich's character could have been more fleshed out.really the whole movie could have been fleshed out and lengthened.still,for what it was,i liked it.for me,Jonah Hex is a 6/10.
I will admit I am not familiar with the Jonah Hex comics but I still enjoyed the movie without any of the bias.Watching a movie really is about mindset and I think a lot of the reviewers went into it wanting to dislike it.If you enjoy creative weaponry, explosive scenes, and a bit of unrealistic adventure, you will enjoy this..
But the movie is a solid action film Jonah Hex in the comics had a complex history that spans 40 years and since the film has a short running time of only 80 minutes the film makers decided to give Hex they're own spin and shake things up.
Sure, we've all seen this movie a dozen times over, from 'Wild,wild west' to any number of similar plots, but Jonah Hex is fun, simple as that.
From the story, to the editing, to the action scenes and dialogue, it just seems like none of those involved could be bothered to try to make anything worthwhile from this.I have no experience with the Jonah Hex character, so I really had no expectations of what this movie should be - beyond a possibly fun supernatural action/western.
No matter how much you like Brolin, Malkovich, or the other actors, or how sexy you think Megan Fox is, Jonah Hex is not worth your time.
And no, it doesn't suck.Jonah Hex is based of of a comic book- critics need to have that tattooed across their forehead before they go in; and everyone needs to be reminded that just because it hits close to some current issues- it's simply from another time, one that matches ours too well for people to think that it isn't an intentional symbolization done by the writers.
I'll start off by saying first and foremost, I have no experience with the comic books, the character history or anything like that.I wasn't expecting Oscar worthy anything from this movie and I certainly didn't get it.
The less said about Megan Fox the better.The script is rushed to put it mildly, the movie could have done with boosting the run time up to 2 hrs and rewrite or two to flesh out the story.As it stands it is a popcorn flick and I was kept entertained for the most part so I can't really complain..
In an interesting way, it combines the superhero genre, by which DC and Marvel are known, with Western, and the features of both genres are individually obvious, but also perfectly integrated into a whole that works quite naturally.Josh Brolin is Jonah Hex, a former war hero, to whom a tragedy from the past gave some supernatural abilities and turned him into a bounty hunter.
This supernatural anti-hero western has an interesting and nicely developed story with well-measured pace, compelling characters, appropriate music, a great camera, some beautiful shots, striking colors, good direction, a strong cast, and I do not understand at all why the ratings and reviews are so catastrophically bad.
Josh Brolin snarls and grunts his way through a solid performance, but he does not manage to save this absolute mess of a movie.Jonah Hex served as a Confederate solider during the American Civil War. We learn through a fast-tracking prologue that shortly after the war, the evil Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) murdered Jonah's entire family, and branded his face with a terrible wound that leaves him disfigured.
Many of the original stories were written by writers in the DC stable who, given a free hand in a 'low-level' comic book, had unusual freedom to do whatever they wanted; the stories were masterfully illustrated by a succession of unusually talented Filipino artists.The 'origin' of Jonah Hex as described here is actually the second: the original cause of Hex's facial disfigurement is gunfire in the closing days of the US Civil War. The real subtext of the character is that of a terribly damaged war veteran, unable to find a home or place, and choosing to use his skills in the periphery of society.Much, much later, the character was hijacked and contorted into a fantasy/horror figure, in TWO-GUN MOJO and the ludicrous transposition to sci-fi in the last issues of the titled JONAH HEX comic book.Those of us who remember discovering Westerns that gave Clint Eastwood an easy run for his money, and an anti-hero who would have eaten The Man With No Name for chowtime, this movie with the otherwise excellent Josh Brolin and the poppy/body-of-the-moment (although showing real potential in JENNIFER'S BODY) Megan Fox...
So you might think that I liked the movie "Jonah Hex", a western based on a comic book.
The U.S. Government gives bounty hunter Jonah Hex (Brolin) an ultimatum that will free him of warrants on his head if he stops his arch enemy Quentin Turnbull (Malkovich) from activating a deadly nation killing weapon.This was almost like those Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s with Clint Eastwood.
They made room for director Jimmy Hayward, who had at no time the picture under control, even though the promising ensemble cast starting from Josh Brolin in the title-given role accompanied by actress Megan Fox, who together share probably the most entertaining moments in "Jonah Hex"; a movie that glorifies booze, whoring and any acts of violence in a Neo-Western scenario with PG-13 rating, received through the MPAA butcher shop and green-lit WB executives, which brought the running time down to 75 Minutes (excluding the end credits), not worth any box office ticket; to actors John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender as double-team nemesis of anti-hero "Jonah Hex", who clearly had fun with their role variations, yet at no time were pressured by the director to make this picture a 90 Minute thrill-ride with no cheap looking animated flash-forward fill-ins and clear cut hardcore R-rated showdown on an unless promising battleship destroyer location, missing any passion for the original graphic novel content, where the main character, a former confederate soldier of the U.S. civil war, revived my Native Americans, who has the gift of awakening the dead by touching their skin and delivering punchline as "Cut myself shaving.", on getting asked on his disfiguring facial scar origins before sending the questioner pistol-shot to hell.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC).
Josh Brolin stars as the title character in Jonah Hex, which is based on the DC comic book series of the same name.
It's a steampunk horror western that takes zero advantage of the innate coolness of its premise and world, instead relying on old tired western clichés, black-n-white morality tales, boring characters and a story that would feel more at home as a plot for a half an hour long children's animation episode.And yes, granted, the film actually has some really good actors in the main roles.
Jonah Hex wonders the US doing good for people (namely by killing bad guys), but when Quentin Turnball (John Malkovich) turns up again and steals a secret weapon that is being transported by train, the US president realises that he is the only one that can stop Turnball and hires him.This is a typical comic book movie, and while these types of movies have started to grow on me of late (namely because Sam Rami did Spiderman, and I like the X-men movies) it does actually take a very special talent to endear me to such a movie.
So, if you are just a regular movie lover and generally like the Sci- Fi/Horror/Comic genre, then I think you will find the film a lot of fun and what's unusual is that since it is only rated PG-13, pretty much the whole family can indeed enjoy it (perhaps without little children though)Again, in reviewing and giving my lowly and wretched opinions on these films that I have seen, I just state my honest impressions and feelings concerning how a film is just as a film, that's all.
Stylish Comic Strip Action Loses Its Way. Another comic strip turned movie, this film is has some style with some good lines and acting from Josh Brolin.
It wasn't close to the average flick and Megan strikes out twice in a row with a relatively minor role in Hex. How to improve this film: 1) add 10 minutes to to end to build the climax and a bit more fight, 2) give Megan Fox some acting lessons, a couple more minutes and some clean clothes too, I mean even with the sexy corset, she just didn't look that good, 3) the director should tell off Malkovich to get him angry like a madman 4) The director needs to bring out the best in his cast and have a vision as to the ending..
In the film, the character of Jonah Hex (Brolin) is a bounty hunter in the Old West who gained the ability to speak with the dead after his own near-death encounter.
Now, of course I cannot compare it with the comic books, as I can't recall them, so bear with me.The cast was good, and I liked Josh Brolin in the lead role of Jonah Hex. Not usually much of a fan of his, but he has done some good work in the last couple of years.
"Dirt likes dead, dead likes dirt, simple as that," we learn in "Jonah Hex," a film well-suited to conversing on the subject of death given its own lifeless nature.Based on a 1970s comic-book character which was inspired by spaghetti westerns, "Hex" makes its film debut with Josh Brolin in the title role, a facially branded bounty hunter who sets out to avenge his murdered family and stop plans by a former Confederate general, Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich), to destroy Washington, D.
It's below the line where a movie could be good and above the line where it is so bad it's funny; it just sits in the limbo of movies that have no meaning and make no sense.The film is about Jonah Hex, another resurrected comic book hero, this one from the times of the American civil war.
The only thing noteworthy is Josh Brolin's performance and some action sequences but if you really want to see a better western film, watch A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Django, and The Big Gundown.
The good things about this film, well, maybe the story of HOW Jonah Hex became to be the rugged bounty man he was.
I would gladly like a reboot to this movie with Josh Brolin still playing Hex. However can we please keep Megan Fox out of comic book movies, I can think of over a dozen sci fi fan boy, favorites that would be better for her role.
Should I even bring up the superpowers in this movie, let me just say out of 20 years of comic books made for this character, Jonah Hex has never needed to rely on such nonsense, AND HE NEVER WILL!