With the title role of Hex, this is Josh Brolin’s attempt to go mainstream with this DC Comics-fueled western, and for the first time, he looks uncomfortable. For those unaccustomed, Brolin has starred in “No Country for Old Men” and “Milk.” He has a scarred face, with latex tissue stretching over the cheekbone over the mouth – the tissue looks like an elastic band. Brolin is designated to speaking in a low groan the entire movie.
Hex is commissioned by the government to hunt down Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich, “Burn After Reading”), but it is likely Hex would hunt down Turnbull even if he wasn’t commissioned – it was Turnbull as a matter of fact who scarred Hex’s face and killed his family in front of his eyes. Malkovich delivers what is perhaps the least interesting performance of his career, although with his long-flowing greasy hair that hangs over his menacing scowl of a face, he seems like a candidate to play Judge Holden if Hollywood ever makes a movie out of Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian.” Besides the makeup and hair job, Malkovich never appears dedicated to this part.
I wasn’t a fan of Megan Fox in “Transformers,” but I am a male, and I was gaga over seeing her for the first time in a corset. She plays Lilah, the prostitute. She gets offers to leave the sordid lifestyle all the time but turns them down. “I don’t play house,” Lilah explains. Hex is her favorite customer, and she foresees a future with him. Keep in mind, Fox doesn’t have many scenes in the movie, so if you too are a male that might disappoint you. She is a supporting character, not a lead. There is a moment where she looks better than she has ever looked in the movie, but director (hack) Jimmy Hayward holds the shot for about 1.5 seconds.
In my notes, I wrote down that there is no subtle scene to explain Malkovich’s motivation. I don’t know what I was referring to, but pointedly, there are no subtle scenes. There is little motivation beyond the surface motivation. There is also a dream flashback inserted into the movie twice, as if you would forget. Visually the movie is not always boring, but storywise it is. Get rid of the groans and you have a story that is simplistic.
Maybe the original comic book explained more and provided depth. Don’t write in and complain that a film critic has to have thoroughbred knowledge of every comic book ever written, that would take forever, and besides this is film criticism, not comic book criticism. But “Jonah Hex” is such nonsensical mish mash that for the first time it prompts me to take back some of the things I said about “Watchmen” (there you have it), which although I disagree with the ideology of that film at least it had characters with emotional layers and a more complex objective.
“Jonah Hex” all lies in the collapse of its director who didn’t have a clear cut vision and so decided to mimic the crappy queasy cam and smash cut aesthetics of other current trash filmmakers. This is a self-conscious effort made to heap in on the bandwagon success of others. Hayward should go back to animation where his career started. Your movie sucks, Hayward, and sucks all the more because you didn’t try to at least imitate a paramount like Quentin Tarantino or Sergio Leone, you tried to imitate an amalgamation of every creative sell-out in Hollywood.
Go to the official site at http://jonah-hex.warnerbros.com/
Grade: D
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