Jonah Hex
The first thing you notice about Jonah Hex is the fact that you can make a drinking game out of people saying the words ''Jonah Hex.'' It happens so often, I began to believe that this was simply how people used to greet one another in the Old West. You walk into a room: "Jonah Hex!" "Well, Jonah Hex to you too, buddy!" Take a bottle of whiskey with you into the movie* and take a shot every time someone says his name and you will have an incredible 74 minutes. You might also be dead at the end.
Why does it feel like I'm dedicating half the review to the use of the words ''Jonah Hex?'' Because half the movie is dedicated to uttering the words ''Jonah Hex.'' Learn to love the sound of it. Josh Brolin sure did.
When our 'hero' (and I use that word in the loosest of possible terms) isn't busy having people remind him of his name, he is riding around killing people or being made fun of for his horribly scarred face. But when a villain from his past - and when I say ''past,'' I mean from 10 minutes earlier in the film - turns out not to be as dead as we were led to believe in the opening monologue, Hex sets out to get the revenge he really wish he could have gotten 15 minutes earlier. And that's when the movie beings its plunge into logical implausibility. If you can find a single reason to give a rat's *** about anyone in this movie, grip onto it with both hands, brother, and hold on tight - it's the only way you're going to care at all about this film.
It's not the horse with side-mounted Gatling guns that got me, or the silliness of dynamite crossbows; it was just how unlikable everyone was and how it leaned heavily upon cliché to tell a story without understanding how a story like this is supposed to be told. Revenge films are like romantic comedies: They rely entirely on a weak coincidence and delivering a series of emotional money shots that pay off for the audience in a big way. More importantly, these money shots must be delivered in a very specific structure that allows people to forgive any thin or contrived story elements. Where a romantic comedy is ''Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy gets Girl Back,'' revenge films are mostly comprised of ''Guy Finds Simple Bliss, Bad Guy Ruins Simple Bliss in a Cruel Manner, Guy Left for Dead, Guy Gets Revenge for All He's Lost.'' Very simple stuff. Whether it's Maximus in Gladitor or Eric Draven in The Crow or Charles Rane in Rolling Thunder, the structure is the same. The key to a good revenge movie is a likable good guy, a reason to care about his life, truly despicable bad guys and a perfectly crafted ending for our hero in particular - often involving his death.
Right from the start, Jonah Hex drops the ball. We open with him tied up and getting wailed on, watching his family get murdered just out of frame and then get left for dead. But we haven't found anything to care for yet, and more importantly, he immediately admits to having done everything he's been accused of. This is revenge to begin with. Sure, the movie eventually gets around to trying to explain why he didn't really deserve it, but only after 45 minutes of us pretty much disliking the guy. He's mean, unlikable, murderous and his only friend in the world is a prostitute who tells us that she "Don't play house," just before begging Jonah to settle down with her. He's got a great horse and a dog, but doesn't like them enough to have ever given them a name, and every time someone finally gets around to killing him, magical Native Americans show up to save his bacon AGAIN, for no apparent reason other than his wife was Native American.
The only reason to root for Jonah at all is because he's the protagonist and his antagonist (played comically by John Malkovich) is on a mission to, I kid you not, destroy America with a semi-magical nation-destroying weapon. Oh, yes, and we're told the Mexicans call him "Terrorista." A Terrorist hellbent on destroying America? In the Old West? You'd be hard pressed to find anyone you wouldn't root for fighting that guy. This had all the hallmarks of being a WWE movie, without the cool logo. If you're 13 years old and you still believe wrestling is real, this might be the movie for you. Otherwise, it is an exercise in silliness designed to rob you of $10.
*Hollywood.com accepts no responsibility to cirrhosis of the liver or any sudden death caused by ingestion of alcohol occurring during the course of this game.
Hollywood.com rated this film 1/2 star.