2) Jonah Hex
Based on the DC comic book character of the same name, Jonah Hex throws audiences into the roaring, violent world of the Old West and seemingly can’t decide where to go with the idea afterwards. Josh Brolin stars as the eponymous lead character – a gruff, prickly bounty hunter who can turn a phrase, fire a gun, and talk to the dead. The character of Hex has all kinds of potential, but the movie is unable to make the most of any of it, instead rumbling incoherently around the backdrop of 1800’s America like an old town drunk with a pair of pistols at closing time.
Jimmy Hayward’s adaptation makes it extremely clear to us that Hex is out for revenge, but appears to provide little explanation for anything else. Brolin does what he can with half a face, but even the rest of the star-studded cast are left to rue the day they chose to appear in this chaotic screenplay, with John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender and Will Arnett all left to flounder in the dirty, angry Old West.
The movie’s truncated running time of just over 80 minutes seems to suggest that the filmmakers either completely ran out of ways to pursue the film further and admitted defeat, or lazily left the production thinking what they’d already captured would be enough. Neither is exactly admirable, and Jonah Hex remains one of the more disappointing takes on a comic book character in recent years.
