JONAH HEX (Jimmy Hayward). 81 minutes. Opens Friday (June 18). See listings. Rating: NN
Comic-book-based western Jonah Hex borrows its simple story from early James Bond flicks by way of The Wild Wild West, and some of its look and score from spaghetti westerns, delivering them with clumsy storytelling, nothing-special action and only one or two moments of black humour.
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Bounty hunter Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) is sent by the president to take down criminal megalomaniac Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) before he blasts Washington with his superweapon. Turnbull is the man who killed Hex’s family and left him horribly scarred and able to talk to the dead. Pursuit, gunfights and climactic punch-out ensue.
Malkovich, Brolin and Megan Fox, as Hex’s hooker love interest, give it a good shot, but they’re undermined by a surprisingly weak script, given that it’s written by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the twisted brains behind Crank.
Director Jimmy Hayward does okay with the cowboy gothic atmosphere, despite some unimpressive CG, but he leans toward static two-shots, choppy editing and a weak approach to action. The movie’s only horse stunt, a rider-to-train transfer, is wasted in an extreme long shot. The old Hollywood guys knew how to turn it into a real nail-biter.
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