Jonah Hex

Stars: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, Aidan Quinn, Wes Bentley, Julia Jones, Will Arnett, Michael Shannon, Tom Wopat, Rance Howard, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, John Gallagher Jr

Director: Jimmy Hayward

A cross between a graphic novel, a supernatural fantasy and a Sergio Leone western. Coming on like a disfigured Clint Eastwood, Brolin husks and snarls his way through the minimal plot as a scarred bounty hunter who fought for the Confederates in the Civil War but saw his family burned alive by the traitorous Quentin Turnbull (Malkovich), who brands his face in the process, twisting his features hideously.

Now Hex, learning Turnbull, thought dead, is still alive, hunts his nemesis down, while the latter, aided by his laughing Irish henchman (Fassbender), aims to bring American to its knees with the help of a fireball-type weapon that can demolish whole towns at a stroke.

Add on symbolism involving crows and the fact that Hex can (temporarily) bring people back from the dead to extract information, then deal in the plastic Megan Fox, strictly eye-candy as the prostitute who warms Hex in his rare quieter moments. Though not a patch on Eastwood's 'Dollars' films, Hex has the appropriate comic-strip mentality, plus great production design, and impressive colour photography by Michel Amundsen. It doesn't hang about, either. Brolin does all he can with the title role.

David Quinlan

USA 2010. UK Distributor: Warner Brothers. Technicolor.
81 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 29 Aug 2010