Blu-ray

Jonah Hex might not be the most high profile comic book character to make the leap to the big screen. But that’s no excuse for the paucity of effort and imagination that was put into cooking up this cinematic turkey.

Running for a meagre 81 minutes (actually, it’s only 73 if you discount the end credits) Jonah Hex still manages to feel like a never-ending ordeal when you actually sit through it. Indeed, this cinematic take on the popular Western comic book character feels less like a completed film than a hasty edit of the material they’d got around to shooting before production was unexpectedly shut down.

Mixing a tale of revenge with half-baked supernatural mumbo jumbo, the film struggles to find its own identity. Add to this the endless cringe-worthy dialogue and a complete lack of character development and the film becomes an incredible chore to watch. The fact that Josh Brolin is the perfect actor to play Jonah Hex and does his best with the material he’s given, just makes the whole thing even harder to sit through.

Picture: For what it’s worth, Jonah Hex scrubs up pretty well on Blu-ray. While there are some darker sequences that look pretty murky, for the most part Warner’s VC-1 2.40:1 1080p encode delivers everything you’d expect from a modern Hollywood action film. The sunburnt colour palette is well saturated, while impressive delineation and sharpness makes the most of Hex’s craggy and scared face (although Megan Fox’s tart-with-a-heart seems to get her own personal noise reduction to make her skin appear almost freakishly smooth).
Picture rating: 4/5

Audio: This Blu-ray release sports a truly thunderous DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix that packs an almighty bass wallop that’ll have you reaching for the remote to turn down the volume on your AVR. Despite this, the dialogue is never buried in the mix and always sounds perfectly clear (even Brolin’s gruff mumbling). Less impressive though is the fact that the film mistakes raw power for audio excellence. So, while Jonah Hex’s mix has plenty of grunt, it has very little ambition and makes surprisingly subdued use of the surrounds.
Audio rating: 3/5

Extras: This Blu-ray can only rustle up a rather limited batch of extras. There’s a picture-in-picture track packed with behind-the-scenes footage and director and cast interviews that rarely get beyond platitudes for each other. The Inside Story of Jonah Hex is an all-too short 11min look at the comics that inspired the film. Finally, there’s a reel of three dull deleted scenes. The set also includes a bonus DVD and Digital Copy of the film.
Extras rating: 2/5

We say: This is one Blu-ray disc we’d happily see gunned down in the street at high noon.

Warner Home Video, All-region BD/R2 DVD, £25 approx, On sale now
HCC VERDICT: 2/5