I went to the theater expecting a movie about a fast-shooting cowboy in the old west who has to protect the newly reunited United States from a southern General long thought dead. The hero would use crazy, over the top weapons and plenty of bullets to eventually save the Union before riding off into the sunset.
Sound familiar?
I'm not talking about Jonah Hex. I'm talking about Wild Wild West, the 1999 blockbuster starring Will Smith that bombed horribly at the box office and was universally panned by critics. (In truth, it wasn't all bad. There were even a few parts I liked.) How could the filmmakers behind comic-adaptation Jonah Hex lift an already-pissed-upon story, sprinkle in Josh Brolin and Transformer reject Megan Fox, and think it was going to work? I'm guessing someone, somewhere thought they could make some money.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.