He’s big, he’s mean, he’s sexy, and he isn’t green. It’s “”The Punisher”” and he’s here to get revenge. Let’s start this off by saying, “”The Punisher”” is a horrible movie, “”artistically”” speaking, it has bad acting, bad directing, and a bad script. But I didn’t go into this movie expecting it to be good “”artistically,”” I went into this film to see stuff get blown up, to get a couple of funny one liners, to get some ham acting, and to just be entertained, and on those minimum requirements “”The Punisher”” delivers in spades.
For those of you who don’t know, which is probably the majority of you, “”The Punisher”” is a third – probably fourth tear Marvel Comic Book character who made his debut in the mid 80’s. “”The Punisher”” became a comic book hero because of his no-nonsense, take no prisoners approach to dispensing justice. Where “”Batman”” has vowed never to kill another human being in his thirst for vengeance, “”The Punisher”” believes there is no such thing as redemption or justice, only revenge. When the movie opens Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) is an undercover cop/agent posing as a gun dealer, when the deal goes bad lots of people end up getting killed including the beloved son of a major Miami area crime boss Howard Saint, played with gleeful intensity by John Travolta. Of course the boss has to get revenge on Castle for killing his son, he original sends his henchman out to kill Castle, when his wife tells her husband that she wants Castle’s entire family killed. And we say entire family, we mean ENTIRE family – we’re talking grand parents, nephews, nieces, cousins, everyone. At a family reunion in some exotic island location, the entire Castle clan is wiped out in a hail of bullets, and semi-automatic weapons. Strangely enough while this sequence is brutal, I didn’t feel really connected to the massacre. Not that I should have, but it felt strangely hollow and antiseptic. After barely escaping, he swears vengeance on those responsible for his family’s murder. And he goes after Travolta’s criminal empire in two different ways; first he uses a couple of convoluted methods to get Howard to believe that his wife is cheating on him with his longtime head henchman and best friend, who I forget his name, and really does it really matter in a film like this? While dividing the organization at the top, he’s systematically killing all the henchmen. Now here’s where the film doesn’t live up to the comic book. He’s killing the henchmen who are coming after him, so all of his killings are in “”self-defense”” where in the comic book “”The Punisher”” seeks out criminals for the purpose of executing them. The film’s stylized violence and cinematography works great as the B-Level film that it is. I’m one of the few people on the planet who would admit to liking the original Dolph Lundgren version, and to compare the two would be fairly easy, they both seem to have the same production values and believe or not, very similar set designs. Dolph’s “”Punisher”” had a more menacing, melancholy on-screen presence than Thomas Jane’s version. While I didn’t have a problem with Jane’s portrayal, the script wasn’t nearly as involving as the earlier version. At times I honestly felt like I was watching the same film, only with different actors. This updated version is a good start to the franchise, and hopefully any sequels will finally get a bigger budget, and improve its production values. At the end of the day “”The Punisher”” is an entertaining, brainless, b-grade action film. Final Grade – BEM Review byMichelle AlexandriaOriginally Posted – April 16, 2004