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1. •  
     CommentAuthorMike Infinitum
   • CommentTimeDec 16th 2009

    
   There are films that are bad. There are films so bad they are good. There are films so bad they are past good and back to bad. Then there is The Punisher starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta.
   
   How hard can it be to make a good Punisher film? Really? War veteran has family slain by mob. Goes nuts. Kills criminals.
   
   Not only is it a very simple premise, you have hundreds (thousands?) of comic stories to draw inspiration from. "Ah!" You say. "Ah! The Punisher does in fact include scenes and characters from notable Punisher stories!" And, yes indeed it does. However, for some mad mad reason, they've taken some bits from the dark gritty urban vigilante stories and thrown them together with Garth Ennis' 'Welcome Back Frank' slapstick farce, and put them together into the same film! What you end up with is the first half of the film being a throwback to those 70's revenge films (Death Wish and the like), then it suddenly changes to some kind of black comedy (with a bit of romance thrown in!) and then goes back to revenge drama complete with insanely obvious ending.
   
   Things that really made no sense at all, even with the willing suspension of disbelief:-
   
   Frank Castle is a white collar, hard working, everyman kind of guy. He does not holiday on a private island in the Caribbean.
   
   The bad guys pull the classic action trick of shooting their intended victim - but for some reason not in the head - then leaving without checking he is dead.
   
   There's no explanation as to why FBI agent (!) Frank Castle suddenly decides to take the law into his own hands rather than let the legal system do the job. The only reference to this is when Frank turns up on the steps of the court house and wonders out loud why no-one has been caught for the massacre of his entire family. There's no answer given. Also, why would an assumed dead man, now vigilante, announce his rise from the grave to the police in front of the media!?
   
   The bad guys know Frank's after them and know where he is. Do they send a dozen men round to take him out? Do they just blow up his whole apartment? No, they send one guy with a guitar. Then they send the Russian (you assume it's "The Russian", he doesn't speak once. They finally send 4 guys round, who torture one of Franks' friends but because they are convinced he doesn't know anything inexplicably leave him and the other witness alive. They then leave ONE man to wait for Frank to come home.
   
   The Punisher is a remorseless killing machine. His only purpose in life is to kill criminal scum. He is mentally ill. He shoots, stabs, strangles and tortures. The memory of his own families death driving on his suicidal death wish. He is not sensitive, He is not a lost soul. He does not go round to people's apartments for dinner. Unless it's to kill them.
   
   Here endeth the rant.
2. • CommentAuthorLee
   • CommentTimeDec 16th 2009

    
   Have you seen War Zone?
3. • CommentAuthorsmiggy3000
   • CommentTimeDec 16th 2009

    
   or Mr Beans Holiday...
4. • CommentAuthorNimbus Thitherward
   • CommentTimeDec 16th 2009 edited

    
   I didn't think War Zone was that bad, Ray Stevenson was more believable as the Punisher than Thomas Jane and I thought the interpretation of Jigsaw by West was pretty good.
   And then the sobbing and recriminations about the killing of the FBI agent started.
   And unfortunately it all went laughingly downhill from there.
5. •  
     CommentAuthorRob
   • CommentTimeDec 16th 2009

    
   Ray Stevenson was a better Punisher than Thomas Jane. But The Punisher was so much better as a movie than War Zone. It was a watered down version of 'Welcome back, Frank', but it was a decent movie with some good lines. War Zone was so flimsy, with such awful direction, that I felt cheated from the 'chandelier spin' onwards. That's about 10 mins in, isn't it?
6. • CommentAuthorgreg75
   • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010

    
   punisher war zone was upsetting for me purely because the last time i saw ray stevenson was in band of gold and i was expecting him to say "trouble at mill "at least once.Are we brits getting our own back with this film for having Keanu as John Constantine?is constantine anything like the comics?apart from the fact he has black instead of blonde hair and um..he doesn't have a rather large gun in the comics....
   
   AH...WHY AREN'T WE SAYING PUNISHER WAR ZONE WAS BETTER THAN DOLPH'S EFFORT LOTS OF BACKGROUND FROM THE COMICS IN THAT ONE EH?
   
   BWAHAHAHA