The Punisher Movie Review:


Embarrassingly one of the funniest films so far this year; The Punisher is a horrendous film adaptation of the popular Marvel comic book. Full of cliches and prepostorous notions, this revenge film is nothing more than hollow with a rotten core. However, out of its awfulness is a farcical film that some might use as their personal “Mystery Science Theater” at home. On the other hand, fans of the comic book will be utterly furious.

The film follows the sadistic and vigilante turn of a man named Frank Castle (Thomas Jane). As a great FBI special agent and previous Delta Force commando, Castle has seen his share of killing and death. His last FBI assignment in Tampa, Florida was a success and Castle looks to finally settle down with his wife (Samantha Mathis) and young son. However, during Castle’s last task the son of a powerful Florida criminal businessman named Howard Saint (John Travolta) was killed by the FBI. Looking to avenge his son, Saint and his beautiful, but also evil wife (Laura Harring) send a death squad after Castle. At a family reunion in Puerto Rico, Castle’s wife, son and entire family are massacred and he is left for dead. After a miraculous recovery and driven by revenge, Castle returns to Tampa with his own intentions above the law. Using all of his past training and weapons from explosives, bow and arrows, knifes, and more than anything guns, Castle not only looks to kill Saint and his whole crew, but to exploit and punish them. Driven to the bottle in his hideaway apartment, Castle also develops a bond with three unlikely people, whom strive to help him realize that he is still alive. Saint on the other hand finds his business crumpling due to Castle’s recent incidents, and begins sending his own vigilante assassins after him. The film then of course sticks to the notions of revenge throughout, even though it tries to hammer home its message of humanity and emotional survival.

The Punisher was co-written and directed Jonathan Hensleigh, whom previously wrote the action blockbusters Die Hard with a Vengeance and The Rock. Though Hensleigh stays true to some elements of the comic, his style and choices are way too flaky and cheesy to hail this film as a solid comic adaptation. Being his directorial debut, Hensleigh’s inexperience is plainly obvious with continuos black outs and nothing close to balance or effective pacing. His staging of certain scenes are also lack excitement are very wooden. The prime examples are Saint’s thug squad, that are in all black, with shades and just walk around toting firepower, where is the originality in that? It also seems that Hensleigh has no conceivability that when Castle strikes or blows up something no one will see it, because not once does a police vehicle arrive at the scene. The biggest problem in this adaptation is that when Castle comes back as “The Punisher,” everyone knows, he takes it upon himself to challenge the police force in public as to why no arrests have been made over the death of his family. In the comic, no one knows that Castle is The Punisher, and he stays secluded from nearly everyone.

Hensleigh’s script also falls into the trap of placing characters at certain locales or situations just because he needs them to. Examples are criminal wife Livia’s continuos adventures to the movies, which gives Castle the opportunities of manipulation for her and her husband’s relationship. Though she is the wife of the most powerful criminal in the city, bodyguards or security never accompanies her, which could have been an additional obstacle for Castle that Hensleigh did not feel like adding. The dialogue is also defective, with each character deliver at least a handful of absurd lines. Hensleigh also brings in “The Russian” villain, who looks like Dolph Lundgren on steroids to have a huge fight with Castle, in one of the film’s funniest sequences. “The Russian” is played by Kevin Nash, who should have been consider to play “The Hulk,” the way he smashes through the walls is reminiscent of Lou Ferrigno in the original “Hulk” television series. Lastly, the famous skeleton logo of the character is out in true force in the film, including a back-story as to how Castle first receives it.

Thomas Jane, who really bulked up for the role, plays Frank Castle/The Punisher. At times, Jane seems that he is a fit for the role with his cold tone, but overall he is still not the best choice for this character. Hensleigh makes Castle rely more on Wild Turkey, than on the inner demons of his lost, which is something else that was missing from the comic book. As Saint, John Travolta does what he has done time and time again as a ruthless mobster, and the same is for Will Patton as his lap dog. Mulholland Drive’s beautiful Laura Harring is a presence, but she has hardly anything to work with at all as Saint’s wife. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is poorly miscast as Castle’s neighbor waitress that is trying to escape her past of violent boyfriends.

The Punisher is a great comic book; it is dark, edgy, and intense. This film adaptation is nothing close, it a terribly constructed, derivative and an absurd mess. In 1989, a straight to video film version of The Punisher was released starring Dolph Lundgren in the title role. Though not the greatest of action films, the 1989 version was at least watchable and for the most part true to the comic. It is pretty embarrassing when a direct-to-video film version greatly outshines a studio film such as this one. Let the critical punishment of this film by comic book fans ensue.

Grade: D

Joseph C. Tucker

After completing his last assignment for the FBI, Frank Castle (Jane) takes his family to Puerto Rico to celebrate his retirement. Unbeknownst to him one of the casualties of the during his final arrest was the son of Tampa’s crime lord Howard Saint (Travolta) and he sends a team to seek revenge on Castle, killing his entire family. Left for dead, Frank Castle returns to Tampa not to seek revenge but deal out some punishment.

Marvel’s assault on the box office continues but will The Punisher stall that impressive run? Probably not but it is a slight misfire.

Marvel’s violent vigilante makes his second appearance on the big screen (Dolph Lundgren played the part in 1989) but the film shares far too many similarities with its 80s counterpart. As other Marvel adaptations enjoy well-structured scripts and character development, as well as rip-roaring action, The Punisher reverts back to a time when any resemblance of a plot was the least important element of a movie. This film suffers from an 80s mentality that makes the anti-hero just a brooding, angry warrior with one goal and no depth at all. The filmmakers really missed an opportunity to bring one of comic’s darkest characters to life, with all the problems that come from a man driven to punish the guilty.

Moving the Punisher’s story to the sun drenched state of Florida takes away all the darkness and foreboding one of the East Coast cities could have brought to the production. Tampa just doesn’t portray menace in the slightest as it conjures up thoughts of sand, sea and smiles and not guns, violence and blood. Seeing The Punisher dressed in his trademark big leather jacket actually makes him look stupid as you know he would be far too hot running about with that on in the Florida sun.

The one thing the filmmakers got right was casting Thomas Jane as Frank Castle. Jane had always had quite a hard, iconic look about him and as The Punisher he puts this presence to good use. He is the best thing in the movie but the lacklustre script and the location hinder his performance and the development of the character.

John Travolta is no stranger to playing the bad guy and it is a character dynamic that he revels in. As Howard Saint he is suitably over the top but again, the writing makes the character very one-dimensional and limits any kind of development or background information on what could have been an interesting villain.

A top-notch supporting cast joins the two leads but unfortunately their characters also suffer from underdevelopment. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is no stranger to the genre but her character Joan, and the other people who share the building with Frank Castle seem surplus to requirements and a distraction from the main goal of the movie, the punishment of wrong doers. Will Patton and Laura Harring are fine as Saint’s right hand man and wife but they really don’t have the material to challenge their craft. There is also small but pivot parts for Samantha Mathis and the great Roy Scheider.

The Punisher is all action and no substance making it a frustrating watch for fans of the character and comic book movies. The whole film just shouts wasted opportunity, as this is a deep and complicated character that could have been a true anti-hero screen icon. It isn’t Howard Saint that deserves punishment it is director Jonathan Hensleigh and his team that need to feel Frank Castle’s form of justice.

Star Rating = * *

Jamie Kelwick

Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of The Punisher and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline.