Punisher: War Zone: Action. Starring Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Doug Hutchison and Julie Benz. Directed by Lexi Alexander. Rated R.
"Punisher: War Zone". Still one of my favorite series of Frank’s is Punisher War Zone by John Romita Jr. I loved the tone, the art style, everything so as always I am interested in a new Punisher flick, but being a husband, father of two small children and a constant workaholic it took a little time to finally set down and view the film. I did not see it in theatres since I rarely go if my kids cannot. None the less I did not think the trailers were that good. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how much I truly enjoyed the flick. Ray Stevenson did a fabulous job as the Punisher. The action is satisfying and the dark story is close to the tone of its Marvel Comics source material.
It's a movie made for it’s audience. Budget constraints and other factors ensured that it was going to be a B movie, so it embraces its B-movie goodness.
This is the third and by far the best "Punisher" movie, which all focus on Frank Castle, an ex-soldier who turns ruthless vigilante after his family is executed by mobsters. (Which is the closest origin to the source yet.) In the new film, Castle (Ray Stevenson) accidentally shoots an undercover FBI agent during a revenge killing spree. This results in a crisis of conscience, a few kidnappings by the bad guys and lots of blood getting splattered across New York City. When I say lot, I mean lots and lots of blood. The sadistic weirdness of the film I have to say I did appreciate, the gore was excessive to the point of campy.
This is one of those sit back, enjoy a cold beverage and salty snack of your choice and enjoy the fun and violence while shutting down some of those stressed brain cells kind of movie.
The past two "Punisher" movies spent too much time with the setup. This film presents Castle's origin story into about 14 seconds of exposition and gets on with the carnage. By the way It's easy to screw up this kind of movie. This movie had all the potential to be horrible – and I am talking Hulk 1 Ang Lee Hulk freakin Dog horrible. This movie does have bad accents, over the top acting and when you think you have seen someone shot in every way imaginable the whip out one more just for fun.
Crazy Sh!t house villains, Jigsaw (Dominic West) and Loony Bin Jim (Doug Hutchison) are quite cartoonish, but not that you would mind. Hutchison probably enjoyed his performance a little too much. It was very Joker esqe at times and when I say that it is almost Cesar Romero (Joker) from the 60’s Batman mixed with some Ed Gein. Freaky Huh!
"Punisher: War Zone" makes for a great B-movie. Sometimes the cheesy dialog gets a little ripe. The gore is more than is needed. Luckily the positives far outweigh the negatives in this film. The film had a great look. Stevenson did a fantastic job and that cannot be stressed enough. There is a lot of content taken from the comics for the die hard fans to enjoy. Check it out if you have not. Punisher War Zone goes in to the DVD collection. Enjoy!