Way back in 2004, Thomas Jane took up the mantle of The Punisher. The film also features Jonathan Hensleigh in his directorial debut. Hensleigh, who was mostly a writer before The Punisher, went for a grounded take on the character of frank Castle. Frank in this film is every bit the family loving man. After a rough stint undercover with as a drug dealer, Castle retires form the force to settle down and close the distance between him and his family. On his final mission the son of Howard Saint gets killed in the cross fire and Castle lands the brunt of the bale. Frank's family is murdered in front of him and he is left wounded and for dead. After months away he returns to do what his former cop buddies won't; end the Saint's gang once and for all and by any means necessary.
This is actually a pretty cool set up for the movie and is enough to get you to pay attention. Unfortunately is does take awhile to get to a point where Frank Castle starts to remotely "punish" anything. Thomas Jane plays the character of Frank Castle in a very quite and stoic manner, which is fine, but as the movie feels a tad on the bland side it would have been nice to have a slightly more engaging lead character to spend the greater part of 90% of the film watching.
Ultimately the film falls flat in terms of the actual punishing. Though it has some fun and nicely executed action scenes, The Punisher spends too much time playing nice. Maybe it was a case of "a film for the time" and we weren't ready for a Punisher movie that was excessively heavy on violence, that said, that is exactly what Frank Castle as The Punisher is-VIOLENT.
A better film then the cheaply made 1989 Dolph Lundgren version of the character to be sure but it feels way off what one would expect from a film that features one of the most violent and brutal vigilantes in comics.
What are your thoughts on 2004's The Punisher? Are you excited for Jon Bernthal to reprise the role later this month?