Punisher: War Zone

If you have ever read the famed comic books containing the hero Punisher, then you are in for a special movie treat. This dramatic story is called " Punisher: War Zone. " Writer Nick Santora allows his imagination to run rampant and in doing so, creates a solid story-line which will have audiences gasping by what they've seen. Ray Stevenson plays Frank Castle, a professional Ex-soldier who's wife and daughter were murdered by street thugs, drug dealers and gang members. In this story, Castle/Punisher goes after the Italian, Russian and Asian mobs in an effort to clean the streets. However, one of the most vicious gang leader suffers a horrific disfigurement and takes the name of his deformity, called 'Jigsaw.' (Dominic West) With his phychotic and deranged brother 'Loony Bin Jim' they set out to destroy Castle, his friends and anyone close to him. The entire movie is one exciting, slam, bang and explosive tour through the bowels of hell. It was surprising to see Wayne Knight as a courageous Micro in among all that black gang and destructive mayhem. If you are looking for an exciting, gut wrenching and certainly bullet ridden film with bodies flying everywhere, this is your movie. Black as pitch, written for the dog-eat-dog audience, this movie creates a spiral stairway into the very bowels of darkness. ****

I saw this a couple hours ago in Fullerton, CA. I was a reader of the comic, and am a fan of what we've seen from Marvel lately. This movie is just what I wanted, and what I expected.

Ray Stevenson is perfect as Frank Castle, and everyone else is at least good enough for an action movie. Dominic West is over the top as Jigsaw - which is what Jigsaw should be! A horribly disfigured mob boss with a vendetta is not a subtle thing to begin with.

As for the "respectable" critics' complaints: 1. Violence: Of course it's violent! What part of the title "Punisher: War Zone" implies peaceful conflict resolution? He's not the "Admonisher". The gore and violence is not at the level of a "Saw" film, but it is high. It is rated "R" for a reason.

2. Dialogue: I think the critics have been spoiled by "Dark Knight" and "Iron Man". Those were comic-book movies with extraordinarily good dialogue. "Punisher: War Zone" is no worse than a "Predator" or "Rambo: First Blood". Not great, but not awful. This is not supposed to be "Hamlet".

3. Script: The story moves along well, and when there's a break in the action (which isn't very often), the film doesn't drag- it's always going somewhere. Not perfect, but good. Much better than the critics have made it out to be.

All in all, a good time, and one that I'll buy and re-watch as soon as it comes out on DVD.

I suspect this film was victim to the old (pre-Deadpool) rule of PG13 superhero movies being the only ones to bring a profit, even if it diluted the source material so much that the character's spirit was lost.

Punisher was, and is, a violent character - I remember my dad being extremely disapproving of my teenage self reading it due to its violence, and he isn't generally a prude.

The previous Punisher movies are both watered down for a more mainstream audience, but if Punisher fans want a movie that captures the grittiness, personal torment and sheer unadulterated vengeance meated out by Frank Castle then this is it!

The movie probably also suffered from poor marketing - I for one had never heard of it, I bought it as part of a double DVD box set with it's more well known predecessor and I was sceptical of what I perceived to be a straight-to-video b-movie barrel of pants. How wrong I was. It's less "Hollywood", more realistic, more violent, darker, grittier and morally murky - everything the character deserves.

The villains do suffer from the pre-MCU superhero movie tendency towards camp over-acted hamminess and the acting credentials of those portraying them suggests to me that this was a director driven decision rather than the actors personal choice and, given the overall grittiness of the film it does seem a little incongruous but when you consider this was the norm for this genre before Iron Man came along then it can be forgiven, as can the unnecessarily inept cop that seems to have been inserted as an attempt at a comedic character to lighten the mood and it is to Dash Mihok's credit that the character still remains likeable despite the Lt. Frank Drebin/Clouseau-esque material he was given to work with.

Fans of The Punisher comics should definitely see this movie, fans of the other Punisher movies should watch it to get a truer sense of the source material and Marvel should bring Frank Castle into a Deadpool movie to bring the character into the MCU movie arena rather than relegated to the Netflix series - the potential for a successful portrayal of the darkness and violence of Punisher in a post-Deadpool superhero universe is just waiting to be tapped. In the meantime - watch this.

I love this gory wild action extravaganza! Ray Stephenson, Dominic West, and Doug Hutchinson are all great! I like how theirs a bunch that don't like Punisher: War Zone and others that love it. The action sequences are a bit whacky and I admit their is some poor characters otherwise I absolutely love the bulk of the film plus any part with Doug Hutchinson is fantastic. I need to own everything Punisher related at some point I'm a fan of it all.

I have to say I will remember to this movie,from this summer,it was released straight to video(DVD)here in Hungary,maybe from economical reasons,but I have to recommend this film for action,and also for horror fans,cause this is very gory,and violent.

Do not see the trailer before see the film,cause this film has a little problem,with scenery,but it will not hurt you if you see the film without see the trailer before the movie.

The acting,is just great in this movie,I have to say that Ray Steveson as punisher,and Dominic West as Jigsaw,they were just awesome as main characters in this movie.Maybe the story line of Julie Benz has some irritating elements,but still has an interesting one.

Lexi Alexanders movie was not really successful as business,against this was a very honest,and sometimes funny the smell of real world type of a film.I will keep my eyes on these artists.

Against I'am not a fan of violent films,usually I found them,this one will not disappoint most of you.

7/10