Punisher 2: Zona de guerra

This is one of those films where you expect nothing from it and get pleasantly surprised. Ray Stevenson in my opinion has been the best version of Francis castellione to date - he captures his nihilism, physicality and looks.

Skipping past the origin story of why castle became the punisher and instead jumping into his eternal battle with crime and his internal struggle with himself. Action sequences are solid with some nice gore - straight from the pages of grant Morrisons comic run and it's good to see a villain like jigsaw on screen - played brilliantly by Dominic west.

All in all it's a leave your brain at the door decent actioner that you feel with the right budget and better writers could of been an 8 or 9/10.

Roger Egbert was spot on when he wrote - ""The Punisher: War Zone" is one of the best-made bad movies I've seen". Viewed independently, it is an ultimate men's movie and more fun to watch than all Steven Seagal movies put together. This movie does not hold back on anything like the wimpy Thomas Jane's Punisher, who was more of a schemer than a punisher. That movie had its own reason to be liked in that it was a brave move to bring an ultra-violent (Punisher has even used nuclear bomb to kill an otherwise unkillable villain), gory and very dark comic, which only had a cult following, to the mainstream cinema. While that movie did not feel like a comic book adaptation at all, the story being pretty ordinary and plot being too heavy, war zone is much closer to the source material. Corny situations had corny, and extremely violent solutions. Villains were perfectly cast and did feel like Punisher villains and got what they deserve from a Punisher. The accents were distracting in the beginning, but once you get used to them (which is pretty fast, since everyone uses a fake sounding and bad accent), you stop noticing it and focus on action, which is plenty. Ray Stevenson was a perfect cast and comes across the perfectly believable, imposing and intimidating killing machine as the Punisher. The much-maligned first scene actually set the tone for rest of the movie for me, when Punisher goes on a killing spree on the dining table, killing everyone on the table, men-women alike, in different, but extremely bloody way. That is Punisher for me. Perfect movie for fans of Punisher and violent action movie fans in general.

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 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.

PUNISHER: WAR ZONE is a fun shoot-em-up – there's no more or less to it than that. A semi-sequel to the original 2004 film, this sees ROME's Ray Stevenson taking over the reins from Thomas Jane in a self-contained movie about his vendetta against a criminal gang. I'd heard a lot of talk about how poor this film was before I sat down and watched it, but I'm pleased to see it exceeded my expectations in every respect.

First off, the action scenes are excellent: fast-paced, well-shot (no shaky cam work here) and hard-hitting, with thugs getting their just desserts at every corner and all manner of extreme-weaponry mayhem. Secondly, the film isn't just about the action. There is a story, with characters (no matter how briefly sketched they are) and emotion too – Frank Castle is a creature brimming with repressed hurt and feeling and Stevenson is the perfect actor to bring him to life; few actors have eyes so sad.

Thirdly, the cast is pretty interesting. Dominic West, of course, gives it his all as the horrifically mutilated Jigsaw, bringing to life a truly comic creation. Doug Hutchison proves he's just as creepy as he was all those years ago in THE X-FILES when he played Tooms, the guy who could squeeze through letterboxes. Julie Benz (RAMBO) has a fairly thankless role as a mother who needs to be saved/rescued all the while, while familiar faces Colin Salmon and Wayne Knight flesh out more minor roles.

Of course, this isn't a perfect film. Some of the characters are intensely irritating (like the guy who appears to be the world's worst cop) and the running time is too short to really scope out the storyline, other than staging a few encounters. For what it's worth, the first film is still better, but that doesn't stop PUNISHER: WAR ZONE from being a satisfying action flick.