El castigador

Apart from one baffling and totally infuriating scene (one that was simply lousy and poorly conceived), The Punisher totally defied my initial expectations (that it would suck), and is actually quite good.

Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) is an ex soldier and undercover cop, completing one last job before he leaves the force permanently to spend more time with his family. The job of course goes a little awry and results in the unplanned death of one of the criminals. No biggie, he shouldn't have been a naughty boy in the first place. Only this naughty boy happened to be the son of one Howard Saint (John Travolta) who is a local underworld kingpin and drug-lord. Saint swears revenge on all and sundry… and what revenge it is.

At the behest of his trophy wife Saint orders the wholesale execution of everyone that ever bought Castle a Christmas present. Luckily for them Castle is attending a family reunion so the bad guys can save petrol, and as requested they drop the entire family, Mum, Dad, cousins, Aunties and Uncles on the spot in cold blood. Castle wife and young son are left for near last for dramatic effect, and after a chase it is obvious that they will not appear in any sequel. Castle himself is left for dead, riddled with holes on a burning dock… And this is where the bad guys screw up. Everyone else, and I mean EVERYONE ELSE at the soiree, are left deader than Lindsay Lohan's career, yet they have the primary target at their feet and neglect to put one in his temple just to make sure? Haven't they seen Zombieland? Some mysterious black guy (whose significance I just couldn't get) saves Castle and brings him back to health, and in a cheesy moment Castle just "happens" to find his son's T shirt with the Punisher skull logo on it, weeks after the shootings, on the beach.

Castle somehow gets back to the US unnoticed and sets about plotting his revenge and hitting the bottle, and not always in that order. He moves into what looks on the outside to be a squatter's residence but inside seems to be fully furnished and well maintained apartments. His neighbours are basically three, a fat guy, an "alternative" guy with a bunch of piercings and a chick who might scrub up well after a shower (it's Rebecca Romjin so we know she will).

Castle spends a while coming up with a way to ensure his revenge is particularly sweet, and above all convoluted and largely unnecessary seeing as how in the end he still walks into impossible odds with guns blazing. But it seems there were 60 odd minutes of screen time to fill so let's just go with it. The plan involves working through the chain of command up to Saint via his money, business, 2IC and finally his trophy wife.

Once the wheels are in motion Castle goes public and more or less tells everyone what's going to happen, but for ages neither the cops or the bad guys seem to be able to find him. When he does show up he invariably ends up killing people yet again no cops can catch him, and the forensic guys obviously don't look that hard for DNA or basic evidence.

There is some "more violent than usual in comic book films" action, a great one on one stoush involving an indiscreet and frankly monstrous assassin and a pretty funny faux-torture scene (as funny as torture can be I guess).

Travolta is a pretty good bad guy in this, largely because I think he is no longer a likable good guy unless you're a middle aged woman with recurring Grease flashbacks, and as Howard Saint he is always angry and seems to be talking with a mouthful of cotton wool. Jane is more efficient than I expected, he is pretty solid and believable in the action and fight scenes, plays the gruff p*ssed off loner well and spits out some pretty good, albeit dry, one liners. The final showdown between Castle and multiple bad guys is very entertaining and sees him exacting the appropriate level of revenge… So that's the good bits, but a 7.5 can't be all good.

The bad:

* - The fat supposed comic-relief neighbour who mimes opera is terrible and annoying.

* - In one scene Castle must swerve to avoid the most clichéd reason in cinema, the kid running onto the road chasing a big red ball.

* - The cheesy way they decided to shoehorn the Punisher logo into the climax of the film, forced and distracting.

The awful:

* - A hired assassin comes to kill Castle, only he shows up at the diner where Castle is eating, pulls out a guitar case and… sings him a song first!! Worse than terrible - f*cking annoying is more to the point. I squirm every time it comes up and reach for the remote. Removing this scene and opera-miming fat guy and this is an 8.

This was a pleasant surprise aside from my above whinges, a low key comic book movie with realistic violence and great character foundation. After all what could be more inspiring than watching everyone that features in your personal photo album being butchered in front of you.

Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. Don't be fooled by your pre-conceived opinions, this is better than you might think.

I went to see this movie solely because Thomas Jane is in it, who is my latest celeb crush after seeing Stander. I don't read comics, and therefore knows nothing of the comicbook hero, The Punisher/Frank Castle. I didn't expect much, same as I wouldn't (and didn't) of movies like Batman, Catwoman, or The Hulk.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I was actually impressed! (Not easy to do) The dramatic and violent story was amazingly well balanced with the comedy and one-liners. The violence was not half as bad as I expected (although the one with the guillotine and the one with the knife through the chin at the end a bit unsettling...) And I appreciated being spared explicit lovescenes or a corny romance between Frank and Joan. Even the swearing was piped down considerably.

Of course, this is not Oscar material, but the acting was satisfying, and the story not bad at all. One to enjoy...

This wonderful revenge film was acted and directed with complete conviction but still found the time to kick ass. This is one of the best movies I have seen this year and I go to at least one movie a week. The acting was good. I would recommend this movie to everyone. I thought it was going to be some type of 80's action movie, but it turned out to be great movie aimed towards an older crowd. The beginning is a bit slow, but the action really keeps you focused. Thomas Jane did an excellent job as the Punisher and Travolta's performance was much better than I was expecting. This is a movie that thinks so deeply about its conflicts and decisions that there are times when the audience itself feels like it has a personal stake in the outcome. This is by far the best film in the reinvigorated sub-genre of comic-book-to-screen conversions.

I can't call this a bad movie but its also hard to consider it good. Thomas Jane was a great choice for Frank Castle but he isn't given a chance to show his Punisher off. The story is slow and tries to be a Character study but misses the mark even on that. A little more action and a higher body count would really have helped this film. Travolta gets to ham it up and does a good job as the main Villian but even he wasn't given enough time to really develop the Character. I dont hate the movie.

The Punisher put my faith back into revenge movies. The action in this film is unbelievable and grim. I found myself not wanting the story to end. Many of the movies based on superheroes in a comic book tend not to sticks gritty and real. This one was and then some. The movie has surpassed my expectation and I certainly look forward Punisher 2.

The next film sets itself up for a kick butt start. They should take a page from X2 or the Lethal Weapon series and just open the next film with a wild battle. You can grab the viewer right away and still tell your full story right after. I hope the entire cast as well as the director returns because they crafted one quality origin story here. In summary, I enjoyed everything about this dark tale.