The Punisher | | Cast : | Laura Harring, Thomas Jane | | Director : | Jonathan Hensleigh | | Studio : | Lions Gate Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby | | Released Date : | April 16, 2004 | | DVD Released Date : | September 07, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | Good Adaptation | Content
 | The Punisher stars Tom Jane as Frank Castle, an FBI agent who works under-cover to catch criminals. Unfortunately, in Castle's last mission the son of crime boss Howard Saint (John Travolta) is accidently killed. Saint sends his men out to kill Castle and his family were they are on a family vacation. But Castle survives and seeks revenge on crime boss and his family for the death of his.
Basically, the plot of the movie follows the storyline of the Marvel comic that it was adapted from: after the deaths of his family, Castle becomes a vindictive vigilante. The Punisher was always meant to be the kind of hero who followed his own rules, including having an arsenal of guns and killing the bad guys instead of just sending them to jail. The movie is faithful in this aspect; The Punisher is gritty and violent and obvisouly intended only for Marvel's adult fans. In terms of Marvel movies, it is closest in comparison to the Blade movies and carries a similar R rating.
The acting in this movie wasn't bad. Jane actually makes a pretty good Punisher and it is impresive that he did a number of this own stunts. Travolta is decent as Howard Saint and I didn't really have any big qualms about his role. The only characters that I felt didn't really belong in the movie were the three "misfit" tenents that live in Castle's squalor apartment. These characters were meant for "comic relief," but only detracted from the serious tone of the movie. Also, it was hard to believe that someone who looks like Rebecca Romijn would be in such a state of social turpitude.
The Punisher should be well-recieved by fans of the comic. It is vengeful, violent, and not meant for children, just as the comic was intended to be. There is never a dull moment in this movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | Sanitized revenge | Content
| contains spoilers
This film is dumb - Hollywood dumb
A man sees his entire family (even extended family) blown away and then in a fit of revenge does what? Pretends to torture someone to get information out of him!!! That's right, he hangs a guy up and pretends he's going to hurt him, even to the point of searing a rump steak so the guy thinks it's his own burning flesh.
He confronts two killers and as in a western high noon waits for them to draw their guns first!
This is lame revenge. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | One of the better comic book movies... | Content
| After the way they butchered Spider-man, i was sceptical about this movie. The comic book translation havn't been too good to say the least. But i did think this one would be quite easy to put into film. Being a huge fan of the comics i was quite happy with what they did, who they chose and the closely followed storyline for his origins. Only one fault i found (i may just be splitting hairs here but hey) was that the comics have a lot of his naration in them to tell the reader how he's feeling, thinking and about to act. Whereas the movies had none of this. Still a must have for any comic book fan. Very good translation. Enjoy! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | If you like The Punisher comic, get this movie! | Content
| I'll keep this simple, if you like the comic you will like this movie. It is very true to the comic. I loved it. It was much better than I thought it would be.
-p.s... the game for PS2 is pretty cool too. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | Underrated, and Entertaining | Content
| First off, I'm not sure about these people who claim the films isn't true to the Punisher comic book. The movie follows The Punisher Graphic novel closely, with Howard Saint taking the place of the Gnuccis.
I also enjoyed the film's nostalgic feel; it's very reminiscent of a Sergio Leone Western, and much of the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry flicks. It's a welcome change from the endless parade of CGI and mindless explosions of more modern action films.
A real winner! |
|
