The Punisher (2004)

The Punisher: Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh. With A. Russell Andrews, Omar Avila, James Carpinello, Mark Collie. An undercover FBI agent becomes a vigilante and sets out to unleash his wrath upon the corrupt businessman who slaughtered his entire family at a reunion.

“Producers and distributors alike can try to market this as a superhero movie all they want but the fact is that at the end of the day The Punisher is an action movie – no more, no less. That is not to say it is a bad achievement, for the end product is fun, exhilarating and stylish. I do however feel it is extremely important to debunk the u0026#39;comic booku0026#39; label since it is both unjustly applied and it will perhaps generate false expectations from the mainstream audience.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlthough The Punisher is adapted from Marvel Comics, the R-rating alone should be blunt indicator of the path it intends to take. Half an hour into the film it still leaves us clueless and oblivious to the dark turn it will twist into. During which Thomas Jane undergoes an apt transformation of character from heartfelt family man on that one last undercover op to a hard-boiled, brooding vigilante who downs whiskey, swears, tortures and broods. The catalyst for this development is the brutal murder of his family and now heu0026#39;s out to get the hierarchy of villains (headed by John Travolta) – only he isnu0026#39;t just out for vengeance or justice – heu0026#39;s out to punish. In a corrupt city of thugs, Frank Castle becomes the judge, jury and executor.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat is so refreshing about Thomas Jane in the part of Punisher is that he is a sprawling surge of old school with a splash of Clint Eastwood protagonist – the detached, effortless action hero who is too cool for romantic interests, with hardcore one-liners and a merciless approach to duels. In this way, he is easily one of the most successful u0026#39;superherou0026#39; actors of the new millennium. But alas, Jane went unnoticed and Punisher did poorly at the box office probably BECAUSE it adopted this off-beat, old-school style to acting and action.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI also want to comment on said action, which was spectacular. Truth to be told, I have been waiting a long time to say that about a film. Usually itu0026#39;s the obligatory u0026quot;the visuals are stunningu0026quot; or u0026quot;itu0026#39;s extremely fast-paced and kineticu0026quot; but here the sheer hand-to-hand combat is the filmu0026#39;s goldmine because it moves back into close character mode instead of the epic scenarios that Batman, Superman and Spiderman dish out to keep out interest. Itu0026#39;s gloriously gritty, graphic and dirty which unfortunately also begs the question of where the $33,000,000 budget went. Did they spend it all on late night taco runs?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor that matter, The Punisher is far from devoid of faults. Its fatal flaw stems, in part, from what made it a good film in the first place: its sparseness of effects, general minimalism and lack of superhero formula. Rather it is a model-kit assembled from seedy old-school revenge action movies, the type youu0026#39;d sort of casually catch a bit of on TV one night. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e7 out of 10”