The Punisher
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Movie Reviews of The Punisher
Movie Review: If society won't punish the guilty, he will.
Summary: 4 Stars
While rooting around in a bargain bin at a local store, I came across this, the supposedly bad 1989 adaptation of a great Marvel comic. Being at a cheap price, I thought "What have I got to lose?" Action fans, your ship has come. This film has it all: bullets, babes, bombs, spiked balls, shruikens, impalings, poison, a Harley, and the mob. Dolph Lundgren stars as Frank Castle, an ex-cop who went underground (literally) as a vigilante, known to the media as "The Punisher", after the deaths of his wife and kids thanks to a car bomb, and after being declared legally dead. His line of work includes killing mobsters because of a hatred against them (they planted the family-killing car bomb), and because of this, The Franco crime family has weakened, along with dozens of others, forcing Gianni Franco, the leader of one of the families, to come in and take control of them. Franco has a plan to bring the families together as one unit (for ordinary citizens, this is bad news). However, this has attracted the attention of the Yakuza, Asia's most powerful crime syndicate, and their boss, Lady Tanaka, who decide to take over the families and all their interests. In order to sway the mobsters to their cause, they kidnap their children. Now Castle must fight to save the lives of the children of the people he has fought against for five years, while at the same time fighting alongside the man who killed his family.The cast works well, with Lundgren having a good performance, and Lou Gossett Jr. as Castle's former partner, trying to prove that Castle is still alive and is The Punisher. The disc has a widescreen transfer, and grain show up sometimes, noticeably in the end credits. The extras are severly lacking, consisting of production notes that look like movie trivia strung together with no enhancement, a trailer for overseas distribution (the film went direct to video in the U.S.), and cast and crew bios. Not Artisan's best, but then again, some of their early releases have no features at all. Good popcorn fun.
THE PUNISHER
(1989, R)
Frank Castle/The Punisher: Dolph Lundgren
Jake Berkowitz: Louis Gossett Jr.
Gianni Franco: Jeroen Krabb?
Lady Tanaka: Kim Miyori
Dino Moretti: Bryan Marshall
Samantha "Sam" Leary: Nancy Everhard
Director: Mark Goldblatt
Writer: Boaz Yakin
MOVIE: 4.5
VIDEO: 4.5
AUDIO: 5
EXTRAS: 2.5
MENUS: 2.5
OVERALL: 4
Movie Review: Good but not the Punisher
Summary: 3 Stars
I liked this movie a lot but it just didn't seem like the Punisher. I saw this movie halfway through on TV once and didn't even realize it was the Punisher and Punisher is my favorite comic book character. Lundgren fits the part of Punisher well though and the story is pretty good and you get a lot of good action scenes. Can't wait for the new one coming out.Movie Review: THIS IS THE WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN
Summary: 1 Stars
THIS MOVIE WAS SO AWEFUL. I TRIED TO LOOK AND WATCH THIS MOVIE WITH A POSITIVE ATTITUDE, BUT ALAS THIS MOVIE DISAPPOINTED ME IN SO MANY WAYS, THAT I RETURNED THE DVD BACK TO THE STORE AND DEMANDED A REFUND. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME IT'S NOT EVEN WORTH IT, DOLPH IS CAPABLE OF WAY BETTER THAN THIS, AND WHAT THE HE** IS LOUIS GOSSETT JR. DOIN HERE. IF YOU WATCH THIS EXPECTING IT TO BE CLOSE OR HAVE THE SLIGHTEST RESEMBLENCE TO THE COMIC YOU WILL BE SADLY DISAPPOINTED. I THINK LOUIS & DOLPH NEEDED SOMETHING TO DO IN THERE SPARE TIME, AND I THINK THEY JUST WANTED TO ADD SOME MOVIES ON THERE BELT. THE STORY: A COP'S FAMILY IS KILLED AND HE SURVIVES TO RISE FROM THE MURKY DEPTHS OF NEW YORK'S SEWERS TO BECOME THE AVENGING PUNISHER. HE GETS HIS BUTT KICKED AND TORTURED(SOME SUPERHERO HUH!), AND DOES MORE DAMAGE THAN GOOD. THE CHARACTERS GET LOST IN THE CONFINES OF THE MOVIE, AND WANDER INTO NOTHINGNESS. THE MOVIE WAS BADLY WRITTEN AND THE WRITTER SHOULD DO HIMSELF AND THE AUDIENCE A FAVOR AND STOP WRITTING MOVIES. I ALWAYS TRY TO FIND AT LEAST SOMETHING POSITIVE IN A MOVIE, YET THIS MOVIE GAVE ME NOTHING, AND THATS EXACTLY WHAT WE GOT AND HOPEFULLY WE SHALL NEVER GET ANYTHING LIKE THIS AGAIN.Movie Review: "Here is justice, here is punishment, here in me"
Summary: 4 Stars
I honestly don't get all the bashing this 1989 adaption of the comic has gotten. Since Marvel found a new money source with the big screen adaptions of X-Men, Spider-Man, and Daredevil (not to mention the upcoming X-Men 2 and The Hulk), it's obvious this film will look far inferior to those, but I like this for what it is. True, The Punisher isn't the best comic to film adaption in history (but it's far from the worst), but let's be honest; when the original comic had first started, it wasn't all that great, and those mid-late nineties relaunches weren't anything to write home about either (although the more recent Punisher books have been phenominal), and let's not forget this is one of the last one man army kill everything 80's films among the lines of Commando and Missing in Action, and I like it for what it is and isn't. For the most part this film stays true to the roots of the comic, unlike other comic to film adaptions like Batman & Robin and Spawn. Dolph Lundgren isn't the best actor in the world, but his stoic expressionless face and badass overall look suit the character of Frank Castle very well. So there's no skull, no van full of weapons, so what? Despite all that, The Punisher is still a good comic to film movie worth watching. And yes, I have heard of an upcoming new Punisher movie, but something tells me Marvel should quit while they're ahead before one of they're films tanks mightily.Movie Review: Punisher for 2004 should be much better!
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie is along the lines of COMMANDO and all those Chuck Norris films: It is bad 80's action, only this time it's when such films had entered their death throes.Dolph is easily one of the worst actors in the history of cinema, and this adaptation of the famous comic book vigilante is about as accurate as Joel Shumacer's horrible Batman sequels. The Punisher Movie is to The Punisher Comic what The Phantom Menace is to The Empire Strikes Back.
That is why I am so happy about the new Punisher film which is currently in production.
The script has been put together by the sreenwriter of DIE HARD 3, and promises to be much more like the comics, and to be a dark, gritty action film. It has a much smaller budget than most of the other Marvel Movie productions, but it doesn't need any CGI or film-trick fanciness.
It just needs good treatment.
Though at the time as my writing this no actor has been cast for the lead, a character actor named Thomas Jane has been offered the part.
He may prove to be just fine in the boots, but we'll have to see.
Personally I believe the role begs for Stallone. He and The Punisher are both New York Italians, both in their fifties, and both tough and buff. Just look at some of the great cover art done (on some of the newer comics) by Tim Bradstreet. It makes the Punisher look just like Stallone.
While The Punisher is supposed to be 8 foot tall and 500 pounds, we need to be realisitic here. We don't want some Mr. Universe playing him with all the acting talent of a braindead rodent.
Stallone is just big enough, and he can act. Anyone who doubts his ability needs to sit down and watch the original ROCKY and FIRST BLOOD, and then watch his excellent, low-key performance in COPLAND.
And anyone who doubts that he could pull off the role of The Punisher should sit down and watch his menacing performance in the remake of GET CARTER.
America needs another vigilante film. FALLING DOWN was the last good one we had. DIRTY HARRY and DEATH WISH are fantastic movies. The new THE PUNISHER could easily follow suit.
Leave this Barf Lundren version to collect dust on the video wharehouse shelves. A new Punisher film is on the way and at the very least it could hardly be any worse than this.