Film Review...The Punisher
The Punisher is in my opinion one of the most underrated action films of all time, and I don't say that lightly. So much so that even the painfully awful Punisher War Zone completely failed to acknowledge its predecessor's contribution to the franchise. Just why it under achieved quite as spectacularly as it did beggars belief because as far as action flicks go this is the full package.
Frank castle (Thomas Jane) plays an undercover cop, who is on his last assignment before retirement. Unfortunately for him some of the bad guys he's involved with end up dead. I say unfortunately because one of these happens to be the son of big time gangster Howard Saint (John Travolta), unsurprisingly Saint doesn't take to kindly to the death of his son and orders (or more specifically his wife does) the execution of not only Frank Castle but also his entire family, who just happen to all be together on a remote island celebrating Castles retirement.
Cue some truly gritty and heart wrenching scenes, which Castle just manages to survive. Improbable??.. perhaps, but it wouldn't h
ave been much of a movie should he have died! Anyway after some time away recovering Castle is no more and is replaced by ‘The Punisher'.
Now a number of things make this a great film. Its as believable as a comic book action movie can be, in fact the comic book moments are very few and far between. What you do have however is a very good revenge thriller, with some very clever scenes thrown in for good measure. One such scene is when rather than just killing Mrs Saint, he plants the seeds of doubt regarding her fidelity in her husband's head, then sits back to watch the fallout.
Jane plays a very good part as the heartbroken hero. Travolta is fantastic as ever and with some good supporting performances I really struggle to find fault with anything at all. Its a fast paced, full of action movie with some great bad guys, which even finds time for a full range of emotional experiences, with some welcome humorous moments to fit alongside the dark and sorrow filled plotline.
If you're a fan of the action genre I defiantely recommend watching this, but be sure to stay away from the truly awful addition of War Zone!
9/10
Frank castle (Thomas Jane) plays an undercover cop, who is on his last assignment before retirement. Unfortunately for him some of the bad guys he's involved with end up dead. I say unfortunately because one of these happens to be the son of big time gangster Howard Saint (John Travolta), unsurprisingly Saint doesn't take to kindly to the death of his son and orders (or more specifically his wife does) the execution of not only Frank Castle but also his entire family, who just happen to all be together on a remote island celebrating Castles retirement.
Cue some truly gritty and heart wrenching scenes, which Castle just manages to survive. Improbable??.. perhaps, but it wouldn't h
Now a number of things make this a great film. Its as believable as a comic book action movie can be, in fact the comic book moments are very few and far between. What you do have however is a very good revenge thriller, with some very clever scenes thrown in for good measure. One such scene is when rather than just killing Mrs Saint, he plants the seeds of doubt regarding her fidelity in her husband's head, then sits back to watch the fallout.
Jane plays a very good part as the heartbroken hero. Travolta is fantastic as ever and with some good supporting performances I really struggle to find fault with anything at all. Its a fast paced, full of action movie with some great bad guys, which even finds time for a full range of emotional experiences, with some welcome humorous moments to fit alongside the dark and sorrow filled plotline.
If you're a fan of the action genre I defiantely recommend watching this, but be sure to stay away from the truly awful addition of War Zone!
9/10
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