Platypuschow I really enjoyed The Punisher (2004) though I don't think Thomas Jane made a good Punisher he is a competent enough actor to have pulled it off.When I heard about this one 4yrs later I had no interest, I was frustrated that it had essentially been rebooted and that Jane was no longer playing Frank Castle.Here we are 9yrs later I've finally given it a chance and I'm saddened I didn't earlier. Punisher: War Zone is not the brainless action flick cash grab that I expected, in fact it rivals the 2004 version.For a start Ray Stevenson is perfectly cast as The Punisher, he looks perfect and blows Jane & even Lungren out of the water. He thoroughly takes the role and makes it his amidst a host of great actors and characters.Extremely violent and quite loyal to the original material this is something I could have gotten behind if it had become a franchise.I'm not an action junkie, in fact I'd say it is by far one of my least favourite genres but when its done right like it is here it makes for some great entertainment.Ignore the critics and put the 2004 version aside for a moment, War Zone is a damn decent film.The Good: Remarkably violent (As it should be) Awesome soundtrack Very competent cast Ray Stevenson makes a great Punisher The Bad: Accents are hit and miss Recasting/Reebooting so soon after the last movie was a stupid move Hero is a Christian, villain is an atheist. Overwhelming irony Jigsaw monologue scene was dumb Things I Learnt From This Movie:I would love to see this Punisher added to the Marvel Universe R-Rated superhero movies were a thing before Deadpool Julie Benz is ageless

Screen_Blitz Many superheros from comic books have made transitions to the big screen, some turning out to be more successful than others. Out of all the superheroes in the comic book universe, it seems that Fantastic Four and the Punisher have endured the most abuse in the cinematic world. The discussion for today is focusing on the latter. Following two unpolished adaptations of the titular gun-totting vigilante, director Lexi Alexander attempts to yet another reboot of the hero with this devastating violent hard-R actioner, hopefully to give the hero the cinematic adaptation he truly deserves. Sadly, this dreary excuse of an action flick only continues the sour trend of failed attempts on bringing the titular figure to life. What transpires to the screen here is a gloomy gun-blazing action vehicle that buries its the beauty of the titular action hero in paper-thin plot stitched together by an excruciating amount of graphic violence. Following the plot of the previous movie, this film follows Frank Castle a.k.a The Punisher (played by Ray Stevenson), a gun-wielding vigilante who continues his path for vengeance against the Russoti family who were responsible for the death of his wife and child. After an attempted slaying of the mobster Billy Russoti (played by Dominic West) who survives his attack, left with a horribly stitched face, and adopts the name Jigsaw; Castle comes to face-to-face with Billy's brother Loony Bin Jim (played by Doug Hutchinson).Taking from the pages of the Marvel comics, this movie adopts the signature violent nature of the titular vigilante. When it comes showcasing the grueling brutality of the source material, this film pulls absolutely no punches. But happens when the extreme violence becomes the driving force of an already thin plot? What results is a dispiriting mess of the actioner that falls shallow of the soul of the comic-book-based hero. Director Lexi Alexander fails to capture the absorbing spirit of the gun-blazing hero in a way that accounts to an entertaining ride, and instead settles of a gloomy, self- serious vehicle. Even Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' encountered a pinch of levity in its grim atmosphere. The main center of the story is The Punisher who's executed with a performance by HBO star Ray Stevenson that is not terrible, but the character itself is so shallow of humanity and charisma, it is difficult to the root for their character in the midst of the carnage. The antagonist Jigsaw isn't given much flair each other, and suffers from a portrayal that feels more gratuitous than genuine. And the paper-thin plot certainly does do much justice. The best thing Alexander has to offer her is the nicely- edited action scenes which showcase The Punisher mowing down the bad guys in an loud, bombastic splatter galore. The action fortunately starts off fun, but it is not long of the brutality of the action grows numbing. It appears that Lexi Alexander tries so hard to recount the glory days of splatter-laden action flicks from the 80s and 90s. Sadly, that is just a simple endeavor gone wrong. The Punisher: War Zone is a dour vigilante action vehicle that fails to rise up above a dreary actioner chewed up by a soulless script and an unpolished portrayal of the titular hero. If there is anything that this film succeeds on aside from pulse-pounding action, it is showing slight improvement upon the previous entry starring Thomas Jane, which really isn't say a whole lot.

siderite The movie is frankly (pardon the pun) offensive. I know that watching this after the great Netflix introduction of the Punisher is the final nail in the coffin, but even without it, this film is garbage. Not only does it have cardboard characters and no plot to speak of, but it revels in extreme violence that is justified by the same boring and cretinous "killing bad guys is good".After forcing myself to watch the whole thing I have to ask: how the hell did they get Ray Stevenson, Doug Hutchison, Julie Benz and Colin Salmon to play in this piece of crap? It feels like a Mexican Nunsploitation film without any nuns! It feels like a room filled with cardboard characters that no one bothered to paint.Bottom line: not bad enough to be funny, not good enough to be worth it and probably a movie all the actors in it wish never to be associated with.

adonis98-743-186503 Just saw this movie today after many years and it was awesome i loved it this film was so much better than the 2004 Thomas Jane version of The Punisher. Ray Stevenson was the perfect guy for the job and i liked Jigsaw and his crazy little brother i think everyone did a good job and the enemies were so much better than the fat annoying John Travolta from the previous one. The action and gore reminded me of Marvel's Daredevil and Jessica Jones it was bigger in action and gore than the first film and it had a better story and character development and a good use of humor. This film is nowhere near the mess critics described and the 6.0 out of 10 is pretty low for a film as good as this one and the ending was perfect which meant for a somewhat sequel which i would love to see but i guess we will never find out.