Movie Review: The Punisher

The Punisher

It seems almost every comic book character is being turned into a move headliner these days. Just two weeks after Hellboy, The Punisher hit the big screen. Aside from the differences in mythology and main characters, there's something else separating these two films: the critical reviews. Hellboy has received mostly friendly reviews; The Punisher, however, is suffering from criticism that ranges from the liberties taken with the mythology to the acting to the script itself. Having never read any of The Punisher comics, I can speak only for the acting and the script - and what was done to bring both together into a movie.

The Punisher, like Batman, is a superhero without super powers. He's as human as the rest of us, albeit better trained. In the case of The Punisher, Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) is an FBI agent with Special Forces training and a knack for undercover operations. In his last operation before he leaves the FBI for good, things get out of hand and a man is shot and killed. That man, as it turns out, is the youngest son of a local and powerful bad guy by the name of Howard Saint (John Travolta). Saint, of course, isn't going to let his son's death go unavenged. When he learns Castle had something to do with it, he determines to take revenge. Along with his beautiful wife, Olivia (Laura Hanning), it is decided to take Castle's family from him in a sort escalated tit-for-tat. But when Castle survives, the lesson is wasted on him. All he wants is to see that those responsible for the death of his family members are punished.

In the aftermath of the rampage that took the lives of his wife, child, and other family members, Castle lives only to prepare the punishment for Saint and his goons, led by Quentin Glass (Will Patton). Despite wanting to be left alone, several other misfits in the ramshackle apartment building he moves into are just as determined to bring Castle out of his self-imposed exile and into a life worth living once again.

There are plenty of shoot 'em ups and big explosions in The Punisher, and they're all very nicely done. There's even a little comedy (there's a torture scene that's hysterical - no kidding). The sets and production values are also very good. Thomas Jane isn't much of an actor (though he is very nice to look at), so the first minutes of the film suffer a bit in his presence. But once his happiness is taken violently from him, he suits the role far better. John Travolta should make it a point to keep playing bad guys. He's good at it! Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, one of the apartment dwellers that tries to befriend Castle, is consistently getting better with each movie she makes (although one emotional scene where she cries is amateur at best). And the remainder of the supporting cast is largely okay, too. The script is quite predictable, but isn't that kind of the way you'd expect things to be with a movie like The Punisher? Frankly, while I don't think The Punisher is going to be anybody's idea of a really good movie, I had fun with it. And I'm pretty sure that means you can't call it a really bad movie, either. It's...okay. You could do a lot worse on a Saturday night than to see The Punisher.

FAMILY SUITABIITY: The Punisher is rated R for "pervasive brutal violence, language, [and] brief nudity." I didn't have much of a problem with the language (it's minimal) and the "brief nudity" is so brief, you'll miss it if you blink. But they're not kidding when they say the violence is both brutal and non-stop, and much of it is quite real. This is not the kind of movie children should see, even if the man in the row in front of me thought it suitable for his two young boys. But older teens, particularly the boys, will love The Punisher, and the rest of us who occasionally like to see a good guy handle things the police don't or won't will like it just fine, too.