(some material borrowed from Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License)
First, a few facts. Dolph Lundgren expresses emotions ranging from stoic to, well, really stoic. There are holes in the story large enough to pilot the Exxon Valdez through without spilling a drop. And the film is littered with action movie clichés. But none of this matters. The Punisher succeeds because it stays true to its origins, the Marvel comic of the same name. Studio-engineered films such as Batman never quite capture the mixture of loyalty and betrayal, justice and revenge, moral ambiguity and emotional truth that are the hallmarks of the graphic novel. Films such as Darkman do. So does The Punisher. Lundgren plays Frank Castle, a dedicated policeman whose family was wiped out in a mob hit. He went underground (literally) and, as the Punisher, has been exacting his revenge, killing 125 mobsters in the past five years. But when the yakuza (Japanese Mafia) moves in on the mob's territory and kidnaps their children, it's up to the Punisher to rescue the kids. The action blazes, Lundgren (a former full-contact karate champ) moves with feral grace, the production design is a pleasure to watch, and director Mark Goldblatt (whose credits as editor include such big films as Starship Troopers and True Lies) has a clean, efficient style. --Geof Miller
As a comic book fan for many years, I had anticipated the release of this movie on DVD. I had originally seen this movie several years prior on VHS but it was a shoddy copy. This time around it was presented in a better format.
The original story goes that the Punisher (aka Frank Castle) is a death-dealing vigilante who extracts more than enough vengeance for the murders of his family (wife, son and daughter) by the mob. Frank survives the hit, goes underground and reemerges as the Punisher.
This movie was a decent rendition of the Punisher story but, like a lot of other movies, did not hold up to the original storyline. Here, Frank sees his family get blown up in the family car that is at the family home as opposed to a mob hit in Central Park. Also, The Punisher is widely known as wearing dark colored shirts with a white skeletal image on it. In the movie, the only times you see the skeletal image is on his knives, which he uses quite effectively.
Overall, the movie plot was not too bad but could have been better written. Dolph Lundgren does a fair job as Frank although his dialogues seemed quite dumb. His physique was the one thing of Dolph that I believe fit well for the character of Frank Castle. The scenes were also pretty well done but seemed a bit choppy at times.
For anyone who is a fan of the Punisher, I do recommend the movie but the new 2004 one with Thomas Jane is a better one although they do still change the storyline in that one too.
The new Punisher flick is an abomination. The kids next door reminded me of the scooby doo gang. That wasn't what the punisher was all about. The punisher is all about punishing the guilty. Am I right?! This movie presented a more accurate portrayal of the Frank Castle than the new one could have ever hoped. Hats off to Dulf Lundgren. Guns, money, killin......this movie has it all.
I agree the film is fun, in a mindless sort of way. It is as ...
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