The Punisher «½
R, 124m. 2004
Cast & Credits: Thomas Jane (Frank Castle), John Travolta (Howard Saint), Will Patton (Quentin Glass), Laura Harring (Livia Saint), Ben Foster (Spacker Dave), Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (Joan), Samantha Mathis (Maria Castle), John Pinette (Bumpo), Roy Scheider (Frank Castle, Sr.). Screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh and Michael France. Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh.
"The Punisher" is such a depressingly, tedious, joyless masochistic mess of a film that, like "Daredevil" (2003) and "Hulk" (2003) before it, two big budget comic book adaptations which were so dark they completely lacked a smile or laugh, I regretted even giving it a chance.
Call me old-fashioned but when I see a film based on a comic book, I expect it to be fun like the Superman and in some cases even the Batman movies. I don’t expect to see heroes in the form of a muscle bound green digitally enhanced special effect in purple spandex like the Hulk who looked like he needed to join "Rage-A-Holics." Nor do I expect heroes like Ben Affleck’s Daredevil, who like the lead character in The Punisher, to be such a depressed brood that it makes me wonder if they really get any joy out of fighting crime.
My heart sank fifteen minutes into "The Punisher" the moment Frank Castle’s entire family is murdered by gangsters at a reunion held by his father (Roy Scheider) who talks about how such a joyous occasion has been a long time coming. The order shockingly comes from the beautiful wife (Laura Harring) of a wealthy money launderer (John Travolta) following the funeral for their older son who was killed in an FBI sting operation Castle (Thomas Jane) oversaw.
“His family,” she says. “His whole family.”
By “entire family,” I am talking about grandparents, aunts and uncles, parents, young nephews and cousins right down to Castle’s wife and son who are run over by the villains.
By the time the film was over, I felt like Malcolm McDowell’s character from Stanley Kubrick’s "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) who was forced to sit and watch violent movies with his eyes pried open.
"The Punisher" is inundated with unsettling scenes of henchmen all of whom are seen donning black suits as though they’ve got nothing else of different colors hanging in their closet. All of them meet death in some grisly way or another like having arrows sliced through their necks or paper cutters used as machetes embedded into their foreheads. At one point, Castle takes a long sharp-edged bowie knife and runs it through a guy’s face starting from the bottom of his chin. You can see part of the knife inside his gaping mouth. There are others as when Travolta’s Howard Saint, thinking his wife is having an affair with his best friend (Will Patton), conveniently throws her off a bridge in front of an oncoming train.
His best line might also be the sickest when his younger son asks where his mother is. “She caught a train,” Saint says.
All this leads to the predictable climax and no, I don’t think I am giving anything away here. Castle, a former FBI agent who early on calls himself “The Punisher,” chains Saint to the rear bumper of a car sending him through a parking lot full of exploding automobiles. The explosions cleverly make up the fiery logo of a deformed but immense looking skull with three long teeth that The Punisher wears on his shirt.
I just know writing a negative review of a movie based on a popular comic book is going to bring the loyal fans out of the woodwork eager to set me straight at how I am missing the point behind this vigilante character.
They’ll probably tell me that The Punisher is supposed to be about a depressed alcoholic hell bent on revenge. The fact he doesn’t want to draw any attention to himself is normal for him as he makes his residence in a rundown apartment in Miami the fans will tell me. Castle’s next-door neighbors are a hefty cook (John Pinette) who never goes out, a video game freak (Ben Foster) with one too many earrings on his face and a waitress (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) trying to make ends meet.
My question to the fans would be how to they expect me to root for a guy who is so morose that when his tenants invite him over for a Thanksgiving feast that when it comes time for him to say what he is thankful for, his only response is, “Thanks for dinner?”
Believe it or not, there are some good movies out there about people taking revenge. A couple of them are on my personal 100 best films of all time. The Godfather films, for example, are all about taking revenge out on traitors. As James Caan’s Sonny Corleone said to Marlon Brando’s bed-ridden father in the first movie, “They hit us, we hit them back.” Revenge films can also give us memorable villains like Ricardo Montalban’s character "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982). I found his mannerisms hilarious watching him roll his eyes in defeat quoting vengeful lines from Shakespearean tragedies.
"The Punisher" actually has the makings of what could have been a good violent popcorn movie with a hero, or anti-hero we care about and cheer when the villain finally meets his demise. In a scene that reminded me of the climax from Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western, "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" (1966), The Punisher and two hitmen size each other up inside a bank lobby before one of them finally draws. Do I have to tell you who draws first?
In another great scene that cleverly avoids all those typical clichés where I assume it’s just another hitman who happens to have a gun in his guitar case, a well-dressed Hispanic walks into a diner where The Punisher is having breakfast and unexpectedly bangs out a tune on his guitar.
“I’m going to play that at your funeral,” he tells Castle.
Scenes like these make me wonder what The Punisher might have been like if say Quentin Tarantino had been offered the project.
The characters in "The Punisher" are one-dimensional with barely any depth and the script is chock full of so many one-liners that I found it hard to believe this was more than 60 pages. The filmmakers might as well have done a remake of "Death Wish" (1974) that featured Charles Bronson as an architect who, like The Punisher, takes the law into his own hands after his wife and son are brutally murdered.
"The Punisher" is not just a Death Wish clone disguised as a comic book movie that comes with the Marvel Comics’ logo seal of approval, the film might also spawn off a slew of unnecessary sequels over the next ten years the way Bronson’s movie did; a Death Wish for a new century.
I find it rather ironic to note despite everything that’s dreadfully wrong with "The Punisher", there is one good point the filmmakers prove. I am reminded of the scene near the end of "The Godfather Part II" (1974) where Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone is sitting all alone brooding, looking back on happier times. He’s restored his family’s Mafia name, finally consolidated all his power and wiped out all his enemies. He is, however, all alone.
If "The Punisher" proves anything, it is that taking revenge out on those who’ve wronged you won’t bring your loved ones back. In the case of this film, all the lead character, not to mention the audience, is left with is emptiness.
©4/21/04
R, 124m. 2004
Cast & Credits: Thomas Jane (Frank Castle), John Travolta (Howard Saint), Will Patton (Quentin Glass), Laura Harring (Livia Saint), Ben Foster (Spacker Dave), Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (Joan), Samantha Mathis (Maria Castle), John Pinette (Bumpo), Roy Scheider (Frank Castle, Sr.). Screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh and Michael France. Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh.
Call me old-fashioned but when I see a film based on a comic book, I expect it to be fun like the Superman and in some cases even the Batman movies. I don’t expect to see heroes in the form of a muscle bound green digitally enhanced special effect in purple spandex like the Hulk who looked like he needed to join "Rage-A-Holics." Nor do I expect heroes like Ben Affleck’s Daredevil, who like the lead character in The Punisher, to be such a depressed brood that it makes me wonder if they really get any joy out of fighting crime.
My heart sank fifteen minutes into "The Punisher" the moment Frank Castle’s entire family is murdered by gangsters at a reunion held by his father (Roy Scheider) who talks about how such a joyous occasion has been a long time coming. The order shockingly comes from the beautiful wife (Laura Harring) of a wealthy money launderer (John Travolta) following the funeral for their older son who was killed in an FBI sting operation Castle (Thomas Jane) oversaw.
“His family,” she says. “His whole family.”
By “entire family,” I am talking about grandparents, aunts and uncles, parents, young nephews and cousins right down to Castle’s wife and son who are run over by the villains.
By the time the film was over, I felt like Malcolm McDowell’s character from Stanley Kubrick’s "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) who was forced to sit and watch violent movies with his eyes pried open.
"The Punisher" is inundated with unsettling scenes of henchmen all of whom are seen donning black suits as though they’ve got nothing else of different colors hanging in their closet. All of them meet death in some grisly way or another like having arrows sliced through their necks or paper cutters used as machetes embedded into their foreheads. At one point, Castle takes a long sharp-edged bowie knife and runs it through a guy’s face starting from the bottom of his chin. You can see part of the knife inside his gaping mouth. There are others as when Travolta’s Howard Saint, thinking his wife is having an affair with his best friend (Will Patton), conveniently throws her off a bridge in front of an oncoming train.
His best line might also be the sickest when his younger son asks where his mother is. “She caught a train,” Saint says.
All this leads to the predictable climax and no, I don’t think I am giving anything away here. Castle, a former FBI agent who early on calls himself “The Punisher,” chains Saint to the rear bumper of a car sending him through a parking lot full of exploding automobiles. The explosions cleverly make up the fiery logo of a deformed but immense looking skull with three long teeth that The Punisher wears on his shirt.
I just know writing a negative review of a movie based on a popular comic book is going to bring the loyal fans out of the woodwork eager to set me straight at how I am missing the point behind this vigilante character.
They’ll probably tell me that The Punisher is supposed to be about a depressed alcoholic hell bent on revenge. The fact he doesn’t want to draw any attention to himself is normal for him as he makes his residence in a rundown apartment in Miami the fans will tell me. Castle’s next-door neighbors are a hefty cook (John Pinette) who never goes out, a video game freak (Ben Foster) with one too many earrings on his face and a waitress (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) trying to make ends meet.
My question to the fans would be how to they expect me to root for a guy who is so morose that when his tenants invite him over for a Thanksgiving feast that when it comes time for him to say what he is thankful for, his only response is, “Thanks for dinner?”
Believe it or not, there are some good movies out there about people taking revenge. A couple of them are on my personal 100 best films of all time. The Godfather films, for example, are all about taking revenge out on traitors. As James Caan’s Sonny Corleone said to Marlon Brando’s bed-ridden father in the first movie, “They hit us, we hit them back.” Revenge films can also give us memorable villains like Ricardo Montalban’s character "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982). I found his mannerisms hilarious watching him roll his eyes in defeat quoting vengeful lines from Shakespearean tragedies.
"The Punisher" actually has the makings of what could have been a good violent popcorn movie with a hero, or anti-hero we care about and cheer when the villain finally meets his demise. In a scene that reminded me of the climax from Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western, "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" (1966), The Punisher and two hitmen size each other up inside a bank lobby before one of them finally draws. Do I have to tell you who draws first?
In another great scene that cleverly avoids all those typical clichés where I assume it’s just another hitman who happens to have a gun in his guitar case, a well-dressed Hispanic walks into a diner where The Punisher is having breakfast and unexpectedly bangs out a tune on his guitar.
“I’m going to play that at your funeral,” he tells Castle.
Scenes like these make me wonder what The Punisher might have been like if say Quentin Tarantino had been offered the project.
The characters in "The Punisher" are one-dimensional with barely any depth and the script is chock full of so many one-liners that I found it hard to believe this was more than 60 pages. The filmmakers might as well have done a remake of "Death Wish" (1974) that featured Charles Bronson as an architect who, like The Punisher, takes the law into his own hands after his wife and son are brutally murdered.
"The Punisher" is not just a Death Wish clone disguised as a comic book movie that comes with the Marvel Comics’ logo seal of approval, the film might also spawn off a slew of unnecessary sequels over the next ten years the way Bronson’s movie did; a Death Wish for a new century.
I find it rather ironic to note despite everything that’s dreadfully wrong with "The Punisher", there is one good point the filmmakers prove. I am reminded of the scene near the end of "The Godfather Part II" (1974) where Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone is sitting all alone brooding, looking back on happier times. He’s restored his family’s Mafia name, finally consolidated all his power and wiped out all his enemies. He is, however, all alone.
If "The Punisher" proves anything, it is that taking revenge out on those who’ve wronged you won’t bring your loved ones back. In the case of this film, all the lead character, not to mention the audience, is left with is emptiness.
©4/21/04
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