Punisher: War Zone

Day 219 - 8/7/09 - Movie #215

BEFORE: Might as well...

THE PLOT: After hunting down and killing hundreds of violent criminals, Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, faces his most deadly foe yet: Jigsaw.

AFTER: It's the third try at making a good Punisher movie (and the third actor to play Frank Castle) and finally they've written in a bunch of the other characters from the comic books, like Det. Martin Soap, Maginty (a black Irish thug) and Wayne Knight as Microchip - genius casting there! I suppose the 2nd movie did have one character from the comics - The Russian, a giant fighter incapable of feeling pain. But this movie introduces Jigsaw, the Punisher's main comic-book nemesis. I didn't like Jigsaw's origin here, though - how his face got all cut up was a little too similar to what happened to Jack Nicholson's Joker in the 1st Batman movie.

I guess if the Jigsaw's like the Joker, then maybe the Punisher is a lot like Batman, except he doesn't wear a mask, and Batman doesn't use guns or kill. Both use the highest-tech weaponry, both are in top physical form, and both seem to have an endless supply of funds (though Batman inherited his, Punisher takes his funding from the criminals he wipes out).

I don't know where they filmed this movie, but it sure wasn't in New York - the subway trains look all wrong, and there's a stop on "Fifth Avenue/13th St." on the A, C, E and L lines. Huh? Shouldn't that be 8th Avenue and 14th St.? (aha, Wikipedia says this was shot in Montreal...) Plus, no one seems to be able to do a very good NY accent... But all in all, I thought this was very faithful to the source material - maybe a bit too violent for my tastes, but the kids today don't mind a little splatter...

Let's hope that if another Punisher film is made, they use Barracuda as the villain...

RATING: 7 out of 10 grenades