The Punisher(s)

It's a colossal shame that 3 re-boots of The Punisher couldn't launch a sustainable franchise which effectively lumped it in the Failed Comic Book-To-Screen adaptations of Marvel superheroes. It rankles me no end that this means all 3 adaptations now join the mediocre Daredevil and the truly awful Elektra in the failed pantheon of Marvel characters who couldn't make the successful transition to the screen. More's the pity as each successive iteration of the skull-insignia sporting vigilante killer improved on it's predecessor with the 3rd movie finally striking the right balance between comic-book violence and showcasing the utter ruthlessness of one of Marvel's darkest anti-heroes.



Raiding my DVD archives to re-visit all 3 screen outings of the uber vigilante recently, I saw 3 occassionally cheesy, frequently dumb but constantly entertaining actioners that's perfect lazy Sunday viewing, if your idea of lazy Sunday viewing is bullet-riddled corpses, multiple stabbings and large scale destruction achieved through the expenditure of enough military arsenal to launch a foreign coup.



The Punisher (1989)



When cop Frank Castle's wife and children are killed by mobster Dino Morreti, he becomes a driven vigilante meting out righteous justice known as The Punisher. When Yakuza boss Lady Tanaka begins a gang war for control with the Italian mob by kidnapping the children of the Heads of Families, the cunning Gianni Franco enlists Castle's help in rescuing the kids, his son being one of them.

The fact that The Punisher's 1st screen avatar starred Dolph Lundgren (Sweden's premier wood export after Ikea) as the titular avenger doomed it to the DVD dungeons of C-Grade actioners from the get go. Director Mark Goldblatt (ace editor behind The Terminator, Terminator 2, Commando and Starship Troopers) working from a script by Boaz Yakin (the only shocker is that this is the same Boaz Yakin who would go on to helm the engrossing indie Urban drama Fresh), firmly anchors the film in it's B-Movie roots and taken as such, The Punisher is almost as much cheesy fun as Lundgren's other Yakuza-themed actioner, Showdown In Little Tokyo stopping just short of the latter's gleefully racist Asian caricatures, although Kim Miyori's scary Lady Tanaka skirts pretty close to the exotic Dragon lady archetype. Small points are scored by director Goldblatt for having the knife-wielding and butt-kicking female not be an Asian but blonde European Zoshka Mizak (wisely given no speaking lines) as is the casting of the reliable Jeroen Krabbe as the slimy Franco. What Lou Gossett Jr's doing here is anybody's guess (but the fact that he followed an Oscar winning turn in An Officer And A Gentleman with the Iron Eagle movies is a potent clue that canny role selection isn't one of his notable talents).

His Jake Berkowitz, Castle's former partner and pretty much the only one who believes he's alive after the car bomb that wiped out his family is supposed to provide some sort of moral anchor for Castle's revenge-fueled rampage, but anytime he and insipid blonde partner Nancy Everhard are on screen is dead space. It's the action you come for and Goldblatt stages them with enough efficiency to stifle yawns with Castle and Franco's climactic siege of Tanaka's stronghold providing some snappy martial arts ass-kickery (Lundgren's own Karate expertise comes in handy).

Lundgren has the height and bulk to inhabit the leather jacket-wearing, Harley driving and sewer dwelling Castle but lacks suitable menace to fully realise the punishment- meting vigilante. And the skull T-Shirt is conspicuously absent.

Exit Dolph Lundgren, enter Thomas Jane...

The Punisher (2004)

When ex-Special Forces, Ex-FBI agent Frank Castle's wife, son and pretty much his entire family is wiped out by vengeful mobster Howard Saint, he swears revenge on the Saint family and in the process becomes the one man vigilante The Punisher.

Director and co-scripter Jonathan Hensleigh valiantly tried uprooting The Punisher from it's previous B-movie roots by injecting some drama and emotion into Castle's metamorphosis from loving family man to vengeful enforcer of justice and hiring an actor like Thomas Jane as opposed to an action star to essay the role of the titular avenger. It's a hit and miss affair. The Origins approach fleshes out Castle's character arc but also waits until the climactic shootout to showcase The Punisher in full-on take no prisoners berserker mode.

Hensleigh takes as many right steps as he does misguided ones. The roping in of John Travolta as mob boss Howard Saint and Will Patton as his gay and ruthless enforcer Quentin Glass is inspired, but having Castle enact his revenge on the Saint crime family through a series of set-ups and deceptions is not. About the only planning we want to see The Punisher doing is deciding whether to pack both the Colt M4A1 carbine and M203 40mm grenade launcher or just sticking with the Glock 17 with a Strider JW knife for some close-up wet work.

Castle's encounters with some of Saint's bizarre assassins are inspired . Gunman Harry Heck who serenades Castle with a song before trying to kill him borders on the surreal while Castle's brutal apartment-busting brawl with The Russian (Pro-Wrestler Kevin Nash) set to an operatic aria is the the type of no-holds barred mayhem this movie could have used more of rather than wasting valuable time showing Castle's interaction with a trio of outcasts living in his apartment building. They may have been ported over from the comic books but blonde Joan, pierced Dave and fat Bumpo add nothing to the narrative except more fodder for trivia fans who can say 2 of the trio (Rebecca Romijn and Ben Foster) both played mutants in X-Men 3. And while serving to showcase Glass' sadism, the wince-inducing torture of Foster's Dave borders on the repulsive.

Hensleigh attempts to give The Punisher's character some heft (Frank is racked with grief, Frank drinks, Frank contemplates suicide) when what was needed was more firepower. It's a schizophrenic film, veering wildly between lethargic drama and explosive actioner. Rarely dull, The Punisher's second screen incarnation is nevertheless a failed experiment to kick start a franchise. At least Jane wears the skull T-Shirt.

Exit Thomas Jane, enter Ray Stevenson....

Punisher: War Zone (2008)

When ex-Special Forces vet Frank Castle's wife and children are killed by mobsters, he becomes the ruthless vigilante The Punisher. In the course of meting out his own special brand of justice to gangster Billy Rusotti, he accidentally kills an undercover FBI agent. When the horribly disfigured Rusotti, now named Jigsaw and his psychotic brother Loony Bin Jim target the Agent's wife and daughter, a remorseful Castle comes to their aid.

It took ex-Karate Champion and ex-Stunt woman Lexi Alexander directing from a script by Nick Santora, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway starring that Titus dude from the Rome miniseries to finally get it right. Ray Stevenson, the least prettiest of the 3 screen Punishers nails the character with deadly precision. Stevenson plays The Punisher the only way he should be played: as a relentless killing machine.

Alexander re-anchors the series in it's B-movie roots but dials the violence way, way over the top while staging the action scenes with stylish,efficient brutality (this movie would easily qualify for the Record of maximum head shots committed to celluloid).

Starting from The Punisher's assault on crippled crime lord Cesare's mansion, Punisher:War Zone is balls to wall action top-loaded with blood, guts and gore that would repulse anyone not familiar with another Lionsgate franchise featuring a psycho named Jigsaw. But Alexander wisely balances the non-stop assaultive violence by never letting you forget the scripts comic-book sensibilities (Castle fixes his broken nose with a pencil; a free runner is blown to smithereens doing a mid-air somersault). And Dominic West (playing another asshole after 300) and Doug Hutchison (also reprising an asshole after The Green Mile) playing Jigsaw and Loony Bin respectively, pitch their performances to the north of ultra-campiness, complete with exaggerated Noo York accents. The always watchable Wayne Knight is a welcome presence as Castle's arms supplier Microchip but the movie can't avoid some throw-aways; Julie Benz as the bereaved widow (as annoyingly weepy and whiny here as she was in Rambo 4) , Colin Salmon as the dead FBI agent's former partner (valiantly attempting an American accent) and Dash Mihok's Martin Soap, a cop on the trail of The Punisher who nevertheless supplies one of the better closing lines to a movie, "Great! Now I have brains splattered all over me!"

Frenetically paced and thrillingly violent, War Zone is The Punisher movie fans were probably waiting for (with Castle's skull insignia front and centre throughout) , so it's box-office failure is especially sad given that chances of any sequels have been torpedoed as well.

Well, another re-boot is probably a couple of years away. After all, good murderous vigilantes never die, they just get resurrected.