The Punisher

Pariah

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Just saw The Punisher. Here are some quick thoughts:

The Good
~Thomas Jane pulls it off. Physically, he IS Frank Castle. Very Believable.
~Stylistically, a very cool movie.
~They didn’t hold back on the violence.
~The Skull on the “uniform” is very prominent.
~The Russian.
~Rebecca Romain Stamos looks better than she ever has, in my opinion. (by the way, did you know she just dumped John Stamos? Yeah, super-model/Hollywood starlet dumps actor from Full House and bad long distance commercials. Huh. Didn’t see that coming.)
~The Punisher most definitely punished rather than simply killing. You’ll see. His punishment was very cruel.

The Bad
~Thomas Jane’s “tough guy” voice.
~John Travolta many times sounded like Dr. Evil, to me.
~Too many cutesy one-liners.
~Didn’t care for the brief introduction of alcoholism.
~Frank should have killed more folks than just those he was taking revenge on. Maybe they could have had him come across a guy robbing a 7-11 or something and had him dealt out some punishment there (although I guess that would make him unsympathetic, which is where I’d like them to take the character if there’s a sequel).

Bottom Line
If you're not a fan of the comic, I'm not sure you'll like the movie. It has it's faults as a film...a number of them...but as a fanboy, I liked it.

Best line
“Go with God, Frank.”
“I think God’s sitting this one out.”

Looking Ahead
The villain for the next movie has already been decided upon, appearently. It's Jigsaw.

Misc.
If you haven’t yet, go get the comic “Punisher: The End.” Garth Ennis (the writer) has issues.
 

mdamien13

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Pariah said:
If you haven’t yet, go get the comic “Punisher: The End.” Garth Ennis (the writer) has issues.

You say that like it's a bad thing! Keep in mind Garth Ennis also wrote "The Punisher kills the Marvel Universe" and the Preacher series. I liked "Punisher: The End" quite a bit. Definitely a nice, nihilistic little commentary on everything going on in the world right now.

Have you seen Dreamcatcher yet? Does Thomas Jane do the same voice he did in that movie?

Glad to hear that a fanboy will enjoy the movie - going to see this tonight.
 

Chaplin

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mdamien13 said:
Have you seen Dreamcatcher yet? Does Thomas Jane do the same voice he did in that movie?

Seeing Dreamcatcher is like having a frontal lobotomy. Just a warning for those who haven't seen it.
 
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Pariah

Pariah

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mdamien13 said:
You say that like it's a bad thing! Keep in mind Garth Ennis also wrote "The Punisher kills the Marvel Universe" and the Preacher series. I liked "Punisher: The End" quite a bit. Definitely a nice, nihilistic little commentary on everything going on in the world right now.

Have you seen Dreamcatcher yet? Does Thomas Jane do the same voice he did in that movie?

Glad to hear that a fanboy will enjoy the movie - going to see this tonight.
Ennis' issues are what make it great! I've been looking at picking up the "Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe" on eBay--man, it's pricey! I took a comic book hiatus in the mid 90's and missed it when it came out. This is probably the wrong time to get it. I'll wait until it cools off, I guess.

Haven't seen Dreamcatcher, so I can't say if it's the same voice. I almost laughed when I heard him do the voice, but then I got used to it.

After mulling on the movie overnight, I like it even more now. But, I'm alos even more convinced that non-fanboys are going to hate it--particularly snooty film-types like Chaplin. ;)
 

Chaplin

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Pariah said:
After mulling on the movie overnight, I like it even more now. But, I'm alos even more convinced that non-fanboys are going to hate it--particularly snooty film-types like Chaplin. ;)

Hey! I liked Hellboy! :D
 

Dan H

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The Punisher wasn't bad. It certainly wasn't any worse than the Dolph Lundgren one . . . ugh.
 

mdamien13

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Saw this Friday night.

Not a great movie but it was pretty damn fun. I thought Thomas Jane was a perfect Punisher (and yes, he did do the same voice he did in Dreamcatcher) and Travolta was good as Saint. Will Patton continues to be one of my favorite character actors. Laura Harring and Rebecca Romijn - WOWZA!

The biggest problem I had with the movie was the direction. Moments in the film that should have been more emotionally poignant were handled very roughly and overall the film just didn't flow well. This is all on the director (who is a first-timer if I recall correctly). The script wasn't bad it was just very uneven and felt rushed. The influences of Mad Max were unmistakeable.

Luckily this movie had enough fun kills to keep things interesting. It felt very much like a throwback revenge movie and I was very glad to see minimal CGI and slow motion. Personal highlight - the Punisher vs. the Russian. Hell yeah!
 

Chaplin

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mdamien13 said:
Saw this Friday night.

Not a great movie but it was pretty damn fun. I thought Thomas Jane was a perfect Punisher (and yes, he did do the same voice he did in Dreamcatcher) and Travolta was good as Saint. Will Patton continues to be one of my favorite character actors. Laura Harring and Rebecca Romijn - WOWZA!

The biggest problem I had with the movie was the direction. Moments in the film that should have been more emotionally poignant were handled very roughly and overall the film just didn't flow well. This is all on the director (who is a first-timer if I recall correctly). The script wasn't bad it was just very uneven and felt rushed. The influences of Mad Max were unmistakeable.

Luckily this movie had enough fun kills to keep things interesting. It felt very much like a throwback revenge movie and I was very glad to see minimal CGI and slow motion. Personal highlight - the Punisher vs. the Russian. Hell yeah!
It's your week dude.
 
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Pariah

Pariah

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Dear Powers-That-Be,

Please make The Punisher into an HBO series.

Love,

Pariah
 
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