Best movie of this year hands down!

Pretty Good

Just perfect...

A Masterpiece!

Most people don't even know that this movie exists and that's just sad.I didn't watch it til recently because I assumed Lundgren would suck, he usually does. I was very wrong, this is Lundgren's best work ever.He is a very believable Punisher, a much better performance than Rocky IV.For a low budget movie,they hit a home run.It's basically the same movie as the newer Punisher flick,it's just his origin.This never had a theatrical release and Marvel really dropped the ball on the that one.It's their character and it's a good movie, they should have done whatever needed to be done for this to be released.It would have been a huge success but they just let it go straight to video.What a shame. Watch it.

Well, this is a pretty much loathed movie. I can't seem to find many people who like it. Even the review books say it's rubbishy. However, I enjoyed it from the start. Sure, it's a completely brainless movie, all action and violence and no characterisation or plot, but it's fun. The budget is well used with lots of explosions and shooting. The actors are cool and the violence is played hard and fast, sometimes shockingly (one scene of a guy getting knives driven into his wrists reminded me of the beginning of the Fulci gore flick THE BEYOND). It's based on a comic book, and as comic-to-film adaptations go, this is a pretty accurate one in my opinion. It LOOKS like a comic made real, without being over-the-top and cheesy.Dolph Lundgren takes the lead role of the silent killer, so a lot of people immediately hated the movie. Me, I don't mind Lundgren, and I figure he's pretty good here as the moody psycho killer, certainly looking a lot different to what he usually does. Lundgren has plenty of post-COMMANDO one liners to deal with, some of which are successful. Louis Gossett Jr. is the lone policeman hot on his trail, and puts in a solid - if undistinguished - performance. Jeroen Krabbe is the main villain, a ruthless cold-blooded mob boss recently released from jail, and is very good. Kim Miyori steals her scenes as the sadistically evil Yakuza leader who takes delight in torturing and butchering her victims. One other character I liked was the British failed actor tramp who becomes the Punisher's sidekick, he was pretty funny.The introduction of the Yakuza gang paves the way for a fair share of martial arts action to enjoy, plus lots of cool weapons. The film takes the form of a string of violent set-pieces linked together by scenes furthering the plot (usually themselves involving death and destruction). Highlights include a bus chase, a dockyard shoot-out, a fight in an abandoned carnival, and the finale which sees Lundgren and Krabbe teaming up to infiltrate the enemy base and laying waste to literally dozens of villains in a very bloody fashion. As I mentioned before, this is an extremely violent movie in the style of Paul Verhoeven's movies, with blood exploding from those shot, lots of slashed throats, and impalements. I love it. While admittedly a low-intelligence movie to watch, and hardly memorable or satisfying, THE PUNISHER moves fast and kept me glued to the screen for the hour and a half, so it must have done something right.

Deciding at long last to try their hand at theatrical superhero movies (Howard the Duck doesn't count) Marvel Comics decided to licence The Punisher, one of their grittier properties, to a production and distribution company named New World Films who went on to make Felix the Cat: The Movie. Get out from under the bed. There are lots of things in this movie I like; the acting is good even among smaller characters, Lundgren swaps his usual charisma in for a broken protagonist who has filled the void in his life left by his dead family with a desire for brutal punishment against the guilty, though fans of Lundgren's charisma will get a little bit of it from time to time, the action in this movie is well choreographed, the camera-work is nice with long uninterrupted steady shots, the score is ominous and heavy, the story is also surprisingly well thought out with more grey characters then you'd think, my favourite aspect of the story is that the whole conflict is a result of the unexpected consequences of the Punisher's actions; his five year relentless killing spree has weakened the mafia enough to allow a greater menace to enter the fray, a situation to which there is no easy answer. Now this movie does have some problems; it's a tad goofy at times like the unnecessary comic relief sidekick who is pretty useless, the movie also feels a bit slow at times, it never stops completely but it feels like it moves slowly at times, and I would be loath to forget the horrendously awkward and outdated Japanese stereotypes. All in all this is a movie that barely qualifies as a superhero film but if you love gritty 80s action (The Exterminator, Cobra etc) then you'll like this movie, I'd at least give it a watch.

Dolph Lundgren, either by choice or deficiency, plays Frank Castle (AKA The Punisher) with all the intensity of someone who has a very, very bad hangover. It's one thing for an anti-hero to be laconic, quite another to be almost catatonic. As always, co-star Louis Gossett Jr. gives a performance that suggests that he believes he's in a much better film, here playing Castle's former Partner Jake Berkowitz (I'm guessing the character was named before Mr. Gossett was cast).This first cinematic incarnation of Marvel's 'The Punisher' is moderately diverting when something is being kicked, cut, shot or blown up, but sadly they decided to let people talk as well.