The Punisher (2004)

Former good special forces soldier and current good FBI agent Frank Castle who is about to retire (uh oh) and has a bright future (look out!) has his entire family (father, mother, wife, kid, third cousins, great-grandfather - the lot) killed by the Tampa mafia. After recovering from his near death, he sets about punishing those who were responsible. Unfortunately, he takes a while to do it and the audience is punished by the screen time given to three people who live in Frank's apartment building.

Frank Castle (Tom Jane)
Howard Saint (John Travolta)
Quentin Glass (Will Patton)
Bobby Saint/John Saint (James Carpinello)
Micky Duka (Eddie Jemison)
Livia Saint (Laura Harring)
Maria Castle (Samantha Mathis)
Will Castle (Marcus Johns)
Betty Castle (Bonnie Johnson)
Candelaria (Veryl Jones)
Frank Castle, Sr. (Roy Scheider)
The Russian (Kevin Nash)
Bumpo (John Pinette)
Joan (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos)
Spacker Dave (Ben Foster)
Harry Heck (Mark Collie)

Year: 2004
Censorship Rating: MA15+ (for strong violence, language, sexual references)

"The Punisher" has the distinction of being the only recent Marvel film that doesn't have a cameo of Stan Lee in it. This sets it apart from the other Marvel films in this current crop, with suits the tone of "The Punisher" just fine, because the Punisher is a different type of Marvel character.

Firstly, he is unashamedly a vigilante who kills criminals. Secondly, he has no powers. He is a bit of an odd duck within the Marvel universe for these reasons. Many comic book readers see him as the first dark mainstream hero - he fights the good fight against villains, but violently and with lethal force. Unlike some heroes who regularly beat their enemies into unconsciousness and send them to jail, the Punisher puts a bullet into them and puts them down for good. He certainly isn't a hero in the mold cast by Lee at Marvel and I can understand why Lee would be uncomfortable appearing in "The Punisher" film as a result.

Still, it's a bit odd not to see Smilin' Stan pop into frame at some point in this movie. Maybe he just didn't want to go to Tampa.

The movie opens in Tampa, Florida [and it was here that many people lost it with this movie. "Tampa?" they'd go. "The Punisher operates out of Tampa?" and burst out laughing. Since I don't know US cities at all, this setting didn't phase me]. Two guys - Mr Smooth and The Dork - arrive at the docks in an expensive car for a midnight meeting. They are greeted by a middle European man who is unhappy to see two men where he expected one, but he still starts to go ahead with the selling of illegal weapons. Another group comes in with the guns. Just as the deal is finishing up, the cops show up. Middle European Man gets shot by the FBI while Mr Smooth gets shot in the crossfire between the gun runners and the FBI. The cops win the firefight and the bodies are shipped away.

Back at the makeshift operational headquarters, the bodies are examined. Middle European man sits up - he is Frank Castle, undercover agent, 'killed' on purpose to cover up his involvement. This was his last mission; after this one, he's retiring [a retiring cop? That's a bad sign for his health...]. As he leaves, it turns out that Mr Smooth was Bobby Saint, "Howard Saint's son".

To some melodramatically swelling music, a car pulls up at a mansion. Some men get out and talk to people on the balcony. The audience doesn't hear what's said, but a glass gets broken and a woman collapses. Returning, a man who kind of looks like Bobby Saint orders some henchmen to "bail him out and bring him to the club".

The Dork leaves police headquarters [I wonder if it really is this easy for someone involved in an illegal guns buy and shoot-out resulting in homicide to get bailed out so quickly - it's still dark, meaning less than a few hours have gone by... but perhaps we aren't meant to ask these kind of questions]. He's grabbed by some goons who drag him into the car.

At the Saints and Sinners Club, the Dork (who's name is Micky Duka) is used as a soccer ball by the goons for a bit. (This bit of rough play is watched over by Quentin Glass, the Saint's chief enforcer [Glass also gets some early style points for telling Mickey that if he was to be killed, it would have been in prison and in a way that would be "deeply pornographic", which is just a fantastic description for the imagery it conjures up].) Mickey is being very cooperative [as you would be if the alternative was being a soccer ball] but Howard Saint shows up, wanting to see the man responsible for his son's death die. He then shoots a nameless goon [who is seen to be Bobby's minder in a deleted scene, but as it stands in the movie such a relationship is just inferred] for not taking care of Bobby.

Cut to a blonde woman who's organising the packing up of household possessions. Frank Castle appears in the doorway and tells the blonde - his wife - that his undercover days are over. He then goes out and tells his resentful pre-teen son that "this is the last time" they'll move house since they are going to London. [Let's see - a retiring cop who has a loving family and a bright future? The odds really are stacked up against Castle here!].

In a mortuary, Mr Smooth is on a slab with Howard Saint looking tearfully on. Howard waxes mournfully over his son, indicating that Howard used to dress Bobby "until he was thirteen" [which perhaps explains why Bobby is on the slab at this point]. Saint wants to know who was responsible for his son's death - the FBI says he should leave the investigation "to the professionals".

Saint uses his resources as crime boss to investigate the death of his son. [I mean, this is a movie, and when has a movie character ever left an investigation to the professionals?]

In Puerto Rico, Frank and family relax, doing ocean-y and beach-y things [and you get to see how much Tom Jane worked out for this movie]. A black man in the distance is pointed out as a "witch doctor" named Candelaria [in an obvious 'this will be important later' moment]. The whole Castle clan is gathered at a beach house for their first family reunion in five years. Frank plans to make up for all the time he missed with his wife and son. [Again - a retired cop with a large loving family and personally important plans for his future at a landmark meeting with people he cares about? This just HAD to end badly for him...].

The funeral of Mr Smooth ends. Glass shows Saint the file on Frank Castle and tells him that he is with the entire Castle family in Puerto Rico. Saint orders the hit. His wife Livia gives him pause - she wants the entire Castle clan dead. Howard agrees and Glass goes off to make it so.

Back to Puerto Rico - Castle's wife indicates she's ready to have another kid [dear god! The fates really are lined up against Frank! All that's left if for him to get a winning lottery ticket that guarantees his financial future and he'd be a dead man for sure]. Castle's son arrives to give Frank a t-shirt that is meant to "ward off evil spirits" - it's got a big skull on the front. Meanwhile, Saint's goons are in Puerto Rico and heading towards the Castle compound.

Inside the Castle beach houses, everything we see shows idyllic family life (albeit one where the drinking seems to start very early in the morning). Frank's wife and kid head off to the boathouse for ... some reason ... while Frank goes to look at his Dad's gun collection (some of which have been specially modified and are "real naildrivers". Wonder if they show up again...). The goons attack, slaughtering everyone in the main area. Frank takes out a few goons, but his father gets killed in the process. [We are shown the goons shooting the Castle family as they attempt to run away, ride away on a motorbike and sail away on a boat. In some cases it looks like the Castle family is being killed by a militant wing of the Fun Police rather than hunted by goons. Well, at least to me.] Castle's wife and kid escape the area in a jeep, but are spotted by both the goons and Frank as they escape. The goons get in another jeep while Frank hops on a motorbike.

After a bit of a chase, the wife and kid have their jeep overturned. Panicking and injured, the kid suggest they head out to "Grandpa's boat" at the end of the pier. Unfortunately, it's an extra wide pier and the fleeing pair are run over by the goon's jeep. Castle arrives a moment or two later, but is too late to save them. Distraught, he embraces their [oddly bloodless, especially given what will come later] bodies for a final time. The goons come back and Frank gets shot; unfortunately, he runs out of ammo too. Aforementioned goons (including Howard's other son [which just strikes me as overly risky - how would Daddy Saint feel if he died on this mission?]) kick the stuffing out of Frank, shoot him a bit more and then blow up the pier he was lying on. Frank gets thrown into the water. The goons, confident that they've killed Frank [fools! Did you actually see his body? Confirm the kill?] leave.

Castle manages to get to shore [leaving a lot of blood in the water, which makes me wonder if there are sharks in Puerto Rico] and collapse. In the afternoon, Castle gets saved by the witch doctor Candelaria.

Back in Tampa, the Saints and Sinners club is packed. The Dork is chief valet. As the Saints go marching in [sorry] to the club, they give the Dork a paper - the lead article is the slaughter of the Castle family, with over 30 people dead.

In the club, the Saints (Howard, Livia and John) toast "to a score settled". Howard does business while head goon Glass takes Livia Saint dancing. Howard watches this for a bit. Later at the Saint mansion, Howard gives Livia diamond earrings and they celebrate the avenging of their son.

Back in Puerto Rico, a now-bearded Frank Castle uses a crutch to walk around the boarded-up remains of his family's beach compound. He retrieves his family guns and finds on the beach that shirt with the skull on it. He gives the crutch back to Candelaria and sets off to Tampa in hobo chic.

[Aside: It's nice to know that even Frank has been disabled long enough to grow a beard, his father's guns have been left safe and sound in an abandoned house, in full and open view within a display case. Obviously the police who investigated the murders of 30 people - as reported on the paper - don't do things like collect weapons from crime scenes. It's also nice to know that people will come along and board up the windows to indicate that the place is abandoned, but not loot it bare. People must be particularly honest and trusting in Puerto Rico.]

At some delapidated-looking-on-the-surface-but-really-pretty-comfortable apartments, we see Castle setting up an armoury and booby trapping his room. [Apparently it is very easy in Tampa for dead men to get hold of lots of different types of guns, which is less than comforting to know.] A woman working in the garden next to the apartment see Castle bring back a lemon [originally I described it as a 'bomb', but that might cause some confusion given Castle's activities] of a car, which he then modifies and armour plates. The other residents of the apartment - the woman, a fat man and a computer nerd with lots of piercings - stand around and talk about what Castle is doing.

Castle suits up and heads out. He grabs the Dork Micky Duka [Duka tells Castle, "You're supposed to be dead!" but takes it pretty well, all things considered] and intimidates hims (through some 'fake' torture involving a blow torch, a steak and an icy pole that's actually pretty clever) into spilling the beans on the Saints. Duka's screams cause some consternation between the fat man and the computer nerd who live next door to Castle, but they choose to do nothing about it. [A good thing too, because if they had, Castle would be off to jail and the movie would be over.]

After Micky gives up the info and Frank lets him down, Micky agrees to help Frank [huh? Someone who just abducted and psychologically tortured him? I'd have been a bit more hesitant myself. Boy, Stockholm syndrome sure works fast] since he also "hates the Saints". Micky explains the routines of the Saints (we get Micky's voiceover while we see the Saints in action). Frank follows them round to confirm their routines, taking pictures as he goes. It is during this reconnaisance phase that Castle discovers that head goon Glass is gay. [I thought "The Punisher" handles this aspect of Glass' character very well - he's queer, but this doesn't stop - or cause - him in being a sadistic criminal enforcer. It's just part of Glass that Frank uses against him because he's kept it a secret, not because of any moralising within the film about Glass' lifestyle.]

Frank announces he's back in Tampa by pulling down his gravestone and leaving it buried on the green that Howard Saint plays golf on - the date of Frank's death is scratched out for Howard to see. Castle then appears to the FBI boss and explains that he's a little bit more than "upset" by the death of his entire family and how there have been no arrests for it. [Frank Castle's training in the US Army obviously taught him that the element of surprise means nothing when you have big guns.]

To round out his busy day, Castle then breaks into Howard Saint's money laundering operation and forces the goons to throw most of the money out of a window into the street, where it happily collected by members of the general public [but Frank does keep some of the money for himself - I guess outfitting cars with armour and acquiring guns isn't cheap]. Leaving the building, Frank is caught in the lobby by two heavies, but is faster on the draw and kills them.

Back at the apartments, the computer nerd has accessed Frank's military file so he can tell the audience just how badass Castle is. [This section also starts off the 'we love Frank' obsession that the computer nerd and fat man have for the rest of the movie, which borders on the homoerotic.]

In his apartment, Castle drinks himself into a stupor while remembering his family and their deaths. [Actually, the emotional strength of this scene makes it look more like Frank is hitting the bottle after having a prissy fight with his girlfriend rather than to cope with the brutal, bloodless death of his most beloved.]

Howard Saint is a bit annoyed at Castle giving away his money, but his goons can't find him. Saint's backers - the Toro brothers - are unhappy that they lost $50 million in one day. [The amount of money that Castle had thrown of the window looked more like $1 m at most ie it wasn't that much, but we'll take their word for it.] Saint guarantees that the next shipment will be safe "with all I've got", which satisfies the Toros. Glass tells Saint he's brought in "a pro from Memphis - the best" to take out Castle.

Back in the apartments [boy, I can't get enough of this electrifying apartment action!], one of the woman's partners is drunkenly raging at her door, screaming to be let in. Nerdboy and Fatso wimpily try to get the guy to leave, which ends up with Nerdboy being slapped around a little. Castle shows up and takes the drunken guy out in one punch. Nerdboy falls further in love with Castle as a result. The woman then unburdens her "I pick bad men" spiel at Frank and we find out that the woman is Joan, Nerdboy is Dave and Fatman is Bumpo. [Poor Frank - all he did is help out, now he's got to listen to these idiots talk to him.] Talking about Frank's past, Joan tells him "don't let your memories kill you". Frank replies, "They won't kill me."

As Livia Saint goes out to her Thursday night movie, Frank breaks into her car. He calls Glass on her carphone (disguising his voice using a scrambler), offering to sell him incriminating photos of Glass and his boyfriend. Frank sends Glass to the Windam Hotel, then drives Livia's car to the Windam as well and parks it illegally. Once it's got a ticket, he returns the car to its original parking space (he'd marked the space with a fake fire hydrant so no-one would park their [good thing everyone in Tampa obeys the law]). Glass is left stood up at the hotel.

Back home, Howard wonders where Glass went. Micky says he saw Glass at the Windham Hotel. Glass denies it was him when Howard asks him about it.

At the diner where Joan works, Bumpo, Dave and Frank are the only customers [great - you'd go to work to get away from these idiots, but they'd just follow you. How do they earn money to actually afford to keep their apartments anyway?]. A man enters the diner, takes out his guitar (it says 'Harry Heck' on the guitar case, which I assume is his name), plays Frank a song, tells him "I'm gonna sing it at your funeral" and leaves. [Yes, that's exactly what happens. Yes, it's just as funktastic as it sounds.]

Later, Frank is at a bridge waiting for it to lower so he can pass. Frank's car gets rammed by Harry Heck's, and Harry puts a lot of bullets into Frank's car as well - the bullets get stopped by the armour plating. Frank escapes across the bridge, but is forced to dodge a child chasing a ball across the road [of course that would happen right then] and clips another car. This sees Frank's car roll over. Harry drives up to the accident. Harry's got a gun; Frank's got a knife. Frank wins because his knife has a springloaded blade that hits Harry in the neck from a few feet away and Harry dies without getting a shot off. [Such knives actually exist, but it's a good thing for Frank that Harry died so quicky.]

At the beach dropoff of the Toro's money, John Saint hears a beeping and finds a bomb. He just manages [after appearing a little slow on the uptake as to what a beeping, bomb-like in appearance thing that he finds might be] to dive out of the boat before it explodes. John sees Castle watching things from the cliffs above.

Howard Saint is very unhappy with these events. The Toros show up to collect on Howard's promise; Saint welches on the deal [a dishonest head villain? I'm shocked!]. Irritated, the Toros leave [both Howard's presence and the entire movie, actually. Apparently losing $100 million dollars is the kind of thing that criminals end friendships over, but don't actually seek restitution for]. Saint orders Glass to "make Castle dead; call The Russian". [But if the guy from Memphis was "the best", what does this make The Russian?]

Back at the Deadbeat Apartments, Frank is conned into having dinner with the others. Joan reveals she was an alcoholic while Dave and Bumpo engage in what can charitably described as weak komedy. Frank and Joan are left together so that Joan can hit on Castle, but Frank brushes her off. Frank goes back to her apartment.

Bumpo, Dave and Joan end up in Bumpo's apartment miming and dancing along to some loadly played opera. Frank hears a knock at the door. He's unprepared for it to be the Russian, and so commences the best part of this movie - the drag out fight between Castle and the Russian that is played as blackly humourous. Frank is on the receiving end of the worst of it and gets stabbed, almost blown up when his booby traps don't work as expected, thrown through walls etc until eventually he ends up in Bumpo's apartment. Castle manages to throw boiling water into the face of the Russian and tackle him down the stairs - the end result is that the Russian gets a broken neck, after which Frank passes out.

Frank's in bad shape and the other apartment residents do their best to patch him up. The Saint goons show up as well, so Bumpo and Dave hide Joan and Frank in Frank's maintainance elevator [boy, lucky he had that installed in the middle of his room rather than just using the stairs like everyone else. Sure, it's superficially there so he can work on his car, but this is never seen; rather, the elevator is there so he can hide in it when injured]. Glass wants to know where Castle is and tries to torture the information out of Dave by pulling out his piercings with needlenose pliers [Ouch. Double-ouch. This bit, which goes on for a bit longer than you'd expect, is pretty cringe inducing.] Dave doesn't talk. Glass and the goons leave [one goon is left behind, but we all know he's dead meat as soon as Frank feels better].

Howard organises a Castle hunt and calls in some hitmen.

Frank comes back to consciousness and kills the remaining goon [told you]. Dave reveals to his man-crush that he didn't talk because Castle is "family". Frank packs up for his assault [conveniently, the goons left all his weapons behind]. Joan gets all teary and doesn't want Frank to die. When he leaves, she's artfully posed by the stairs in a sorrowful state.

By voiceover, Frank gives his "declaration of intent" - he's after "not vengence... punishment". We see him steal Livia's car again and call Glass up about buying those blackmail photos. Frank then calls Micky, who gives Howard the Windam Hotel parking ticket. This leads Howard to start thinking that Glass and Livia are having an affair. Howard goes to Glass' apartment and searches it - he finds one of Livia's diamond earrings in the bed (another of Castle's plants).

Glass arrives back after being stood up at the Windam again and finds Howard waiting for him. After a history lesson, Saint kills Glass - Glass dies confused over what's going on. Saint then goes home and accuses Livia of cheating on him (he doesn't believe Glass is gay), slaps her round, drives with her to the area he first met her and ends up throwing her off a bridge in front of a passing train [which is great timing on Howard's part - perhaps the local mafia give out time tables for just such murders].

Back at the club, Howard pays his hitmen and makes puns about what happened to Glass and Livia when John Saint asks about them. [Actually, I think that John might have some issues about what happened to his own mother, but the film leaves this unexplored.]

Frank sets up his assault on the Saints and Sinners Club. Through the use of a bow, knives, explosives, traps and surprise, Castle takes out the hitmen and does some fairly decent damage to the club. Frank does catch a few rounds that come his way, but it looks like his bulletproof vest absorbs most of the damage [actually, he'd still probably go down after being hit at close range by a shotgun, but he's the 'hero', so we'll let it slide. At least he's not dodging bullets and the bad guys aren't shooting like storm troopers]. Finding John Saint with one arm pinned, Frank sets him up with an anti-personnel mine in this good hand and leaves him to find out how long he can hold it up before it goes off.

Outside, Frank confronts Howard. In the best dialogue of the movie, Howard says that Castle killed his son. There is a scream in the background, followed by an explosion. Frank deadpans, "Both of them". The last remaining Castle beats the last remaining Saint on the draw. Frank tells Howard how he set up Glass and Livia so that Howard would kill them, then ties Howard to the back of a car. The car is sent into a parking lot that Frank has rigged to blow up in the shape of a skull. [1) Someone's seen "The Crow". 2) Someone should have spent more on the CGI of this bit.] Saint is punished by having multiple deaths (ie shot / set on fire / blown up).

Back at the apartments, Frank contemplates suicide, but the memory of his wife stops him. Frank leaves the Deadbeat Apartments [yay!] because he's got "work to do" and the obituaries will be his scorecard. Castle also leaves some of Saint's money behind for the three losers.

The final shot of the movie is Castle posing on a bridge and now calling himself "the Punisher". [Cue set-up for sequel]

Much like "Daredevil", "The Punisher" suffers from the success of Marvel's other, bigger films. Marvel, suddenly being hot property but also being wary of how their characters can appear on screen (eg "Captain America", the unreleased "Fantastic Four") have started to let their characters appear on film again, but under strict conditions. Movie studios, eyeing off the dollar signs of "Spiderman" and "X-Men" are more than happy to snap the rights up for the next Marvel movie release (which must make Avi Arad's job in Hollywood very, very easy).

Unfortunately for Marvel, what the studios then do is release movies without the budgets or planning (and perhaps the established fan base) of "Spiderman" or "X-Men". Instead, "Daredevil" and "The Punisher" are given low budgets, tight (or tightly controlled) schedules and told to go out and catch comic movie lightning in a bottle. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't happen and the end result is something that doesn't really set anyone's world on fire.

Which isn't to say that more money would have made "The Punisher" a better film, but it may have allowed for a bigger vision to be realised. Many people were put off by the idea that Tampa was a city were the Punisher would operate - since I don't know anything about US cities outside of the main ones (NY, LA, Boston et al) this made little difference to me. A couple of extra bucks to move the production to Toronto so it could pretend it was New York may have made some people happy, however. More money would also have allowed for more investigation into Frank Castle the soldier - an important narrative scene that was cut in pre-production at the last minute by the studio, much to the director's horror. But a bigger budget didn't happen and we are left with "The Punisher" as it stands.

As it is, "The Punisher" is a completely acceptable old school b-grade action film. Tom Jane does a good job as Frank Castle, except in the scenes where he's meant to look all torn up over his family's death - he looks more like a heart-broken college student who has just been dumped by his first girlfriend. Jane does manage to pull off some dialogue that could have been very iffy, but his deadpan delivery manages to make these lines work. The action scenes are well managed and the gunplay, in this post-Matrix world, doesn't descend into gratuitous bullet time. Finally, John Travolta won't win any awards for this movie, but he always makes for a watchable villain. Sure, he overacts, but few people overact as well as Travolta, while it's always good to see a name actor (such as he is) willing to take bad guy parts.

Johnathan Hensleigh, the director, does a good job with the material he has. He takes it seriously and aims to pull as much as he can from both the script and the budget. For a writer, he's made a pretty good start towards being a director of comic book films. Hensleigh was originally slated to direct "The Hulk" while "The Punisher 2" is currently on his agenda - it will be interesting to see how he progresses from here.

The downside of this movie are the supporting characters that live in Castle's apartment building. There's the girl, the fat guy and the pierced computer nerd and every moment we spend with them we are waiting for something to happen. They were part of the Punisher graphic novel that the script was based on, but they just suck the life out of the movie. During the scenes when they appear, you just wish the Punisher would go out and kill someone. They aren't interesting characters - in fact, they are sketched so thinly they are barely stereotypes - and they just get in the way of Castle's revenge.

Also the film's tone is a bit odd. The darkly humourous bits - the best parts of the film - seem at odds with the more serious and dramatic sections of "The Punisher", making the whole film seem uneven. These changes to the flow of "The Punisher" can be a bit jarring and also made me wish the entire film (well, a lot more of it anyway) was tainted with black comedy, rather than trying to take itself so seriously in other parts. The best example of this is the fight with the Russian (blackly funny) followed almost immediately by the on-screen torture of Dave (stomach churning). It's a weird mix and one that leaves the audience very unsure about what is coming up next.

All in all it's hard to get excited about "The Punisher". You've probably seen what it has to offer before if you've seen any action movies of the 1980's (I was continually thinking of "Commando" during this movie) but, for a bit of lots-of-things-blow-up escapism, "The Punisher" works. For what it is, it is a well done action movie. You just probably won't remember much about it the next day.

The script was based on the Welcome Back Frank graphic novel written by Garth Ennis with art by Steve Dillon. The key things taken from the graphic novel are 1) the Deadbeat Apartments and 2) the Russian, so it's a mixed bag. From other sources the film obtains Frank's origin as the Punisher (although amped up to a large extent - in the comics it is only Frank's wife and child who die). As for Castle's convoluted plotting against the Saints... well, that could be seen as what the Punisher does in spirit, but in the comics he's usually a bit more brutal and direct. Finally, Howard Saint is a Punisher villain from earlier times, but since they are usually pretty interchangeable, this hardly matters.

Going back to Welcome Back Frank, the apartment is given a less central role than in the movie. This is a a good thing, because they are even more irritating in the graphic novel than in the movie. Ennis has Bumpo, Dave and Joan written as even more extreme stereotypes of losers, with Joan as a timid, scaredy cat kind of woman. Fortunately, the Punisher has more to do in Welcome Back Frank in terms of 'punishing' criminals, so these idiots only play minor roles in the source.

The Russian is also played for laughs in the source material, but he also gets dialogue that's meant to be funny. It isn't, so the movie keeping him silent was a positive step.

[Side note: I have a love / hate thing for Ennis' writing. Some of the stuff he does is absolutely brilliant and cuttingly insightful. Other sections are just low-brow gutter humour and easy gross-outs (of which Dillon is responsible for depicting, so he can catch some blame for as well). This makes almost all of Ennis' work a bit iffy for me, but usually the good outweighs the bad.]

Watchable, but not that memorable. Still, such a start could bode well for future Punisher films.

Tampa! Harry Heck singing Frank a song! The flaming-cars-of-death skull! There are a few bits here and there that just don't work, but overall it isn't that bad.

Date of review: 08 July 2005