clemente

I saw it this afternoon and I liked the flick. I wasn't in love with it, but there was more than enough in the movie to keep me entertained. What could have pushed this movie into bad territory would have been if it hadn't been consistent in its treatment of Castle and the supporting characters. But early on it set up its rules and it played by them.

What I really didn't care for in the movie was the godawful score....it sounded like it had been ripped from a soap opera. The score combined with some first time director missteps from Jonathan Hensliegh led to some scenes playing worse than they should have.

Overall though, I a decent way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.

Get Me Coffee

Punisher 2 could be way hot ....if......they add a few more Millions, have a better director, and a better story.

You easly see that this movie didn't cost much when watching it.

I did like the Punisher "theme" song.

Jackskeleton

I just wanted to see more street thugs get it. Show the punisher continue the work after the revenage.

matome

My Marvel ratings:

X2: A
X1: A-
Blade: A-
Spiderman: B
Blade 2: B-
Daredevil: C+
Hulk: D

Punisher: not seen yet, but will

JACOB

X2: A
X1: C
Blade 1: D
Spider-man: A
DD: C
Hulk: A+

DC COMICS:
SUPERMAN: A+
SUPERMAN 2: A+
BATMAN: A
BATMAN RETURNS: A
FOREVER: F
B&R: F

my ratings for both marvel and DC.

JACOB

Get Me Coffee

Hey Jacob, you forgot another F rating! Yup Superman 3!

Mimecrime

Let's go through things in one run instead of making several replies:

Yes, it was comic John Pinette playing Mr. Bumpo.

The purpose of the neighbors was to bring Frank back from wanting to die. Sure, Joan didn't mean that he should stay alive to continue killing people, but that's how Frank took it.

Speaking of the neighbors - while I liked their inclusion, I wish they had more scenes (and I'm hoping for some deleted scenes when the DVD comes out). Joan was NOTHING like the comic books, Bumpo was moderate, and Spacker Dave was simply awesome.

Anyone that says that Daredevil and Hulk are the best Marvel comic movies is a person that doesn't read comics. While all movies have to take some liberties with the characters, the Hulk and DD movies trashed the very core of the character. For that, they sucked, and they sucked hard.

What didn't suck? Punisher. What a breath of fresh air after the last two Marvel stink-fests! Was it perfect? No. But it was good. Enough to make me want to buy it when it hits DVD.

Corvin

EvilConradBain

What about a little DC Comics gem known as Supergirl?

darqleo

Just got back from seeing it... and it's very good if you view it in the right mindset.

This is obviously loosely based on Garth Ennis' Punisher, which means a lot of comedy and wackiness mixed in with super violence and one-liners which seems to have put off a lot of people. The Russian, Joan, Bumpo, Spacker Dave are all from the comics. I can't remember if Harry Heck is in the comics or not, but he fits right in with the rest of the wacked out characters. So obviously this wasn't going to be your normal action movie. And to reinforce again, his neighbors are there in the story to bring Frank back to knowing what it is to be "human" again. They throw a wrench into things where he starts becoming acquainted with his emotions again, even if it's for a short while. Go read the graphic novel WELCOME BACK, FRANK and you'll understand better. The rest of the film it looks like the filmmakers just changed to how they want it. It didn't really bother me because in the end, The Punisher is all about a vigilante with a skull on his chest killing people to revenge his family (and keep going and going after that) not matter what the location was. Heck, in the last 20 minutes, they even had the voice over ala the comics.

The producers/directors vision for this project was to make a low budget action movie similar to the one's in the 70's/80's. No CGI, no wire work, no gee-whiz stuntwork, no MTV editing or wannabegoth video "look". And no PG-13 bullsh*t either. This movie was a breath of fresh air compared to all of the over-stylized fare we've been entertained with lately. That stuff is good too, but so is other stuff once in a while.

But having said that, a couple of things that bugged me. Obviously Rebecca Romijn, someone who is generally viewed as one of the prettiest actresses/models out there, wasn't going to pull off a plain jane introvert like Joan The Mouse, so I haven't a clue of why they did. The music score could have been better, but at least it was trying, which is more than I could say for most of Danny Elfman's scores to comic movies (or any movie for that matter). And thank god they didn't go with some BS rap/metal soundtrack all over it.

Overall I liked the movie. It's basically a good starting point movie (The Punisher : Year One. if you will) that can only lead to bigger and better things in the sequels, which is hinted at in the last 20 minutes when Frank fully becomes "The Punisher" skull armor and all, and just destroys everything and everyone.

jekbrown

Im with Dar on this flick. I like the comic series a lot, and I give the writer/director mad cool points for staying relatively faithful to the various comic series. Sure, there are changes about location and crap, but the feel is dead on... gritty brutal butt kicking, with some dark humor tossed in for good measure. The flick has cheesy one liners and somewhat wacky villians... so did the comic. Frank goes over-the-top in kicking azz... just like the comic. I am soooo glad they went R rather than trying to score some extra $ with a lame PG13 version.

as a true fan of both the Punisher comic books and the 70s/80s action flick sub-genre I really liked this movie. A solid B+. A sequel where they dont have to worry so much about establishing characters and stuff will be great IMO, and Jane seems psyched about doing another one. He was a great choice to play Frank Castle... I dunno who did the crappy studio/promo stills of Jane as the Punisher that were released... but they make him look like a wuss and in the flick he DEFINITELY isn't lookin that wussy. Anyone skeptical about TJ as FC and wondering if they should see it or not because of that skepticism need not worry, he was great. Travolta was not as good playing the relatively calmy villian as he was playing an over-the-top one in Face/Off but I thought he did quite well considering the character personality. The supporting cast did a good job as well IMO, especially Will Patton who really should get more bad guy roles and I even liked Kevin Nash as the Russian. The neighbors characters/scenes could have been better written IMO, but its really not that big a deal... they are no more shallow or pointless than other secondary characters in your standard 70/80s action cheese flick.

As a former marine grunt and current armed security officer I really appreciated how they tried to keep the guns relatively realistic. Unlike lots of action flicks, the reality is that most hand-held guns dont hold an infinite amount of bullets. In this flick Frank does relatively realistic combat reloads, and the effects that the guns have on things/bad guys aren't over the top to the point of being silly (ala Desperado or something).

lastly, I thought Hansliegh (sp?) did a respectable job as director/writer. It coulda been better, but for the guys 1st film, I thought he did a commendable job of staying true to the character and making something that isnt the same old CGI-rubber-looking marvel character doing silly fake looking poop. Ive seen plenty of respectable experienced directors do worse on their 1st attempt.

anyway, I dug it. IMO, the sequel will rock, especially if they...

a) move to NYC where we all wanna see frank clean'in up.
b) intro Micro
c) use Jigsaw as the main villian
d) bring in the battle van
e) do a lot more of the voice overs when frank is "at work"... that is one thing that really made the comics a joy to read... and the way they did do it at the end of the 2004 film proves that it would work in film as well. I dont need the whole story narrated, but that narration gave the comic read insight into franks character that really made a difference.

j

Tarantino

I didn't recognize any of these characters from the comics...maybe they're newer?

I had the original Punisher comics, like...100 of them.

QuiGonJosh

sorry guys its an opinion...get over it...I think Spiderman is a steaming pile...dont like the character and never have and the movie sucked! I would rather watch Hulk or DareDevil over X1 or X2...because well...I've always been more of a Hulk and DareDevil comic fan than X-Men...but none of these comic movies come close to Superman: The Movie...now thats a movie! Classic all the way!

Trigger

That looks like fun...

Batman: C
Batman Returns: D-
Batman Forever: F
Batman and Robin: F-
Blade: B-
Blade 2: C
Daredevil: D-
Hulk: B-
Spawn: F
Spider-man: A-
Supergirl: C
Superman: A-
Superman 2: B+
Superman 3: B
Superman 4: F-
X-Men: D-
X-Men 2: D

Others...

Ghost World: D+
Darkman: B+
Darkman 2: D
Darkman 3: C+
The Phantom: D
Unbreakable: A-
LXG: F
Hellboy: C-
The Shadow: F
Dick Tracy: F
Mystery Men: C+
Conan The Barbarian: C+
Conan The Destroyer: B-
Red Sonja: D
The Crow: A-
The Crow-City of Angels: C+
The Crow-Salvation: F

That's all I could think of.

mdc3000

since everyone else is ranking Marvel flicks, I'll join in.

BLADE 2 - A
X2 - A
SPIDER-MAN - B+
X-MEN - B+
BLADE - B
DAREDEVIL - B
HULK - B
THE PUNISHER - C

MATT

EvilConradBain

You have way too much free time. And Dick Tracy was great. Way better than Mystery Men. Also, technically Unbreakable isn't based on a comic book. Didn't even know there was a Darkman 3.

TNAfan

Yes, you are absolutely right!

It was a pile of crap!

Trigger

Do I have too much free time because I have seen all those films or because I graded them or because I said it looked like "fun"? I see alot of movies, what can I say...

Dick Tracy was crap, Mystery Men was mostly boring but it was allright, and Unbreakable isn't the only movie in that list that wasn't based on an actual comic but I included it because it's about a superhero of sorts and comic books. Darkman 3 was better than 2... but maybe a C+ was being generous. I haven't seen it in a long time.

db27

liked it, dont' know anything bout the comic.

movie was fun and entertaining, nothing groundbreaking but then again I didn't expect that anyway.

steebo777

My $0.02:

BLADE - B-
BLADE 2 - B+
DAREDEVIL - B
HULK - A-
THE PUNISHER - C-
SPIDER-MAN - A
X-MEN - B+
X2 - A-

Jackskeleton

this grading thing is getting annoying. Discussion, not compare and contrast hero films. Stay on Punisher subject matter. sheesh.

EvilConradBain

Dick Tracy was great. It was inventive and colorful. It actually was a comic book. The performances were great. I think it won a couple of academy awards for set design and costumes too. One of the best comic book adaptations ever. Batman was great as well the Joel Schumacher ones were a little cartoony for me though. Spider-Man was a good start but not a great movie. I think the sequels will be better.

Jackskeleton

While I love Burton, His batman was certainly not the best comic <-> film adaptation. first off you have the batmobile with guns.. Batman and guns do not mix. Though it was the best batman adaptation as the schumacher ones were waay to over the top in trying to look and feel like a comic book.

DonnachaOne

I watched The Punisher last night.

Now, I've only ever read one Punisher comic (the Spider-man he appeared in from 1974), and I played the video game from ten years ago. So I knew it was about a soldier/cop/agent of some sort that had his family destroyed by bad guys, and thus he went to get revenge against said bad guys and all their kind. Dark, gritty, harsh. Whereas Batman and Spider-man and whatnot never ever kill the bad guys, this guy does, and that makes him a very different superhero. Did I have a good grasp of the character?

So why is the film so light-hearted? Now, I don't mean it's all laugh-a-minute hi-jinks or whatever, but the tone is so much lighter than this sort of material deserves - am I alone in this opinion? Punisher lives with a motley assortment of comic relief misfits. Several events occur that are supposed to be funny and jovial. Many of the villains are caricatures that could just as easily be in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy.

Several things the Punisher does are just plain odd. The whole "I'll make Saint believe his wife and the secretly-gay henchman that he has known like a brother for ten years are having an affair with the cunning use of a fake fire hydrant" was just plain laughable. An elaborate plan instead of simply killing Saint's loved ones? Is the Punisher always trying to act like the Riddler?

Why is it that bad guys, when they see the Punisher is wearing a bulletproof vest, continue to shoot him in the torso? Is his head invisible?

Why doesn't the Punisher automatically kill Harry Heck? If Harry's so good, why doesn't Harry just kill the Punisher? How does Harry find the Punisher when Saint & Co. "don't know where he is"? How do Saint & Co. uncover a major undercover investigation and track down Castle in the space of a day, but can't find the Punisher right there in the city? Why does the Punisher stay in the same place for so long when there's people out to kill him? Why does Saint let Livia go to the movies alone when there's a vigilante out to kill him and his loved ones? Who sends an unarmed cartoon russian to kill someone after a well-armed cartoon Johnny Cash didn't work? Why don't the cops put him under surveillance after he lets everyone know he's alive? Why don't the cops stop him?

So much of the film didn't work at all. I don't mind a few plot holes as long as the story is enough to keep the film going, but this film depended so much on tenuous reasoning that it almost fell apart. It's okay to expect the audience not to care about small details - it's another thing to insult an audience's intelligence and fly in the face of all common sense.

I do look forward to the inevitable sequel, however. Jane wasn't bad and I'm sure a better plot and setting - one where they've learned from the mistakes made during the first film - will result in a proper action flick.

jekbrown

actually, the funniest comics I have ever read were from the various Punisher series. It wasn't as good in the film, IMO, as it could have been... but humor is a big part of the comic books and it seemed appropriate for it to be the same in the film.

Killing them wouldn't be enough... the guy is trying to "1-up" what Saint did to him... not just do the same thing in return. He isnt an eye-for-an-eye type of vigilante... more like "you take an eye, I'm gonna chop your whole head off" type of guy.

he only really took a couple of shots to the chest in the entire 2 hours and 4 minutes... most of the enemies rounds simply missed. Believe it or not, he gets shot at (and missed) about 10x more in almost every issue of the regular series or war journal. It isnt really mentioned at all in the flick, but in the comics the whole point of the skull-on-the-chest motiff is to attract the enemies attention... to give them an aimpoint that is the most heavily armored. At any rate, its not like he got shot in the chest 847984398 times in the flick or anything.

probably because this flicks style is basically a tribute to 70s/80s cheesy action flicks.. and no one ever just walks up and shoots someone... good guy or bad guy.. they always say something back/forth first.

maybe he has a habit of gloating over his victims... maybe he takes pleasure in their pleas for mercy... who knows.

Saint is basically a crooked white collar type criminal... he doesnt have a large underworld network like a mafia guy would. Harry is a professional hitman/killer.... naturally, he is better at finding people that don't want to be found.

probably because Saints information comes from white collar criminal type sources that could get info about a government op, but couldnt find a guy livin' in da hood even if they wanted too.

not exactly sure what the entire time duration of the film is supposed to be... but from the point where he tosses saints money to the final scene, it might have only been 3 or 4 days. Only person I can think of that moves (well, moved) more often than that is Saddam Hussein. lol!

ego, the guy has been untouchable for years and has plenty of henchmen running around. On the other hand, we are talking about a man who was willing to kill his wife without much of a moral dilemma... and we never see saint running around town by himself... so maybe he knows danger is out there but is more worried about #1 than anything else. lol!

the Russian doesnt use weapons... never needed them. All his other hits he just used his physical power to kill the other guy and we can only assume that some of those other victims had guns too...

he has enough cop friends to stiffle any of that kinda poop.

j