Giles

I can see why many people thought this movie failed. My problems with the film:

1) Thomas Jane - he looks great, but the acting - (stop, before you hurt yourself) - his inner voice monologues come across cheesy and lifeless (a tv weatherman's banter comes across with more personality than he does)

2) John Travolta - the bad guy schtick is getting old. His character doesn't come across the least bit threatening, just as a gullable whiny nit-wit.

3) Rebecca Romijn's character and the other two male neighbours are underdeveloped.

4) The films attempt at humour comes across as too forced and throws off the balance of the rest of the film.

5) The music score is attrocious.



The positive:
Will Patton as he usually does in every film he's in, steals the movie. His character's storyline and sadistic tendencies are spot-on, one just cringes at the torture scene where he effortlessly evokes menace and his enactment is shamelessly hindered either by the MPAA's ratings board or by the director himself.

The Antipodean

Hell I should add to the marvel ratings game too since I started the bitchslapping

Spider-Man A-
X2 A-
X-Men B+
Daredevil B
Blade B
Blade 2 B-
Hulk D

Punisher (haven't seen)

maxfisher

K, I saw this two nights ago and have been letting my opinion form before saying anything. After doing so, I must say, I agree with everything Jackskeleton has said in this thread. The movie was a hell of a lot of fun. Not 'great' cinema, but c'mon, did you really expect it to be? Sometimes movies can just be fun. That's ok.

Amel

Finally had time to see this today. I loved it. Deep, dark, intense, dark, and no holds barred. Did I mention dark? Gonna go at least once more. Definite buy on dvd.

RaMMaR

i saw it the other day and thought it was okay. i just wish the entire Russian (Kevin Nash) sequence was omitted. It looked as if they stole a Kato vs. Clousseau fight scene from one of the Pink Panther movies.

Amel

I loved that scene. No guns. No kung fu. No quick, MTV style editing. Just two guys mano a mano. I did kinda keep chuckling at the Russian's shirt though. That shirt cracked me up. And finally, when someone gets boiling hot water, soup, whatever was in that pot, thrown on them, it actually causes damage. I'm so sick of seeing that crap happen and the person just screaming for a second and wipes it off.

And what's with all the posts in this thread of people trying to bring logic to a comic book movie? That's worse than bringing a knife to a gunfight.

mikehunt

just got back. thought it was pretty good, but I know very little about the comic

but it id have a huge mad max feel to parts of it, the car for one, and his family getting run over and him running over with a shot gun then getting shot in the leg is totally from mad max

Get Me Coffee

I just hope Punisher has some leg in BO numbers

cactusoly

I read a lot of bad things about the Punisher and went in thinking this movie would suck. Maybee its because I had such low expectations, but I loved it. Great stuff lifted right from the comics such as the popsicle scene and the fight with the Russian (it was copied from the comic almost frame by frame)

I think it would have been really cool if the Russian showed up with boobs.

nightmaster

I saw it last night and thought it was great. Nope, it doesn't suck. Thomas Jane was wonderful in the part and Travolta always makes for a fun villian.

DonnachaOne

jekbrown, I appreciate the attempts to answer my questions, butthe answers aren't satisfying, nor are some of them logical.

EvilConradBain

Well as bad as this movie is GODSEND is worse. I actually did see a good Lions Gate movie the weekend called Shattered Glass. I don't think this studio is going to last long.

Matthew Chmiel

Lions Gate is mostly known for the indie films and/or their direct-to-video flicks (which I have quite a few of in my collection) more than their "mainstream" theatrical films which have mostly sucked as of late (but I did love Cabin Fever and I did enjoy The Punisher). But since Lions Gate now has both the Trimark and the Artisan catalog, I can see them lasting for a while.

And if it wasn't for Lions Gate, I wouldn't have: 100 Girls, 100 Women, Monster Man (coming to DVD soon), Cube 2, Cube 0 (coming to DVD soon), Sol Goode, and so on and so on...

EDIT: And remember, films like Godsend and The Punisher are the first few films Lions Gate are releasing wide. Give them some time and we'll get a better selection of films.

jekbrown

lol, its Hollywood, logic is almost always check at the door...

j

B.A.

I thought it was enjoyable. I'd give it ***1/2 out of *****. Thomas Jane did a good job and there is something satisfying about watching John Travolta get killed on screen.

I didn't recognize Kevin Nash until that scene was almost over.

Ketamine

Overall I think it was pretty good and was on the verge of being really good. I also thought Jane was going to be horrible in the role after seeing the first shots of him on the net but actually looked good. I for one just wish he were a little bigger though his size wasn't bad. Lot's of things were done right in this movie. Hopefully P2 will be even better.

Couple of spoilers below.


I had a problem with the way that Castle took a bullet to the chest and lived even though he was out in the water for hours before he was found and even then, he wasn't even cared for by a doctor (ok so he was cured by black magic or whatever). Pretty tough to survive a shot like that anyway let alone if you are also shot in a few other places, were close to an explosion, and were floating at sea for hours before you are found. I know it is a comic book movie but think they could have made it seem like he was dead without the shot directly to the chest.

Also had a problem with bad guys shooting him in the chest with the bullet-proff vest right after someone else saw that didn't work. I think they could have made minor adjustments with that scene also to make it work better.

So other problems were covered before so I will finish my complaints with it did seem a little low budget at times. Example was at the end where main villain was being pulled behind the car on fire then the next shot before the explosion, there were no flames at all. Just a bunch of minor things like that hurt the overall quality of the film.

With that said, overall pretty good and I am debating if I thought it was good enough to buy.

cactusoly

I think it was a movie for Punisher fans. As I said before a lot of the movie was lifted directly from the comic. The only thing I really didn't like was the fact that he showed up at city hall and announced he was alive. Also I don't get why it was not set in NYC.

RocShemp

Well the City Hall thing would have worked better had they left in the cut bit about the traiterous best friend. Having it cut, it just feels like an incredibly tacked on scene.

Hokeyboy

The Antipodean

Blah. I'm not impressed at all. The only scene that really captured the tone of the Garth Ennis comix I like was the Russian battle; the rest played like warmed over "Death Wish" Part XXIII. Not bad in the same way as "The Hulk" was but still a bad movie and a bad comic book movie. Thumbs down.

Dr. DVD

Is this in the deleted scenes bit? I only saw two scenes listed.

candyrocket786

It's in the main featurette (very brief). I believe he was the one to initially reveal Castle's identity/location.

There was also plans for opening sequence in Kuwait to establish Frank Castle's character.

scott shelton

1.8 million DVDs sold in its first week.

In monetary terms, this movie is no longer a "failure" or "underperformer."

Creatively, that's up to you.