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Back Shelf Beauties
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The Punisher He's the man who carries out justice when no one else can. Kill someone, and he'll punish you. Rob money from a church, and he'll punish you. Talk at the movies and he'll PUNISH you, or I will. Thomas Jane stars as Frank Castle - an undercover FBI agent in Tampa (because not everything happens in New York City) who is about to retire and spend more time with his family. On his last case on his last day, you know something bad is going to happen or else we wouldn't have a movie. In The Punisher, a sting operation goes awry and the FBI ends up shooting the son of powerful crime lord Howard Saint (John Travolta). Saint wants revenge on the person responsible for his son's death, so he and his wife order the elimination of Castle's entire family (and they mean everyone. His mother, his father, his wife, his son, his uncles, that pesky cousin who always borrows money …). The hitmen are successful, but Castle survives, he's very angry and he wants revenge. In his own mind, Frank Castle is dead, and he has become The Punisher. Will Castle/Punisher be able to wipe out Saint and his lackeys? Will it bring him inner peace? I like this movie because I am nothing more than a man wearing a suit to cover up the little boy inside. He's The Punisher, he fights bad guys, and he blows stuff up. That's my kind of movie. For all of its merits (did I mention that he blows stuff up), The Punisher does have its problems. Let's start with our bad guy. I really like John Travolta, and this is one of his most understated, yet stronger performances. However, writer/director John Hensleigh needs to make him a better nemesis for The Punisher. Saint comes off too much like a small time hood instead of the imposing man who can order the elimination of a family. Travolta seems to be aching for a chance to be darker, meaner, nastier, and Hensleigh should have found a way to do it. Also, I was put off by the comic relief and love story. Most of the "laughs" are supposed to come from Castle's interactions and growing familiarity with other outcastes who live in his apartment building on the wrong side of town (his new "family", yuck), and we have to watch the hint of a love story when The Punisher wins Jane's heart (Rebecca Romijn, no more Romijn-Stamos now that divorce is looming). Of course, she's the tough luck gal down the hall who happens to look like a supermodel because all cruddy apartments are full of supermodels. All of this might be in the comic book and graphic novel, but Hensleigh detaches us from The Punisher and the drama surrounding his cause by including less dramatic stuff, and he doesn't help with constant music that fails to capture the moment as well as inserting increasingly comic book-like fights between The Punisher and Saint's assassins. All of that takes us out of the movie and makes us remember that none of this is real (the fight with Harry Heck is awesome, the one with the Russian, not so much). What do I like about The Punisher? He's a cool good guy. The Punisher does what most of us would wish we could do if we were the victim of such a horrible crime, but Jane is too buff for a guy who drinks away his pain as much as Castle. Maybe I need to try that Wild Turkey diet because he is ripped much more than you have ever seen him in previous movies. I liked Travolta, and wish he could have had more to do. Finally, I like the general plot where Castle increasingly pursues and hurts Saint. His attacks grow more and more menacing as Hensleigh puts them together in a sequence that never makes us feel bad about rooting for Castle because he doesn't lose moral authority. The Punisher needs some improvements, but it's an action packed, dark story that keeps you interested. 2 ½ Waffles (Out of 4) Copyright 2004 - WaffleMovies.com
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