Punisher: War Zone (2009)

DVD

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"‘Let me put you out of my misery.’"

**CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Let me start out by saying I really wanted to like this movie. I am a fan of The Punisher from 2004 with Thomas Jane and was disappointed to hear he would not be appearing in this one. After watching the film I am glad he wasn't. Even though I wanted to like the film, I watched it without any expectations.

This is an action movie, but there is a point that movies have a lot action and/or blood in order to cover up what the film is lacking. What is lacking in this film? Good acting and a good story line development. Julie Benz and Ray Stevenson are ok with their acting abilities, but it seemed that everyone else lacked the experience to be believable. At some points the acting was downright terrible. There was a good story in this film, but it was lost amongst all the gunfire. Had there been more attention paid to the story, the movie would have been so much better. You get small flashbacks of Frank Castle's life and how he became The Punisher, but not nearly enough to relate and to sympathize with the character. He also has a friend that supplies him with his guns etc., but you barely get any of the back story on him. He is played by Wayne Knight which some of you may remember from Seinfeld, he played Newman.

After the first 20 minutes of the film I knew it was going to be mediocre at best. I know that as The Punisher he is supposed to be tough, but who can stick a pencil up his nose and reset a break. I do not know if it was supposed to be dislocated, but with the sound effects it sure sounded broken. He simply fixes it and goes on like it is nothing. The first scene with The Punisher is too over the top. Here we are at an obvious mobster's home but he is able to enter without anyone seeing him and kill everyone, and I mean everyone. I know movies are not to be true to reality, but a certain sense of it would have been good.

I also did not like the fact that the main 'bad guy' called himself 'Jigsaw'. I think they could have been a little more creative considering the Saw film series. I know 'Scarface' was already taken, but there are plenty of names he could have adopted in order to be original. Then there is his brother that is supposed to be crazy, but is rather lucid and in control a good part of the time after he escapes the insane asylum.

There is plenty of blood and/or gore in this film, a lot of heads being blown off and blood spraying from gunshot wounds. Blood/gore does not bother me in the least, but even that was over the top at times. Yes there are several 'cool' moments, but there are several 'yeah right' moments too. Yes it would seem that they would cancel each other out, but after the film is over, you remember more of the 'over the top' violence than you do the violence that was just right.

All in all I would have to say this film in my opinion is in between below average to average. Would I watch it again? Probably not, once was enough. I was glad that I rented it instead of purchasing because I would have thought I wasted my money. I know a lot of people really enjoy this film. I just found it to be a mindless romp of violence. If you are curious by all means rent the movie but I recommend you see it before you buy it.

Thanks for reading.