Punisher: War Zone

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Trailer

 

Uncensored Footage from Comic Con

 

^ 0:59 = OMFG

 

I have mixed feelings on this. While it looks awesome (I'm also glad they corrected his origin. Overdoing it in the last film was one of my main gripes with it), I thought Thomas Jane did a great job so I'm bummed he didn't come back for this. I just hope Stevenson won't be Dolph Lundgren Version 2.0

[DarKnight 0]

From what I heard, this movie sounds like a disaster during its production. Thomas Jane was planning on doing it for years, then backed out, the director of the movie got fired not too long ago, and the movie has had a ton of pushbacks for its release date. This doesn't sound like its going to go to well.

[dubq 0]

Stevenson already has one up on Lundgren.. he has actual acting chops. I think this is gonna be all kinds of fun.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

So if this is a reboot it's appears safe to say that they're going for a more homicidal, less angsty Frank Castle? Which is fine for me, since Stevenson seems to do the "kill first, think about it later" characters fine (see Pullo, Titus).

[DarKnight 0]

Why the fuck in the first Punisher did they have it take place in Tampa? I thought the movie was alright, but that always bothered me. That one part in the trailer posted above where he is hanging from the ceiling shooting people, reminds me a lot of Boondock Saints.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

IIRC they were going to shoot the movie in New York, but LionsGate were dicks and slashed the film's budget in half from 30 mil to 15 mil. They filmed it in Tampa because it was cheaper.

[DarKnight 0]

What did the 2004 Punisher make at the box office? Having it cost $15M isn't a bad idea really, since it will make a profit no matter what. The first Saw had the best budget ever, 1 million. That way it would be considered huge business no matter what it made!

[imajackoff? 0]

I'll admit it. I've got a bit of a man crush for ol' Titus Pullo.

 

Kinda feel bad for Dominic West. He's playing a scar-ridden comic book villain the same year as Ledger's Joker.

[Epic Reine 0]

I liked 2004's Punisher a lot actually and think it's probably the most underrated Marvel movie. I thought Tom Jane was great as Castle. This though doesn't look all that interesting, seems to focus more on action than plot unlike the first movie (which is mainly why I liked it so much).

[Black Lushus 0]

I'm not dogging your opinion or anything, Epic, but Punisher is supposed to be blowing guys away with big guns and explosives...not getting his ass handed to him half the time and being all crafty and sneaky setting things up so that the bad guys kill each other. Yes, I know the movie was based on a storyline, but we want to see Punisher demolishing folks...it's the same issue people had with Ang Lee's Hulk.

 

That being said, I don't think this one will fare well at the box office.

[Epic Reine 0]

We got plenty of cool death scenes though in that movie (the machete into the guy's skull, the arrow through the guy's neck, the knife through the guy's mouth). I liked it because there seemed to be a pretty cool balance. We got a good storyline to make a sympoathetic main character and we saw him get revenge and dished out ass kickings to everyone.

 

The shit at the end with the flaming cars forming the Punisher symbol though, you got me.

[Black Lushus 0]

I just didn't buy Travolta as the villian, didn't care for the big family murder scene and yeah, that flaming car thing was way silly.

[DarKnight 0]

I just didn't buy Travolta as the villian, didn't care for the big family murder scene and yeah, that flaming car thing was way silly.

 

Yeah, that was an obvious rip off of The Crow. And I don't think that 2004 Punisher is anything near as boring as 2003 Hulk, not even close, hell anything isn't. You gotta love Nash as the russian!

[Black Lushus 0]

Now hold on, I didn't mean to imply that Punisher was boring, I just don't think it had enough of what Punisher fans really wanted to see which was Frank running around with big guns blowing things up and ripping people in half, much like people bitched about Hulk not having enough HULK SMASH!

 

Maybe I'M the only one who wanted that in Punisher, I guess?

[DarKnight 0]

I thought there was plenty of graphic violence in the Punisher, but yeah, it does take a while for that to happen.

[Jingus 0]

I had a lot of problems with Punisher. Too long, too slow, too complicated, not enough action, and what action it had wasn't nearly as brutal as the best of Garth Ennis's spectacularly gruesome run in the comics. And Tom Jane looked more like he was playing Maxx Payne, not Frank Castle.

 

But, to put it in full, my review I wrote at the Pit:

The Punisher (2004): 3/10

Yeah, you saw that right. I LIKED THE LUNDGREN VERSION BETTER. The modern Punisher is a joyless, witless, sluggish, poorly casted, moronically written misfire which fails on almost every level. It changes way too much about the Punisher, keeping little from the original comics and just basically making it up as it goes. This is one of those movies where you check your watch every ten minutes. And why does every fucking comic book movie these days have to be an origin story? What superhero on earth has a simpler backstory than the Punisher? Criminals killed his family; he kills criminals. That's it! We don't need hours of setup to explain how he got that way.

 

Biggest problem: Thomas Jane sucks. According to IMDB, he's been in half a dozen other movies I've seen, and I don't remember him even existing in any of them. In this movie, he's completely inadequate as Frank Castle in just about every way. He's too young, too short, and I never once bought him as anything resembling a Punisher. Jane tries to play him way too much like a normal guy, instead of the remorseless killing machine which Castle is supposed to be. He's a raging alcoholic, he constantly doubts himself, hell he even seems about to commit suicide at one point. In most of the fight scenes, he spends the majority of the time getting his ass kicked and then limps away half-dead afterwards. What?! The Punisher should be casually snapping guys' necks and mowing down entire crowds with an M-60, not almost getting killed by just one or two enemies at a time. He's just not mean enough, and it kills the whole movie.

 

Of course, even if they'd stuck 1986's Arnold Schwarzenegger in this movie, the rest of it still would've sucked. Our villain is (sigh) John Travolta as a mobster named (sigh) Saint, and he's just hammy enough that he's too silly to be real but too subdued to be funny. And while the rest of the cast contains a lot of people I've really liked at one time or another (Ben Foster, Rebecca Romijn, Laura Harring, Samantha Mathis, Roy Scheider) none of them are doing anything worth seeing here. Writer/director Jonathon Hensleigh has had a career mostly spent making crap, and this might be his stinkiest pile ever.

 

There are so many problems here I barely know what to mention next. How about the preposterous plot, like that insanely overcomplicated plot to frame some of Travolta's inner circle? Or how Castle hides from his countless mortal enemies by eating in coffee shops, sitting around in parks, and showing up at press conferences? Are we supposed to believe that Travolta would really let Mickey The Snitch work in his house after he got his son killed? And why is the movie so freaking slow? It takes over half an hour to just get to the point where Punisher's family is killed, and the movie is already halfway over before he even slays his first bad guy. Why are there so few action scenes, and why are they all so crummy and boring? Why does the movie play everything so serious for a while, but only start to give us some "humor" after the family is slaughtered? Why do they make such dumbass decisions as changing the comics' ugly girl with crippling loneliness Joan into goddamn Rebecca Romijn? Why... aw, forget it, if I keep going I'll be here all night. This is the kind of movie where you groan "aw shit, what are they gonna fuck up next?" and then Kevin Nash shows up. And when Kevin "Die You Worthless Motherfucker" Nash provides quite possibly the single best scene in the movie, that's a big goddamn problem.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Ha. That Nash scene was pretty entertaining stuff.

 

My only problem with the movie, really, was that Jane came off as a guy trying to play angry, as opposed to actually being on a mission. Should have been more violent too.

 

I didn't really hate the movie though. I can put it on and find some entertainment in it. Mostly because they took the Welcome Home, Frank storyarc and made that half the movie.

[DarKnight 0]

I too thought the Nash scene was the best in the movie. I've never read a Punisher comic book, so I don't know how faithful the movie was, but according to jingus, not very much. I personally thought the movie was ok for what it was.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Jane tries to play him way too much like a normal guy, instead of the remorseless killing machine which Castle is supposed to be.

 

Okay, that makes sense. Good review, Jingus. As I mentioned above, I HATED the fact they changed his origin by having the gangsters slaughter Castle's ENTIRE family. That was just overkill and not in a good way either.

 

Edit: Thomas Jane left from doing the Punisher sequel because he hated the script. After his departure, there was a new script that eventually became this film. So the irony is had Jane stuck around, he would've gotten what he wanted.

[WukenBloodstar 0]

So if this is a reboot it's appears safe to say that they're going for a more homicidal, less angsty Frank Castle? Which is fine for me, since Stevenson seems to do the "kill first, think about it later" characters fine (see Pullo, Titus).

 

You must have missed the part in the trailer where he's crying like a bitch then..also, movie looks like shit.

[In Credible 0]

2nd Trailer

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

So if this is a reboot it's appears safe to say that they're going for a more homicidal, less angsty Frank Castle? Which is fine for me, since Stevenson seems to do the "kill first, think about it later" characters fine (see Pullo, Titus).

 

You must have missed the part in the trailer where he's crying like a bitch then..also, movie looks like shit.

 

Eh it looks like he was in a graveyard. It was probably right after their funeral service i.e. soon after the murders. I'm willing to cut him some slack on that one. As long as we don't get Castle whining about it every 10 minutes to the point where he threatens to blow his own head off I'm willing to give it a try.

[luke-o 0]

The trailer looks like a Steven Segal film.

 

It must suck.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Wow. This looks horrible. And I'm a big fan of Titus Pullo from "Rome"

[Frosty 0]

Video is no longer available.

[WukenBloodstar 0]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37965

 

Holy smokes, I go away and shoot some kids stuff for Disney, and the whole world is a different color when I return. Again I appear here to dispel rumors. Please believe:

 

Lexi is not off the film

 

Lexi is still involved in the edit process

 

The film is not (nor could it ever be) PG-13

 

Today I saw a cut that ran 91 minutes

 

Lexi did in fact get married

 

Lexi is an incredibly talented director, and this film kicks major ass, as will be proven when it is released IN THEATRES DECEMBER 5th

 

The film is most certainly not all exploding heads, but will reveal a great deal of Franks personna and pain

 

This film has been difficult from the begining, from a bitter Canadian winter, to endless nights, to rampant sickness, Lexi has fought to make a killer Punisher film for fans and non fans alike.

 

Initially we were to release in September, but for whatever reason (not the quality of the film or edit IMHO) it was decided to release in December. That extra time has given everyone a chance to put their two cents worth in, but rest assured, Lexi is still stearing the boat, and she is a great captain.

 

When I hear vicious unfounded troll rumors like the "film was unwatchable" or "a total mess" it makes my blood boil. I want to punish the corrupt. People sit on their fat asses trolling the internet, people that have never even looked through a motion picture camera, and make judgements on a work of art that they've never seen, it's like saying a baby will be ugly before it is born, I can't freaking wait for this film to come out and prove the nay-sayers wrong.

 

Sorry for the rant, I just love something wonderful you have yet to see-

 

sg,asc

 

Whatever this idiot is smoking, I want some of it. To think that Punisher: War Zone is a work of art takes some serious drugs. Also, I left the spelling errors in place from AICN news.

[luke-o 0]

Here's what I don't get.

 

The guy is pissing and moaning because we say the film looks shit without seeing the whole film. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what a trailer is for? The trailer looks shit, so our initial reaction is going to be that the film is also shit.

[dubq 0]

I don't think it looks that bad. I mean, this kind of movie has it's place, and if it's a Punisher movie then maybe that's the place it needs to be. It's obviously not going to be the Dark Knight for crying out loud..

[Black Lushus 0]

I don't have a problem with the trailers...though the shooting while spinning upside down is a little too Uwe Boll for my liking.

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

I don't have a problem with the trailers...though the shooting while spinning upside down is a little too Uwe Boll for my liking.

 

Not to mention thoroughly un-Punisher.