PUNISHER: WAR ZONE Post Release - Page 3

The action is scored with guitars. A lot of it sounds like cheap White Zombie knock-off riffs. (i.e. not death metal, though you might not know the difference.)

It's not good, but it's not any worse than the same loud dumb guitar riffs in so many other action movies.

Did you pick White Zombie because Rob Zombie's new single is in the movie or was that happy coincidence?

I had no idea that his new single is in the movie, so at least one of the songs I thought was a crappy White Zombie ripoff is actually a pedigreed White Zombie ripoff.

Wasn't the music a big part of the whole lexi/lionsgate controversy? I think lexi said most of the movie is "hers", but that was one of the arguments she lost.

Cool.

There was a different composer originally.

Yeah. I'm positive the Blu-Ray release will be the Directors Cut and will have the original score included anyways.

Do you have a MIND LINK with the head of lionsgate?

The original composer was Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream fame and he did the score for Universal Soldier.

Way overhyped on this site, but still has one hell of sadistic streak running through its cinematic veins.

It's a great contrast to The Dark Knight in the sense that where TDK was flawed by taking itself too seriously, Punisher is flawed by poking fun at itself too much. If the dialogue had as much fun with itself as the action, it would have been perfect. The way Castle takes out one of the parkour baddies is one of the best scenes in any film.

I loved how Jigsaw assembles his army, leaving virtually no race and ethnicity unturned. Overall I can't complain much. Special kudos to the Alamo Drafthouse for showing the trailer to the Dolph Lundgren Punisher.

Going out to see this in a bit, can't wait!

A couple positive reviews and Devin's positive article this week, and suddenly it's 'way overhyped'? There's no fucking winning with some of you.

I'm suprised you were able to type that with lionsgate's collective cock in your mouth, Russ!

There really was no Hype on the main page up until a couple of days ago.

I only meant on this site, and 'overstate' is a better word. Like I said, the film lets us in on the joke early on, and doesn't let up which to me was kind of a double edged sword: I got a bit bored as the film progressed from one inexplicably sadistic scene after the other.

Then again I wouldn't have thought twice to catch a midnight showing following Synecdoche New York of this if it wasn't for this site, so it's not like I'm not appreciative - just being nitpicky.

Way overhyped?! Are you fucking kidding me?

Devin and the others thought this was going to be disastrous. Yet here they are saying it's one of the funnest movies of the year. That's all.

Enjoyed. I was weary of a sentimental, somewhat weepy Punisher and Stevenson drifted into that territory a bit too often for my tastes, but when the script called for action, he excelled and met Ennis' interpretation of the character dead center. The stuff with the girl can be excused as a necessary evil I guess, but I was left wishing that it had been played a little differently. Also, I found Castle to be way too trusting, especially of his new ex-gang member buddy. It just bothered me that after hanging with the guy only once he was so nonchalant about leaving him to look after Angela Donatelli and her daughter.

Other than that, Dominic West was wonderful, he's clearly having a great time with the character, and it was a lot of fun seeing him play Jigsaw as Paul Muni as directed by Tex Avery (Alexander just had to go for that Scarface reference didn't she?).

Some serious balls-to-the-wall shit in this movie. Standout bits being that brutal fucking opening sequence, the deaths of Ink and Pittsy, and the parkour massacre (Maginty!). I also liked that Punisher: War Zone takes place in a world where people get to have superpowers for two seconds, enough time to do a barehanded organ removal, twist someone's head around, or punch a crater into their face.

Girlfriend called me this morning saying the local critic gave it .5 stars out of 4. My reaction was that CHUD was right on the money with this one, and 7:00 can't get here quick enough. I hope all the prestige baiting critics shit on this one.

I enjoyed this greatly. The only thing that was missing was a trip to the zoo. "Hey, look! Bears!"

Jane may be a better actor, but damn if Stevenson doesn't nail the essence of the Ennis Punisher (admittedly, the only version of the character I've read).

Absolutely rewatchable, and a definite DVD pickup.

Eh, the budget and weepy character bits hurt the movie a little too much for me to love it. I'm going to have to go with a 6.8 out of 10. Its more Urban Justice than Out for Justice. Still hope it does well enough to warrant another Stevenson Punisher outing. They are sooooo close to getting it right.

Something I didn't mention in my earlier post, but I believe I found the pacing of the film to be a much more significant problem than either Faraci or Fischer. Since sanguinary grunts are the only pieces of dialogue that really work in the film, any line not spoken by Dominic West slows the movie to a crawl, it's nowhere near the pulse-checking, abominable horseshit in Transporter 3, but these scenes do the film no favor. Example: That scene in the church didn't need to be there...at all.

I should have emphasized any line *not* spoken by West. I feel the same, he was brilliant. The church scene does look nice, but by that point I'd had my fill of introspective, guilt-riddled Frank Castle, I wanted more of the guy that decapitated wheelchair bound geriatrics, not necessarily in action, but in attitude. Obviously I still really dug the movie, so it's not a dealbreaker or anything.

Simply put, a wonderfully enchanting motion picture.

Punisher War Zone was the elegant marriage of 80's Punisher/with Garth Ennis. The Punisher is like a tank...as he rampages through mafia families cutting, slashing, gunning down, neck breaking etc. Ray Stevenson reminded me of Arnold in Commando, the near indestructable weapon of mass destruction. Dominic West was terrific as Jigsaw. He has always been the best villain in Punisher comics, and he was brought to life in the glorious technicolor glory under the direction of Lexi Alexander. Castle's Kevlar vest with a skull painted on it, is the first time...The Punishers costume was done correctly. Maybe next time, if there is a sequel...The skull can be showcased a little more, but that is not even a quibble in the 2nd best comic book film of 2008 after...Iron Man. Lexi Alexander has proven the cliche that when you want something done right, you hire a woman to do it. Punisher War Zone is definitely #3 on my Top 13 films for 2008.

Soap's cute little detective hat had me LOLin and rollin.

I doubt I'll be able to watch CNN again without hearing "Wolf fuckin' Blitzer" run through my head.

I forgot to give love to Dash Mihok, Soap as written here didn't have the opportunity to get into the "Soapy" shit that Ennis dragged him through during his MK run, but Mihok really brought the spirit of the character to the screen, nice little touches like his posture and gait were perfect.

I'm guilty of not touching on Soap at all in my review, but Mihok was indeed great. I don't know the Ennis stuff, but he worked perfectly on screen regardless.

The more I let this one set in the more I like it. Loved the scene where Frank pulls the ax out of genric latin gansta's chest and tells him not to die. I think Frank assumes that since he could survive an ax to the chest normal people can as well.

THE REAL SHAQ has spoken: Just saw punisher, great bloody movie, aggggggh, dats what i , nevamind lol, aggggggh (growl) (snarl) spit

That "Aw man, now I've got brains on my shirt" line at the end is a great Soap moment. He was one of my favorite parts of the movie.

I did enjoy it quite a bit. I'm officially done seeing Colin Salmon in anything and I would've preferred to see Molly from the Welcome Back Frank storyline, but other than that the movie was a really great time.

That church is a great bit of set design. I did like the obnoxious Jesus Saves cross and the way it was used in the ending.

EDIT: The audience wasn't huge but they all really loved that Friday the 13th trailer.

I wish I had been more drunk, but this was good red meat city. It's no Riki-Oh, and I wasn't as high on it as I was Rambo, but it was a shit-ton of fun with the right company.

I'm actually pretty bummed this didn't work for me like it's working for all of you. Without overstating it, I was having trouble staying awake shortly after Castle visited Dexter's girlfriend. The violence was OTT and fun at times - but (dammit, I can't find who wrote it down there), as another Chewer said - the haywire feel of the action doesn't match the turgid dialogue.

Additionally, I was looking for this "Suspiria-style cinematography"...and discovered that it was basically a sodium light, a blue gel, and some Christmas runner lights incongruously taped to random objects. The church was AMAZING - but that's the only time I really felt it.

A lot of what was awful about the script I got to look at had been excised - but tons of it remained, and it really grated. Jigsaw's brother was even more difficult to deal with than he was on the page.

Alexander can shoot. Green Street Hooligans suggested as much. Some of War Zone confirms it - but this movie is a mess. And not the gleefully demented one I was hoping for.

Such fun. My friends and I were roaring in the theater.

Bloody marvelous (RIP, Kim Chan).

I took a group of friends and we got incredibly drunk on saki bombs beforehand. That did wonders for me but it left everyone else confused about the plot. It was a nightmare trying to explain to them some seemingly simple and obvious plot points afterwards. No one seemed to understand who the crew with the silver cases was and why they blew away a chunk of Jigsaw's men. I was also the only guy among my group or the theater that was immediately amused by the terrible and over the top mob/Italian stereotypes that came flying left and right from the opening scenes.

I honestly can't think of a better scene or sequence in all of 2008 than the beautiful and hysterical wide shot of the parkour guy being taken out by the missile. That was an inspired moment. I laughed at that for two or three minutes. There's some genius, and there's some fluff, and there's some mediocrity, but this is such a fun comic book movie. It's not perfect but there are certainly moments of perfection here and there and I loved this movie. Devin had an ideal viewing experience because he went in like anyone else would have a week ago, thinking this was going to be total dogshit.

I wish this hadn't bombed horribly because a sequel that improved on the stuff that worked and jettisoned the stuff that didn't could have been a movie for the ages. But at least we got a Punisher movie that didn't suck balls. I'll watch the Blu-ray a lot.

It's probably gonna be huge on DVD.

Loved it. Truly the spiritual successor to Dolph Lundgren's Punisher, complete with sewer lair (but, unfortunately, no naked, sweaty meditating).

Only thing it lacked was a war journal voice over. Too bad, maybe the director's cut?

One quibble: how did he get around? No motorcycle, no muscle car, no battle van. Had to borrow a car from that cop at the beginning.

I am split on how I feel about this film. I am huge fan of Garth Ennis' work with the Punisher in MAX. There are so many good stories to tell. The beginning went really well and then it drifted off into god knows what.

Acrobats, stereotypical thugs and mobsters. Jigsaw/McNulty was good but the material just fell apart. Newman surprisingly did not take me out of the movie.

If not for Dominic West, I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much as I did. Anybody who doesn't get a kick out of that performance lacks a soul.

Any movie that turns Doug Hutchinson into a manic martial artist is fine by me. Is it weird that I kinda found the relationship between the insane brothers to be kinda touching?

What a dumb movie. I mean that as a compliment. Joins the ranks of xXx and POINT BREAK and BAD BOYS 2.

The acro-missile kill was great, but I love Colin Salmon's reaction when Frank blows away the mob guy at the table. This film has no regard for human life. Thank you, Lexi Alexander.

When those parkour-on-meth guys were introduced, my friends and I groaned. "Not more of this stuff!!! C'mon!"

Half an hour later as the Punisher dispatched them all without a fuss:

JOY.

...did I walk out of the greatest movie ever made last night?

"Fucking loved" it. Most fun I've had at the movies all year. On an entertainment scale it's a 12 out of ten. Everything just worked for me. Ray Stevenson looked more like The Punisher (as opposed to Tom Jane who, while great, looked like someone you'd see at Comic Con cosplaying The Punisher.) West was terrific, and yes the story of hte brothers was kinda touching.

I'll be seeing it again, and purchasing the DVD/Blu-ray. I wish people would suck it up and go see this.

Also, it looks like Wayne Knight gained back a bit of weight. Nowhere near his Seinfeld-years, but it looks like he lost a lot and then got to a point where he's comfortable. I liked him in this movie.

I haven't seen Ray Stevenson in anything (I erase King Arthur from my mind completely), but when I look at him I see a weird combination of all these other actors. That dude from Sex & The City. Clive Owen. George Clooney. Gerard Butler. All rolled into one.

EDIT: What was with the fat Irish dude who looked like he was taking a dump in the elevator shaft?

Who cares? He got his head blown off and an applause!

I thought the first fifteen minutes or so were pretty dull -- minus the occasional chair-through-eye -- but it became a ton of fun once West was Jigsaw'd. I had tears in my eyes during his recruitment montage.

This is the best Punisher film by far. I thought it really picked up about halfway through the movie.

I have to echo what everyone else has said about McNulty. He did a great job of hamming it up, and I bust a nut laughing when he was strutting around to gather up the army.

The only thing I hated about this movie was Looney Bin Jim. I'm okay with cartoonish characters - especially in B movies, but I just hated his character with a passion. The martial art stuff, the fact one minute he's a crazy cannibal - the next he's typical second in command thug, and the continuous giggling stuff really got on my nerves.

But who knows, maybe that was Alexander's intentions with that character. If so, I wish his death would have been as awesome as that parkour's.

That guy sucked so hard, it was kind of funny. He looks like Fredrick Forrest and his affectation was squeezing a hand pump. I liked the mirror scene, and he and West seemed to be having fun.

I only wish his and West's deaths could have gone Miike over the top.