Review of Punisher: War Zone (2008) by Keith B — 19 Apr 2010

Should be seen as a reboot of The Punisher franchise (again) rather than a sequel to the brilliant Punisher starring Thomas Jayne, especially as it is quite a drastic change between the two leads. Having said that, Ray Stevenson does an excellent job portraying the retrebution seeking Frank Castle.

The movie itself is not too bad, deciding to relate itself more to pages of the comic books it comes from than trying to ground itself too much in reality, and this is where the over-the-top one dimensional characters straight from the Dick Tracey handbook of stupid villains comes in with the zany Jigsaw and sidekick brother played by the guy who was Toombs in the X-files.

The best moments in the film are the excellent action/ fight scenes coupled with brutal violence (as you'd expect from Lionsgate) which is really what the 'other' Punisher movie lacked; so perhaps the two movies make a whole???