Punisher - War Zone (DVD)

Ruthless vigilante Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher, sets his sights on an out-of-control mob boss called Billy Russoti. When “Beautiful Bill” is left disfigured by Castle, he is hell-bent on revenge in his new guise; Jigsaw. But in his attempts to bring a mob gang to justice, Castle inadvertently kills an innocent man. Wracked with guilt, he tries to help the dead man’s family, but brings them to the attention of Russoti and his thugs. Castle ...
...to have any chance of survival. But with the “Punisher Task Force” on his tail and the FBI unable to help him, he has to go it alone…

I laughed my way right through the Thomas Jane “Punisher” movie a few years ago, not because it was intentionally funny but because it was a ridiculous action movie that took itself way too seriously. So when my other half dragged me to this latest stab at a franchise I was expecting more of the same. ... more

Ruthless vigilante Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher, sets his sights on an out-of-control mob boss called Billy Russoti. When “Beautiful Bill” is left disfigured by Castle, he is hell-bent on revenge in his new guise; Jigsaw. But in his attempts to bring a mob gang to justice, Castle inadvertently kills an innocent man. Wracked with guilt, he tries to help the dead man’s family, but brings them to the attention of Russoti and his thugs. Castle has to destroy him and his army if they are to have any chance of survival. But with the “Punisher Task Force” on his tail and the FBI unable to help him, he has to go it alone…

I laughed my way right through the Thomas Jane “Punisher” movie a few years ago, not because it was intentionally funny but because it was a ridiculous action movie that took itself way too seriously. So when my other half dragged me to this latest stab at a franchise I was expecting more of the same. So I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome - not because the production values are high or there’s a solid story, but because director Lexi Alexander has created a film aware of its own silliness. It is loaded to the gunnels with over-the-top action sequences, cartoon violence and lashings of gratuitous gore. There’s absolutely no pre-amble; the movie begins with Castle crashing a Mafia party and killing all the guests in splattery style. There’s no finesse whatsoever, but there is humour to be found in Castle’s gung-ho attitude to killing. He can’t just kill anyone - he has to put an extra bullet into them even if they’re already dead. One guy not only gets shot, thrown off a building and impaled on railings, but as he’s choking to death on his own blood, Castle jumps off the same building, bouncing off the poor unfortunate, snapping his neck in the process. It’s as if Alexander is trying to prove how much more violent she can make things than a male director. She even goes as far as adding more CGI blood to make deaths even gorier. Weapons are almost fetish items as she lingers over the main character tooling up and locking and loading.

The movie looks as cheap as chips; shot on grainy film in grimy locations that suit the hopeless world Castle lives in. The scene is set by green-filtered close-ups of broadcasts telling us how the local Mafia don escaped justice and how the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. The Punisher’s underground base is blue-filtered, daylight shots look bleached-out and fights are choppy, but not excessively so. Alexander is good at keeping the pacing swift, not that there’s much space for exposition between the face-offs. So the film steams through the hundred-and-three minute running-time and is rarely less than entertaining. She also references the comic book origins of the movie by framing shots so they look like comic strip panels. But she struggles with trying to inject an emotional dimension into the plot. Castle’s need to protect the wife and daughter of a man he killed is clumsily expressed as is his own tragic back-story. And although the film is tongue-in-cheek, the director fosters a melodramatic acting style that is often a bar to believability.

The screenplay by Nick Santora and “Iron Man” scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway has clearly been written for fans of the comics rather than the critics. That would certainly explain why there’s so little plot. Basically Frank Castle has a personal vendetta against the Mafia, who were responsible for the deaths of his family, but takes out his repressed anger on any bad guys who have escaped traditional justice. In reality it means he’s looking for any opportunity to get into a good old ruck with other violent people. So the film plays out as series of very loosely interconnected fights and chases. But there are some laughs to be had through situation comedy and the way Castle deals with some baddies.

Castle is the usual strong but silent hero with a background in the Special Forces that makes him a one man army. And of course he has a secret subterranean lair and a load of sidekicks who provide him with information and weapons. These include buffoonish police detective Martin Soap and technical wizard Micro. The villains are the usual comic bunch of psychopaths; leader Billy/Jigsaw is in the same mould as Batman’s nemesis The Joker – a disfigured mob guy sent off the deep end by his injures, his brother Loony Bin Jim, whose name tells you everything you need to know and roll-call of interchangeable, disposable thugs. As is standard in comic book adaptations, the women are badly written damsels in distress with nary a personality between them. The dialogue is riddled with portentous proclamations and over-thought quips like “Let me put you out of my misery!” which probably sounds okay in the context of a comic strip, but is ludicrous spoken out loud.

Geordie actor Ray Stevenson looks permanently constipated as po-faced vigilante Frank Castle. He’s brutally efficient in the fight scenes and looks comfortable with the various weapons, but suffers from a mangled accent. The same is true of fellow Brit Dominic West, who plays Billy Russoti/Jigsaw. He’s loud and one-dimensional as the hatchet-faced certifiable loon, going for full-on panto villain rather than aiming for emotional scars to match the physical ones.

Dash Mihok is also guilty of coarse acting as “Punisher Task Force” leader Martin Soap. He’s a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, lumbering, gormless buffoon. But he has reasonable timing which sells the comedy. Colin Salmon is deep-voiced, deadpan and hard as nails as FBI Agent Paul Budiansky. Meanwhile Doug Hutchison (familiar to fans of “The X-Files” as Jeffrey Tooms) does exactly what it says on the tin as Loony Bin Jim. There’s no subtlety to be found as the antsy, ultra-violent mental patient. But he at least commits to the role. Julie Benz is insipid as damsel-in-distress Angela, but she has thankfully dropped the squeaky voice that annoys me so much in “Dexter”.

The original music by Michael Wandmacher starts off sounding like a cheap knock-off of Danny Elfman’s original “Batman” score. But after a while it veers off into generic, overly loud orchestral arrangements ripe with stabbing brass and strings. The problem is that although the music is fairly effective in its style (lots of metallic percussion and forbidding brass, with the odd bout of electric guitar and snare drum) its prevalence means you learn to filter it out, so it stops meaning anything.

“Punisher – War Zone” is a completely predictable, balls-to-the-wall action movie ripped from a popular comic book. It’s big, loud, crass and strangely entertaining. It doesn’t pretend to be anything that it’s not and is surprisingly funny in places. The direction is macho, the writing appalling in places and the performances either OTT or wooden. But despite all its deficiencies I rather enjoyed it. If you’re after some brainless action fare that’s not going to try and make you think, then this is definitely right up your street. 

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