Shawn's Punisher War Zone Review

2008 Movie #139 - Punisher War Zone

The Punisher seems like he should be the easiest character ever to make a movie about. Slap a badass in a skull shirt and have him kill people. Sounds simple enough right? Well up until now we had 2 movies try it and fuck it up. I didn't full out hate the 2004 version, but I agree with most people that it really didn't feel like the Punisher, at least not until the very, very end of it all. This movie goes the EXACT opposite route. The last movie took about 100 minutes to get to the violent Punisher kills, this movie however, takes maybe 100 seconds. Now that is more like it. This movie still isn't great, but for a Punisher movie, it's a definite step in the right direction. Also smashing a dude's face in with your first...always a great direction to step towards.

War Zone sort of feels like someone gave a decent budget to a cheesy 80's movie. Everything about this movie feels like something you would have seen from that timeframe. The oneliners, the over the top villians, the story itself...but you know what, it sort of works. It's a fucking ride. You laugh and enjoy yourself, knowing full well the movie is ridiculous but who cares? The Punisher himself is pretty fucking ridiculous. I mean...did you read the part about smashing a guy's face in with a single punch?

The action here is pretty standard, but pretty entertaining too. Lots of shootouts and the usual. The editing didn't suffer from the quick cuts like most recent movies do. They're there of course but they don't ruin it as much as they do some other movies. Plus I don't know if you heard this or read it anywhere, but this movie does contain a moment where a fist caves a face in.

I do think Thomas Jane made a great Punisher and it's really too bad he didn't come back for this one too. Ray Stevenson is still very good though. He fits the role quite well. The bad guys are crazy over the top in terms of acting. The main villain's brother was pretty god damn bad though. As was Julie Benz I thought. But whatever, you can look past the acting if it means seeing a fist smash in a face...which you do.

Overall this one is worth checking out if you're a Punisher fan you felt let down by the last movie attempt. It's a pretty good watch, but certainly not on par with well, just about every other comic book movie that came out this year. But then I don't remember Batman, Incredible Hulk, or Iron Man smashing a face in at any point. So maybe this one was the best actually.

***/5