Punisher: War Zone.

Misanthrope · 24 November, 2008, 05:26:57 AM

Anyone else looking foward to this?

the shutdown man · 24 November, 2008, 09:18:06 AM

Sort of, in a guilty pleasure kinda way. I didn't much like the first (or second, depending on how you wanna count'em) Punisher flick, I didn't think Thomas Jane was hard enough. He just looked like he had dyed his hair black and was trying to put on a gruff voice. This new guy, in the trailers anyway, at least looks the part. And it's got McNulty in it, which is always good.

Basically, it looks like it's full of lines like "This is just the beginning!", so I'll go in expecting a big shooty revenge flick.

Goaty · 24 November, 2008, 09:50:40 AM

Well, as after see Punisher : War Zone Red Band Trailer, looks good, but after hearing the news about studio want to changed it into kids' film, with heavy cuts, so my mind is fuck this.

Bongo Jack · 24 November, 2008, 10:04:59 AM

Apparantly they changed their mind and it's going to be a gore-fest after all.

I thought Jane was okay in the first one, but the script just wasn't a Punisher movie, it was some generic revenge flick with bits taken from the sillier Punisher run by Ennis and Dillon. Jane was apparantly a big fan of the latter-day Punisher series after meeting fans in unlikely places, pushed for a better script closer to the Marvel Max series, and ended up voicing the character in the Punisher videogame (an Ennis script) from a few years ago. That was fun, I thought - if brief.

War Zone looks like a bit of daft fun. Can't be worse than Max Payne.

the shutdown man · 24 November, 2008, 10:12:18 AM

Quote from: "Bongo Jack"Can't be worse than Max Payne.

No, that would be quite a feat.

Goaty · 24 November, 2008, 12:59:08 PM

Hitman film was good I thought...

wrly_bird · 25 November, 2008, 04:48:37 PM

First review - SPOILER ALERT....
//http://www.newsarama.com/film/081125-punisher-war-zone-review.html
It's out over here Feb 6 2009.

the shutdown man · 13 February, 2009, 09:46:14 AM

Well, what can I say? This film manages to be both total garbage and utterly awesome at the same time.

Basically any scenes with the Punisher actually y'know, punishing are cool. Pure, mindless, 80's style violence. Unfortunately, he also spends a good third or so of the film moping around wrestling with his conscience and not killing anyone. But when he does, he doesn't fuck about. And he's definitely better than Tom Jane.

However, pretty much every other aspect of this film is ridiculous. The dialogue, the accents (an Irish Rasta?), the sorta plot, the psycho brother trying to be Hannibal Lecter and failing miserably, the comedy bumbling detective and godammit McNulty, what were you thinking? Still, it's good for a few laughs.

Keef Monkey · 21 February, 2009, 11:04:52 AM

I really enjoyed this! After the great intro fear started to set in, because as Shutdown says it's utter trash with woeful acting and dialogue all over the shop, and round about the introduction of the footskating gang I decided to hate it. BUT then [spoiler]that gag paid off[/spoiler], I laughed like a drain and from then on in it was solid entertainment.

Got many laughs out of it and during the final shootout I got chills a few times because that Stevenson bloke IS Frank Castle, a proper tank of a man. Even Dominic West being shit is excusable, because we all know he's not shit so the only conclusion is that he knew the film was a big cartoon so vowed to be shit and have a laugh with it.

So I think I liked it best of the Punisher movie's so far, even though I actually liked Tom Jane's turn. A shame the box office not only ensures there'll be no follow-up but also will likely scupper any chance of Marvel taking a gamble with another 18-rated "Knights" movie.

the shutdown man · 22 February, 2009, 02:56:37 PM

Quote from: "Keef Monkey"that Stevenson bloke IS Frank Castle

Agreed. If they could just take him and put him in a good Punisher film, that would kick ass, but I think after three strikes, they won't be trying to bring the character to the screen again.

Peter Wolf · 22 February, 2009, 04:56:56 PM

It sounds like a definate wait for DVD release since i very very rarely venture into cinemas anymore.I rather liked Tom Janes take on the character because he isnt the archetypal 'tank of a man' mentioned earlier.This new guy looked rather like a Terminator from what i saw in the trailer but closer to the character in the strip.

What the hell.It is what it is and doesnt pretend to be anything else.