The Punisher
Year: 2004
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Starring: Thomas Jane & John Travolta
Runtime: 123 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 24/08/23
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Starring: Thomas Jane & John Travolta
Runtime: 123 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 24/08/23
Despite being one of Marvel’s more niche properties, The Punisher has had a surprising number of adaptations over the years. First came the 1989 film starring Dolph Lundgren in the title role, then came this 2004 film, then another reboot in 2008, and most recently the character received a Netflix series as part of the Mervel’s Defenders anthology.
Similar to Ghost Rider, The Punisher is a character that has never gained mainstream appeal due to the comic’s more mature nature, and any adaptation has kind of fallen a bit flat.
But after avoiding The Punisher (2004) for many years due to its poor critical reception, I finally bit the bullet and was somewhat surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) has retired from the FBI after a distinguished career, finally allowing himself to spend time with his family after keeping them at arm’s length for their own safety for so long. Enraged by his son’s death at the hands of Frank, mafia boss Howard Saint (John Travolta) exacts revenge by killing Frank’s entire family, including his wife and child.
Beaten and broken, Frank arms himself to the teeth and takes on a vigilante persona as the Punisher to take justice into his own hands.
For what is essentially just a simple revenge movie, I found The Punisher to be relatively enjoyable. It’s a little on the long side, coming in at two hours in length, I feel like it could have been twenty to thirty minutes shorter to just tighten things up a bit.
It doesn’t waste time with trying to make this some grand superhero story, it’s just a guy with some guns who’s really pissed off, and I’m totally here for that.
Similar to Ghost Rider, The Punisher is a character that has never gained mainstream appeal due to the comic’s more mature nature, and any adaptation has kind of fallen a bit flat.
But after avoiding The Punisher (2004) for many years due to its poor critical reception, I finally bit the bullet and was somewhat surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) has retired from the FBI after a distinguished career, finally allowing himself to spend time with his family after keeping them at arm’s length for their own safety for so long. Enraged by his son’s death at the hands of Frank, mafia boss Howard Saint (John Travolta) exacts revenge by killing Frank’s entire family, including his wife and child.
Beaten and broken, Frank arms himself to the teeth and takes on a vigilante persona as the Punisher to take justice into his own hands.
For what is essentially just a simple revenge movie, I found The Punisher to be relatively enjoyable. It’s a little on the long side, coming in at two hours in length, I feel like it could have been twenty to thirty minutes shorter to just tighten things up a bit.
It doesn’t waste time with trying to make this some grand superhero story, it’s just a guy with some guns who’s really pissed off, and I’m totally here for that.
Jane gives a strong performance as a growly, angry, broken man with nothing left to live for. But he also gives the character a surprising amount of depth with his physical performance and line delivery. The script doesn’t afford much of an insight into Frank’s mind, but we see it in Jane’s performance and honestly, I much prefer that.
Travolta works really well in this villainous role too. It’s like taking his role as Vincent in Pulp Fiction but putting him in a higher position of power. He is intimidating, and I do believe that he’s the kind of guy that could just orchestrate a mass murder on a whim because you got on his bad side.
The rest of the cast are entirely forgettable though. Frank makes some friends out of his neighbours in the apartment block he rents out, but they’re all one dimensional cliche’s who don’t have much presence in the film.
Where The Punisher shines is the action sequences. They’re well shot, plenty violent, and the best part is that they’re frequent. There’s a whole lot of action in The Punisher, and whilst I do feel like this contributed to the film’s lengthy runtime, as long as the bullets were flying I was never bored.
The violence is pretty brutal too. It’s not particularly bloody or gory, but it is most certainly excessive, it goes hard for that 18 rating and I most certainly appreciated it.
The Punisher won’t be appearing high in my list of best Marvel films, but I probably like it a lot more than most people do. If you’re after a revenge flick with lots of gunfights and some strong performances from its main protagonist and antagonist, then The Punisher is not too bad of a shout. Don’t expect much depth and you’ll have a whale of a time.
Travolta works really well in this villainous role too. It’s like taking his role as Vincent in Pulp Fiction but putting him in a higher position of power. He is intimidating, and I do believe that he’s the kind of guy that could just orchestrate a mass murder on a whim because you got on his bad side.
The rest of the cast are entirely forgettable though. Frank makes some friends out of his neighbours in the apartment block he rents out, but they’re all one dimensional cliche’s who don’t have much presence in the film.
Where The Punisher shines is the action sequences. They’re well shot, plenty violent, and the best part is that they’re frequent. There’s a whole lot of action in The Punisher, and whilst I do feel like this contributed to the film’s lengthy runtime, as long as the bullets were flying I was never bored.
The violence is pretty brutal too. It’s not particularly bloody or gory, but it is most certainly excessive, it goes hard for that 18 rating and I most certainly appreciated it.
The Punisher won’t be appearing high in my list of best Marvel films, but I probably like it a lot more than most people do. If you’re after a revenge flick with lots of gunfights and some strong performances from its main protagonist and antagonist, then The Punisher is not too bad of a shout. Don’t expect much depth and you’ll have a whale of a time.