TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Leofwine_draca Well, this is a pretty much loathed movie. I can't seem to find many people who like it. Even the review books say it's rubbishy. However, I enjoyed it from the start. Sure, it's a completely brainless movie, all action and violence and no characterisation or plot, but it's fun. The budget is well used with lots of explosions and shooting. The actors are cool and the violence is played hard and fast, sometimes shockingly (one scene of a guy getting knives driven into his wrists reminded me of the beginning of the Fulci gore flick THE BEYOND). It's based on a comic book, and as comic-to-film adaptations go, this is a pretty accurate one in my opinion. It LOOKS like a comic made real, without being over-the-top and cheesy.Dolph Lundgren takes the lead role of the silent killer, so a lot of people immediately hated the movie. Me, I don't mind Lundgren, and I figure he's pretty good here as the moody psycho killer, certainly looking a lot different to what he usually does. Lundgren has plenty of post-COMMANDO one liners to deal with, some of which are successful. Louis Gossett Jr. is the lone policeman hot on his trail, and puts in a solid - if undistinguished - performance. Jeroen Krabbe is the main villain, a ruthless cold-blooded mob boss recently released from jail, and is very good. Kim Miyori steals her scenes as the sadistically evil Yakuza leader who takes delight in torturing and butchering her victims. One other character I liked was the British failed actor tramp who becomes the Punisher's sidekick, he was pretty funny.The introduction of the Yakuza gang paves the way for a fair share of martial arts action to enjoy, plus lots of cool weapons. The film takes the form of a string of violent set-pieces linked together by scenes furthering the plot (usually themselves involving death and destruction). Highlights include a bus chase, a dockyard shoot-out, a fight in an abandoned carnival, and the finale which sees Lundgren and Krabbe teaming up to infiltrate the enemy base and laying waste to literally dozens of villains in a very bloody fashion. As I mentioned before, this is an extremely violent movie in the style of Paul Verhoeven's movies, with blood exploding from those shot, lots of slashed throats, and impalements. I love it. While admittedly a low-intelligence movie to watch, and hardly memorable or satisfying, THE PUNISHER moves fast and kept me glued to the screen for the hour and a half, so it must have done something right.

Daniel Loe *WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS* The Punisher has had three movies, and this was the first. I haven't seen War Zone, but this is the weakest out of the two I've seen. It isn't exactly bad, but it won't really commit to telling a Punisher movie. They leave out the skull shirt, which is y'know, the Punisher's costume. I think Dolph Lundergen looks like a good Punisher, but he looks half-asleep throughout the entire movie, which makes it hard to get into his character at all. Louis Gosset Jr. plays Frank's former partner, who is looking for him. That was a good sub-plot, but it was never utilized. The two finally meet, but Frank won't even talk to him much at all, so it lessens the impact. I could not stand the head Yakuza woman, something about her was just so grating, I don't know why. Her mute daughter was a pretty good concept though, and she got a good fight with the Punisher, but it didn't have enough impact. I think the Yakuza boss should've gotten enraged to see her daughter dead, and released the kid to kill Punisher, instead of just being killed by a thrown knife. There are some good shoot-outs. I liked that Frank was portrayed as a real person, and not just an unstoppable killing machine, but seeing him use martial arts styled combat just doesn't work for me. He doesn't use his guns enough throughout a lot of the movie, aside from the epic fight at the docks. I also like that the Punisher does go to save the mobster's kids, but only after his conscience gets the better of him. The aspect of the Punisher's conscience was something that was missing from the Thomas Jane version. But aside from that, this movie is just kind of... bland. The bleak tone suffocates any fun to be had from the violence and fighting, and, while the score is good, it just adds to the depressing atmosphere. In conclusion, The Punisher isn't a great movie, it has sub-par acting, decent action, an okay story, and a poor tone.

bowmanblue The Punisher is based on the - particularly violent - Marvel comic book of the same name from the seventies, where a former FBI agent has his family murdered and goes out for revenge his own way.Whereas today, Marvel movies are given huge budgets ala The Avengers, Thor and Iron Man, this one was handed out to a little-known Australian company to make. The results being that The Avengers, Thor and Iron man it is not.Every character is pretty stereotypical and one-dimensional. The dialogue is a bit forced. The budget is slim and the story hardly inspired. All in all, it has all the hallmarks of a disaster in the making. Yet it's actually pretty cool... if you know what you're getting.It's a blatant B-movie. It's like actually watching a live action comic book. You wouldn't expect Oscar-worthy dialogue and acting from a comic book, would you? Hopefully not. So don't expect it here. It's a movie designed to munch popcorn to. It has plenty of explosions, killing of badguys and cheeky one-liners from our strong and silent hero, The Punisher.They ever remade it (twice), but, despite having bigger budgets, better acting and more bankable stars, neither seemed to quite capture the raw comicbook style which the 1989 version managed.If you're a fan of cheesy eighties action (think Commando, Rambo and almost any Jean Claude Van Damme film) then give this one a go. It's short and to the point, but mainly great mindless fun.

Paul Magne Haakonsen I remember this movie from my youth, especially when Dolph Lundgren was riding his motorcycle in the sewers. For some reason that particular scene stuck with me for years.Having seen the newer movies and thinking them to be adequate action movies, I decided to give this movie a go once again, just for old times sakes.Sure, this movie is from 1989 and yes it bears witness to that, but the movie is still entertaining for what it is. Sure, it is not fully up to par with the newer "The Punisher" movies, but it still holds it own for what it is worth.And yes, the iconic skull is missing from the shirt, but at least the essence of "The Punisher" is there, and at least the knives have the skull on it.It is kind of funny to see Dolph Lundgren with dark hair and that fake five o'clock shadow going on. But he does bring something goofy and campy to the movie and to "The Punisher" franchise. One thing I just didn't get was the sleepy eyes, was that something everyone had to do back in the 80's?There is a lot of action throughout the entire movie, so that at least counts for something, despite the fact that there is a lot of mistakes throughout the movie as well. I mean, for example where they gun down a whole room full of Japanese people, but not a single bullet managed to miss someone and tear a hole in the paper walls behind them. That was just a wonderful scene. Or not to mention when a woman pulls off her earrings to slash The Punisher, but then they had magically reattached themselves to the ears in the very next scene. Was she really that fast? Despite its campy atmosphere, then this 1989 version of "The Punisher" is fun enough to watch once every now and again when you need something completely brainless to watch.And on the plus side, that logo they used for the movie just screams 1980's all over. It looked like something from a Commodore 64 game. It was just priceless.