"If Society Won't Punish The Guilty, He Will!"	Year of Release: 1989 Directed by: Mark Goldblatt Running Time: Approx. 92 minutes Rating: R Listing on the A.K.A. Page: Nope! A Second Opinion: Badmovies.Org Buy it on DVD at: Amazon.com or Movies Unlimited.com. My Rating:

Detective Frank Castle/The Punisher- Dolph Lundgren! After Frank Castle's family is killed by a mafia car bomb, he goes into hiding and carries out a one-man war on crime as the Punisher!

Jake Berkowitz- Louis Gossett Jr.! Police lieutenant who's been trying to track down "the Punisher" for five years. He was Frank's friend before the whole mafia car bomb incident, and he just wants to help.

Sam Leary- Sam ... as in Samantha. Jake's new partner on the Punisher case(s) who's present only to provide expostion to the audience. Also when she says f*ck later on in the movie, it just doesn't sound right! Cussing is definitely not becoming of a woman!

Gianni Franco- The most powerful mob boss ... in the world(?). Franco kidnaps and forces "the Punisher" to help him find and rescue his son. Shot by the Punisher.

Lady Tanaka- Kim Miyori! Evil boss of the Yakuza. She's muscling in on Franco's territory and even kidnaps his son to get what she wants. She gets a knife tossed into her forehead by the Punisher.

Lady Tanaka's Daughter- ROOOWWWLLL! A cute mute and deadly ninja assassin. She gives the Punisher a hassle so he breaks her neck.

Tommy Franco and the Other Kidnapped Children- The kidnapped children of all the mob bosses. Before they are sold into slavery, the Punisher arrives to save the day.

Shake- An old drunken thespian (actor). He provides information to the Punisher and is only around to provide exposition when needed.

The Other Crime Bosses- Killed by Lady Tanaka.

Yakuza, Mobsters, Gangsters- Blown up, shot, and/or stabbed by the Punisher.

I can hear the complaints already. You gave this movie FOUR RADIOACTIVE SYMBOLS?! It sucked! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! For those that believe that, it's your own opinion that The Punisher sucked, so if you don't like what I have to say, then what the f*ck are you doing at this site?! [Sorry, I'm a bit grouchy tonight. Now on with the review!] After the long opening credits, the movie starts off in a Robocop-esque manner with a TV newscast. Apparently a major mafia figure has been acquitted of the murder of Frank Castle and his family. After telling reporters he's not afraid of the so-called Punisher, the mobster goes home and has his men immediately check out the house. Each wiseguy is dispatched of quickly and mercilessly, and the house is blown up. Later that evening, Jake Berkowitz is studying the scene of the crime and meets Sam Leary. They partner up and decide to meet in the morning and find out where the Punisher is.
In the meantime, Gianni Franco has arrived from Europe. He plans on uniting all the mob families in the area to form one powerful crime syndicate. To do so, he has them all working together on a shipment of drugs, and not far behind is Frank, ready to deal out vigilante` justice. The drug boat arrives, and suddenly the Yakuza strike and kill all the mobsters. Frank then drops down and deals out some major punishment to the Yakuza but ends up getting a knife to the chest. He falls into the nearby water and is supposedly killed. The next day, Franco arranges a brief meeting with Lady Tanaka, the leader of the Yakuza. She demands some unfavorable terms of all the crime families and leaves.
To try and make the American mobsters more complacent, she kidnaps all of their children, then arranges a meeting between them all to negotiate for their children. Franco wisely stays behind, because the others are all killed at the meeting with poison (except for one unlucky bastard who ends up eating a bullet). Later on, Frank is told by Shake (speare?) that the Yakuza are hiding out within a Coney Island funhouse. Frank goes there and is soon attacked by an army of Yakuza armed with machine guns. As usual, Dolph doesn't get hit with a bullet as he stands out in the open, but easily takes out a handful of badguys with a few shots. Frank is captured eventually and awakens to find himself lying on a torture device. On the other side of the room, Shake is also being tortured. Frank waits for an opportune time, then he escapes from his chains, kills the guards, frees Shake, and goes to rescue the children.
Frank steals a bus and drives to an abandoned warehouse where the children are being kept. He succeeds in rescuing everyone except for Tommy Franco and escapes in said bus. He ends up getting trapped in a police roadblock and gives himself up. So now he's been arrested and charged with the murder of "an unprecedented, one-hundred and twenty-five counts of first degree murder." Jake visits Frank in jail and tries talking to him, but ends up flipping out because "the Frank he knew died five years ago!" So Frank is shipped to court for sentencing when suddenly he's kidnapped by some of Franco's men. Franco wants the Punisher to help him rescue his son from Lady Tanaka. To make sure he helps out, Franco has captured Jake and is holding him as collateral.
Frank accepts but assures Franco that after it's all over, he's dead. Frank and Franco then go and sneak into Lady Tanaka's fortified office building. They go through a maze and blow away dozens of Yakuza thugs and have seperate encounters with stalwart foes. Frank kills two "twin" henchmen and takes out Lady Tanaka's daughter while Franco takes out generic Yakuza and chases Lady Tanaka. What it all comes down to in the end is a life or death situation. Lady Tanaka promises not to harm Tommy if Franco puts a gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger. He's about to do so, when suddenly the Punisher comes crashing through a window and hits Lady Tanaka square in the forehead with a knife. Then a fight breaks out between Franco and his archnemesis, which results in Franco's death. Frank Castle then escapes from the building somehow just as the police arrive upstairs. So the Punisher is on the loose again and Jake will probably search for another five years or more for his troubled friend.
Ok one thing that bugged me during this whole movie was this. Where did Frank Castle get all those guns and ammunition? Where'd he get his personalized daggers and his grenades? Couldn't Jake have checked records of recent purchases or thefts of weaponry? And how does Frank fund his vigilante` justice? Does he have a day job that just wasn't shown in the movie because it was "uncool?" Aside from all that I enjoyed this movie. The plot is simple, the death toll's high, and I really like the theme music. Comparing it to the comic book is a bad idea, so just watch it as an entirely unrelated media. Trust me it'll seem much better.

Shake: "Mr. P! Happy hunting!"

Lady Tanaka: "We are Yakuza! When your ancestors were still shepards screwing sheep on the Mediterranean coast, ours were the crime lords of Asia."

Lady Tanaka: "It cost us nearly two million dollars in cash. How much pain do you think that buys?
Frank: "Is the question true or false, or multiple choice?"

Jake: "Well you know how you go out for a drink after work? Well in my case, it was the drink before work, the drink during work, and finally the drink instead of work."

Jake: "What the f*ck do you call 125 murders in five years?!"
Frank: "Work in progress."

Frank: "... the guilty must be punished."