THE PUNISHER:

There's no scene in Riker's prison with the Punisher being led in handcuffs past the cells with everyone whispering "Oh my god it's him!" like in the limited series. There's no Jigsaw or Microchip. This is like "Punisher year one" where he is still semi-human and not completely cold and crazy. The main storyline follows Garth Ennis' "Welcome Back Frank" comic series. There are the three misfits: Mr. Bumpo, Spacker Dave (just called "Dave")and Joan the mouse (just called "Joan" and not at all mousy..just lonely). And yeah there is an amazing fight scene with the Russian!

THE TWIST? The scene where Frank's family gets killed doesn't take place in a park where they get gunned down by accident. No the movie writers come up with something that is a lot more devastating. It's a deliberate action to make Frank suffer as much as possible. That the idea of making people suffer is key to the film. Some reviews have wondered why The Punisher stops to take pictures and do recon of the villains instead of just going out and killing them.

One reviewer in Entertainment magazine, even thought the Dolph Lundgren version was better because he killed a whole lot more people, quickly and brutally. Well the movie is called "the Punisher" not "The Killer". If he just went out and killed people they would just be dead, they wouldn't have learned anything, they wouldn't have been punished. What made "the Ring" so scary is that there was a sense of Dread. People knew they were going to die. It was torturous to them. Frank Castle comes back and tells everyone that he is back. The police see him at a news conference where he approaches them. It's clever because there's an unspoken agreement, the police back off and let Frank do his thing. They never go to arrest him. It's part of the code, he was one of them after all and they're letting him get his due. (yeah he was an undercover FBI agent..another twist) Now with the hoodlums who's job it is to just follow orders and shoot a gun, those people are killed quickly. Almost without thought. The type of death matches who they are. Quick and thoughtless.

But those who gave the orders; those people suffer complex manipulations that destroy their life bit by bit before they are eventually killed. A long, carefully thought- out punishment. The Punisher is a bit crazy but he doesn't act like a gun toting lunatic. He acts like a brillant military strategist who carefully plans out his every move, who studies his opponents and finds their weaknesses. That was the reason why the Punisher could take on "Dr. Doom", "Wolverine", "Spider-man" and all the other super-powerhouses in the comic books. He found their weaknesses and flaws and he exploited them, used them as weapons against the person. That's what he does here. It doesn't always work out as planned. He gets knocked around a lot. But he is only human. And maybe that's the thing, he still seems too human. And not completely the thing known as the Punisher.

TWIST #2:
The director plays a game. He puts in references to all his favorite revenge movies. I didn't catch them all. But while I was watching I definitely experienced some weird bits of recognition. It's easy to spot the reference to "the Crow" at the end. Part of the Castle family death scene mirrors the scene in "Mad Max" where Max loses his family. And one of the Hit men is a cool spin on "the Desperado" (not so much El Mariachi) character. But my favorite was the recreation of the final shoot-out of "Once Upon a Time in the West". Oh Yeah! The only thing missing there is the harmonica. That one was really impressive. (I'm sure there are tons of others. Tell me which ones you guys find.)

SO IS IT GOOD?
Well, it starts off cool. Because you don't know which character is Castle at first. It seems sort of slow and long as you wait for the inevitable "Castle family death scene". Then it's quite shocking when you do see it (cousins and uncles and..oh my god..!) Thomas Jane does a pretty good job as the Punisher. He gets the voice perfect. I like how they explained how he comes up with the skull logo. It makes it more personal. Travolta is actually pretty good. He doesn't play it as a crazy villain. He plays it as a businessman who loves his family and is completely willing to kill anybody who is either a threat or a nuisance. No blood lust, just business. He's not as intimidating as the Kingpin or as insane as that old woman villain in Ennis' "Welcome Back.." comic. But he's good. And his wife is incredibly sexy. (She's the brunette actress from David Lynch's "Mullholland Drive". Very hot and very cold when her son is killed. She's the one who really gives the order to destroy Frank's family. Very chilling)

The three outcasts (Dave, Joan, Bumpo) are the comic relief and the "heart" of the picture. They are like Frank's second family. They are sort of a reason why he doens't turn into a total vengeance demon in the film. They're ok. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is always good. It's weird that Frank is a bit of an alcoholic. It's totally understandable that the would be driven to that. But it's weird to see the Punisher looking glazy-eyed and slugging down whisky. He's supposed to be cold and empty, and not susceptible to temptations or addictions. well except the addiction to kill. So it's good.

It's better than I thought it would be. It's not as exhilarating as John Woo's "the Killer". It's definitely more in character than Dolph Lundgren's version (He didn't even wear the skull!! What's the pint in that?) But it doesn't capture the true awesomeness of the character. it doesn't get to the point where the criminals are sh!tt!ng themselves when they see the skull logo. It is year one after all. Maybe by the sequel he would have transformed into that nightmare thing that people whisper about. If they make a sequel. Who knows.. And I liked some of the morbid humor touches. And it does get quite violent. It is a good Punisher movie. But I think I was more impressed by "Man on Fire", the other revenge-drama that's in theaters now. Both have very focused killers. Like "Michael" in La femme Nikita. Scary, skillful and emotionally distanced.

BOTTOM LINE:
Cool movie. Not a waste of money. You'll walk out somewhat impressed but not overwhelmed. You'll be incredibly thankful that they didn't totally ruin the idea of the punisher, This is definitely not a catastrophe like "Judge Dredd". This is a neat movie. But just not as jaw-dropping cool as Garth Ennis scary, twisted punisher. And no where near as crazy as the Punisher in Ennis' "Born" limited series. That was the scariest Punisher that I've ever seen. You sort of get the idea that this one was softened a bit to make the audience relate and sympathize with him. It's too bad they didn't go more like the character in "High Plains Drifter" who was all consumed with revenge when it came to that town. That would have been a bit cooler.

But still, it's a good movie it'll probably do great on DVD. Enjoyable but not totally memorable. It could have been a lot worse. But it's definitely not a bad movie. But it could have been so much more. it just didn't establish the myth of the guy.

On a scale of 1 to 10 maybe a 7.5 or 8. (I'm not good with the number scale thing) and that's what I got