| The Punisher (2004) Cast:Thomas Jane, John Travolta, Samantha Mathis,Rebecca Romijin-Stamos,Roy Scheider If anything else, The Punisher shows that Hollywood does sometimes deliver what it promises, with the tagline "Punishment begins..." The Punisher is easily one of the most morally repugnant and dreary movies I've ever seen. The plot is your simple vigilante stuff with Jane turning vigilante after the murder of his family (Aunts and Uncles included) however where as the 1989 Punisher starring Dolph Lundgren was a typical bodycount actioner in the vein of Commando, this new version is simply awful with no redeeming value. I'm sure that I'll get tons of hatemail for hating the new Punisher movie and liking the old Dolph Lundgren one and these 35 year-old virgins will call me every name in the book but let's face the basics here, the Dolph Lundgren movie might've not been faithful to the comicbook ( I never read comicbooks) but at least it offers more bang for the buck, plus the overall violence here is especially mean spirited, movies like this work if we can root for the characters, The hero here takes so much pleasure into torturing his victims that at times it's just sickening. When it's not simply being hideously boring. I was really looking forward to this movie, mainly because I was hoping for a character driven action thriller which this was no doubt marketed as, but unforunately the only ones who are getting punished are the audience. D.Jonathan Hensleigh *1/2 |