5/5 Blaze of glory! Justice rules!
  by Sexy Bachelor (Singapore)
If you've been a victim of crime and injustice, you'd LOVE this movie!

Learn from the hero as he systematically seeks justice by taking out a bunch of scumbags!

There should be more heroes like this in real life!






Recommended watching:

Rambo - The Complete Collector's Set (First Blood - Ultimate Edition / Rambo - First Blood Part II - Ultimate Edition / Rambo III - Ultimate Edition / John Rambo - Special Edition)

Death Sentence (Unrated Edition)

5/5 Great story, lots of action
  by Cute Chihuahua (Orient, OH USA)
This movie is about an FBI agent who basically has his entire family murdered in by a enemy. After the police fail to bring the criminals to justice, he is out for blood and decides to take matters into his own hands. If you like action movies then this is a must see.

3/5 Average Action Movie
  by G. Chan
The soundtrack was engaging and a real positive aspect of this movie.
The plot and dialog were run of the mill hollywood action revenge mindless
cinema. the video transfer deserves high scores for the deep blacks and lack of
video banding.

3/5 good action but needs more "punishing"
  by Richard Almasi (Europa)
As as a good action flick goes this one hits the spot, but it is not as good as the old action classic with Doplh Lundgren The Punisher [DVD] [1990].

I've decided to grade this film according four characteristics: storyline, acting, action, trueness to the "The Punisher"-theme.

As far storyline goes, this one has a more engaging story than the previous film. It is more realistic, has more interesting characters in it and even manages to put some humor in it.

The acting by the lead Thomas is very good, he does the role very well. The others are alright: the three friends of 'The Punisher' are nice characters that reduces the intensity of 'The Punishers's role.
The let-down for me is that Travolta doesn't convince me as a super-villain, he is not evil enough...his wife in the film seems more evil than him.

The film is consistent with action, and never gets boring.

The reason I don't rate this 5/5 is because it does not live-up to "The Punisher"-theme as much as the previous film, the Punisher in this film is simply too soft. I expected him to lash out more brutal punishment but instead he chooses quick deaths for his enemy rather than punishment.
This is where the older film is better, it lives up to the role much better, i.e. it is more brutal.
For me, Dolph is still a better "Punisher".

All-in-all though its a very good action film, you won't get bored. So if you like action it is worth seeing.

3/5 Punishing To Watch -- On Par w/Catwoman!
  by James "Scotman" April (Bakersfield, CA)
A strange take on the Marvel comic of the same name. Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) in the comics is at a picnic when his family overhears some gangland stuff going on and promptly get murdered. Perhaps a wife, a few kids.

The film thinks bigger. We have Castle retiring. Just before he does, he gets involved in a sting where the son of a gangster (John Travolta) gets himself killed. Travolta's character does some research and finds that Castle was the disguised sting operator. The wife insists that Castle's entire family gets wasted. That's the entire two clans of the family reunion in Puerto Rico.

About 30 people are killed. A bit overkill, huh?

Thomas Jane plays the role in a bit of a subdued tone rather than an angry vengeful tone. And in some scenes this works. The Punisher, just like in Elektra, does not do well in hand to hand combat. He gets punched, beat, and is wiped along the floor and smashed into concrete floors and walls. He beats The Russian by throwing hot soup in his face.

OK, now I'm scared.

The film tries to be lighthearted with the family he lives nearby as neighbors. They look at Frank as family. The slapstick became a bit much. And if some guy is pulling your lip rings out with a pair of pliers, you really are not going to say anything about the whereabouts of Castle? And the little fat friend who sits with a smarmy grin on his face does not make a move or say a word as the kid gets his rings pulled out. Geesh....

Some slapstick as well, comes off fake.

Strange -- why does it take so long for the gang to know where Frank lives? His face was on every TV set in the city and people would point and say, "Hey, I know you!" Yet half the film is over before they decide to go to his apartment.

The Punisher does punish --especially towards the end of the film where we see he's pretty good setting up booby traps and creating false evidence, tricking Travolta's character into killing his own associates and wife. Clever.

Blowing up every single car in a parking lot was, again, overkill. I mean, really. Travolta does not do "bad guy" so well. Similar to his portrayal in "Broken Arrow", I just don't see him as evil. Saturday Night Fever was not happening here!

I don't want to list every fallacy in this film. I will say some parts were fairly gruesome and sad, the pyrotechnics were loud and unnecessary and the acting was hampered by a script that didn't know where it wanted to go.

And, no Stan Lee walk-on!

Recommended for die-hard fans who want to see a movie loosely based on the Punisher comics series. On par with Catwoman. No, really!