by Moe Zilla

Created on: January 21, 2008

"The Punisher" fights nearly everybody in this 2004 movie. He uses machine guns, shotguns, knives, and a bow and arrow. And occasionally, he even uses his fists.

It's a violent movie, but then again, he's a violent character. In the original Marvel comic book, The Punisher was a trained combat veteran who's driven to a life of vengeance when his wife and children are killed to silence their testimony against gangsters. Even

the other superheroes shun his righteous violence, but Frank Castle stays true to his simple worldview of right, wrong - and punishment.

So when this movie was made in 2004, it was inevitable that it would become a violent action flick. (The Motion Picture Association said this movie was rated R "for pervasive brutal violence.") But it didn't help that the director was given a tiny budget of $15 million, and just 7 weeks to film it. This required him to chop an exciting war scene from the script that was set in Kuwait during the first Gulf War and established some of Castle's back history.

To give Castle's character even more motivation, an early scene in the movie shows him losing his entire family - 30 extended relatives at a family reunion - in a drug lord's retaliatory massacre. (The drug lord's son was killed during an FBI operation in which Frank was undercover.) This scene won the "Best Fire Stunt" award from the World Stunt awards (when a giant propane tank explodes, the stunt man is blasted backwards
and set on fire), but the sequence drags on for nearly 10 minutes, as Castle tries to pick off the invading army while his wife and son desperately flee ran for a jeep.

But at least it introduces the henchmen - the long-haired thug, the killer's young son Bobby - who we know will be meeting Frank Castle again. John Travolta plays his usual smarmy bad guy, Howard Saint, who's the pure-evil target for Frank Castle's scheme for revenge. (At one point, Travolta says simply "Make Castle dead.") In fact, throughout the movie there's a series of bad guys who come after Castle, and at least they're INTERESTING one-dimensional characters. But it's like the movie ultimately delivers the simpleness of a comic book without any of the fun.

Frank Castle orchestrates a series of internal dissensions in the ranks of Travolota's drug lord, but his strategic machinations just lead more thugs to attack him. (The story is based on parts of the four-issue comic book "The Punisher: Year One.") Actor Thomas Jane ultimately became very enthusiastic about the part. (To play The Punisher, Jane gained more than twenty pounds of muscle, and trained for over 6 months with a team of Navy SEALs.) But it seems like he was almost overqualified for a part that requires him to be, literally, punched through a wall, to stab a knife into someone's head, and in one scene, to take a man who's dying of gun shots, chain him to a car, and then set him on fire. (While more cars explode in the background...)

In the final showdown, the soundtrack features a slow gunfighter's song. I think this whole movie could've been a lot more fun if they'd taken it "over the top" - instead of just making it ultra-realistic violence. The director says he reviewed violent crime films like "Bonnie and Clyde" for inspiration.

I think he should've watched a few good superhero movies too...

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