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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Lions Gate
Salesrank: 14634
Released: March 17, 2009 |
| Our Price: $10.17 |
| Used Price: $1.29 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Waging his one-man war on the world of organized crime, ruthless vigilante-hero Frank Castle sets his sights on overeager mob boss, Billy Russoti. After Russoti is left horribly disfigured by Castle, he sets out for vengeance under his new alias: Jigsaw. With the "Punisher Task Force" hot on his trail and the FBI unable to take Jigsaw in, Frank must stand up to the formidable army that Jigsaw has recruited before more of his evil deeds go unpunished.
Description of Punisher: War Zone:
Punisher: War Zone cannot be adequately described as "over the top"--it's a relentless catalogue of brutal mayhem punctuated, here and there, with outrageous sentimentality. Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher (Ray Stevenson, Rome) has dedicated his life to killing the kind of gangsters who murdered his family. But when he unknowingly kills an undercover FBI agent, Castle falls into a crisis of conscience and decides to lay down his guns. Unfortunately, one of the last gangsters he thought he'd killed survived, albeit horribly disfigured, and seeks revenge on the wife and daughter of that slain FBI agent--so Castle has to go one last spree of vigilante justice! But this plot summary will not prepare you for the jolting violence of Punisher: War Zone; rarely do more than a few minutes go by without startling physical savagery, particularly to people's heads, which get blown apart with numbing frequency. This violence somehow goes hand in hand with dizzyingly saccharine moments when a young girl gazes at Castle with trusting eyes, knowing in her heart that he's the only one who can protect her. The dialogue goes beyond cliche into tough guy baroque. Stevenson underplays Castle to good effect, because everyone else in the movie--including Dominic West (The Wire), Doug Hutchison (The Green Mile), and Wayne Knight (Seinfeld)--chews the scenery like it's slathered with gravy. Some viewers will find this movie revolting; others will worship it like a golden calf. You probably know where you stand. --Bret Fetzer
Punisher: War Zone Reviews:
Another Rip-off 
2009-12-03 - No matter how many Punisher movies they make or comices they sell, two things do not change.
1. The Punisher continues to be a clear rip-off/imitation of the Executioner, Mack Bolan, series. All the way from the character's background and motivation to the uniform and weapons he uses to even a war van which was another Executioner series original. Except the Executioner has a sense of right and wrong, emulates the true meaning of justice, yet does it with heart.
2. For approximately every 5-30 "bad guys" the Punisher kills, he ends the life of one innocent person.
If you believe the end justifies the means and do not mind a few innocent people getting in the way, then you're the type to enjoy this immitation of the largest selling book series in history.
Yeah !!! Best punisher yet.Finally the right actor as punisher !! 
2009-10-04 - Wow fantastic movie.This is like punisher is in the comics.I hope they make punisher 3 soon with
this new awesome actor.
Punisher: War Zone, 800th review!
2009-09-18 - I saw the preview for this movie when it first came out and shrugged it off. I watched a review from a guy saying how good this film was and since I enjoy his work I checked it out. I've seen the two previous Punisher films and I did like the Dolph Lundgren version, which is a shocking statement in itself, better then the newer version with Thomas Jane. This one is probably the best film out of the three.
The film is straight up action from beginning to end. I've heard people say the acting sucked, there was little action (well from one guy), and the story was non-existent. It's a friggin action movie who the hell cares about acting? The main bad guys, Looney Bin Jim and Jigsaw did a good performance. There is a story to the film but I guess some people missed it. The action is plentiful and somewhat gory. I highly enjoyed this movie and I barely expect anything from it. Check this out if you want a mindless action film.
sorry i like this movie
2009-08-20 - Let me start by saying I understand this movie/character is not for every one. he doesn't fly,turn in to a 10 foot green monster, have a cool super suit, or shoot webs out of his hands. The Punisher is a walking death machine. He doesn't do this to save the world. It's his personal war with the underworld that killed his family. I feel this movie captures that. It's not a great movie. It won't make you cry or die laughing but it does kick ass.
This is a fun ultra violent film that will entertain if you don't take it to seriously. I highly recommend it.
Easily the worst of the Punisher films
2009-08-09 - Spoilers Ahead!
The first thing you need to understand about this movie is that it has no plot. What you get here is explosions, extreme violence, bad language and rip-offs from Batman the movie and The Dark Knight. The Punisher does nothing but kill criminals all movie long, stopping only for a moment to reflect upon his accidental murder of an undercover cop, whose family gets kidnapped only because the Punisher kills criminals all movie long. He has to save them, because, you know, he's their protector now. Out of guilt, of course.
It's true that this Punisher is the most violent; however, that violence is highly cartoonish. This isn't Goodfellas violent, like it should be, but rather Watchmen alley scene violent. Shotgun blasts to the head, cause complete disintegration and there's a scene where the Punisher punches someone in the face and the guy's face implodes. Take in mind that the Punisher is just a powerless human who's snapped and you have to ask exactly who on this planet can do something like that?
It's been said that a hero is only as good as his villain and this is where the Punisher commits yet another comic book movie crime. Jiggsaw is a rip-off of Jack Nickelson's Joker, albeit slightly toned down and a lot less charismatically insane. It's the absolute worst portrayal of an Italian mob boss I've ever seen in a live-action movie. It's Krang-level antics from the original TMNT cartoons here. In fact, Jiggsaw's brother is ten-times better as a character than he is. Quite impressive, actually.
Speaking of rip-offs, some of the music in this movie seems to have been siphoned off from The Dark Knight. On first introduction of the Punisher, you can clearly hear similar use of string instruments rubbing at a fast pace as it was in The Dark Knight. It only heightens the hilarity of it, when we see how the Punisher dispatches an entire table of mob members. It is easily the silliest scene in the movie and only makes the Punisher look ever more like a cartoon character that doesn't know what he's doing. Not only does he light a flare, after shutting off the power--what exactly was the point of shutting off the lights, if you're going to light a flare?--but he proceeds to kill everyone at the table at a slow enough pace that you would think someone would have pulled a gun and shot him down. Worst of all, he goes on to hang upside down from a chandelier in a room full of gun-toting criminals in what has got to be the most ridiculous thing I've seen since Ghost Rider. A true telling of this scene would have had the Punisher using knight-vision goggles as he simply shot-up the entire unlit room.
With all that said, it's quite clear that the makers of this movie had little faith in the source material, as once again a character's costume is changed for no good reason. That box-art is highly deceptive. Why, exactly, is that cool skull on the Punisher's chest nigh-invisible? It's there for a reason, yet the filmakers do their best to hide it without actually removing it altogether. The movie is already shockingly silly. Why not drive it home with an authentic costume?
The acting is quite terrible. You'd think someone could get cop personalities right after the endless amount of cop dramas filling prime time television these days, but they miss the boat even with this. This is a bootleg version of the remake to Starsky & Hutch. In fact, it's Last Action Hero all over again.
The Punisher himself is not without fault either. There's a scene where he's fighting an FBI agent and the agent is giving him competition. Frank Castle, the Punisher; a war veteran, master of martial arts, stealth tactics, guerilla warfare, an expert in a wide variety of weapons and an ex special ops operative is having trouble with an FBI agent. You figure that one out. He's not particularly terrible, but the actor's body language is just wrong in certain places. This is a hardened, war vet who's lost everything. He should be a mixture of Sarah Connor, Jason Bourne, and Dirty Harry with a stoic personality, bordering on insanity if not insane altogether. Dolph Lundren's Punisher was a guy I would genuinely not feel comfortable being in the same room with. This Punisher is actually embraced by a little girl that only met him ONCE! Mind you, this is the little girl whose daddy was accidentally killed by the Punisher.
As for the ending, it's totally unforgivable. Jiggsaw virtually committed suicide. I can't see any leader of so many being that stupid. Any villain that allows the Punisher to continue holding a gun under any condition is a fool. Period.
Get ready to turn your brain to the negative setting and take some comfort in knowing it's at least violent and gritty as frak.
