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List Price: $22.98 | | Label: Lions Gate
Salesrank: 11732
Released: March 17, 2009 |
| Our Price: $12.99 |
| Used Price: $5.36 |
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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 (Two-Disc Special Edition):
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 (Two-Disc Special Edition) Reviews:
Great comic/action movie 
2009-12-28 - I loved this movie, great action and gun play. definitely A great comic movie, fans of the punisher or john woo like shoot outs will love this movie.
Ray Stevenson as Punisher, Colin Salmon as Eye Candy 
2009-10-15 - Movies like this are why people should read reviews before purchasing. It should have been no surprise about the violence if you were familiar with the graphic novels. I don't normally go for such violent and gory films, but I like watching Stevenson and Salmon so I gave it a chance. At least it's not brainless, hence my 4-star rating. There a plot and a purpose to this film. And, the ending is okay. Not recommended for the faint of heart.
For Punisher Fans Only...
2009-08-02 - My 4-star rating of Punisher: War Zone is based soley on Ray Stevenson as The Punisher and the faithfulness to the source material where the character is concerned. However over-the-top the action sequences with the Punisher may seem to be, even to the knowledgable Punisher fan, I thought were great. I don't think anyone will mistake Lexi Alexander for a great director, but she managed to capture the "spirit" of the character. Unfortunately, there is more bad about this film than good.
The Good: Ray Stevenson as The Punisher. I thought everything about the Punisher's look, his actions and prowess was spot on. The overall story was pretty straightforward and a good jumping off point. Using an established villain (Jigsaw, played by Dominic West) from the comic book was good. The Punisher's origin was smartly incorporated in a brief flashback scene. Various scenes throughout the movie (with the police supporting characters) and his comic book sidekick, Microchip (called Micro in the movie, played by Wayne Knight) quickly establish how the Punisher is able to operate. I find that too often, movies get bogged down by being a half origin movie and that takes away from the movie itself. Not the case in War Zone. We know everything we need to know about The Punisher through various scenes.
The Bad. I found the basic story tripped up by the clumsy attempt to add depth where depth was not needed. The Punisher works best as a "black and white" character. Having the Punisher go through an internal struggle just didn't work and really slowed the movie down. Having the Punisher walk or run around the streets fully armed is just plain silly and lazy writing. It's a minor detail, but it really detracts from the "credibility" of the character and the world in which he lives. The acting of the supporting cast was adequate, but the stupidity of the Lexi Alexander created Loony Bin Jim character was cringe-worthy. LBJ played by Doug Hutchison was embarrassingly bad, not to mention absurd. How this pipsqueak could last 5 seconds in a fight with the Punisher, not to mention survive being used as human sledge hammer by the Punisher is beyond me. Joe Pesci proved time and again that you don't need to be physically imposing to be menacing, Hutchison has a long way to go. Alexander obviously thought LBJ was a great character, so much so that the final showdown, typically between "hero and villain", in this case Punisher and Jigsaw turned out to be more Punisher vs Loony Bin. There was a line about The Punisher being in the priesthood. Probably another lame Alexander addition which didn't work (and not part of the source material that I'm familiar with) but allowed them to film a church scene which seems all too common in bad movies and served as another clumsy attempt get into the head of the Punisher. If expanding or adding depth to the Punisher's character was what Alexander wanted, she should have went for a Ray Stevenson voiceover. This would have given the lead character more "screen time" instead we got bogged down with too many scenes with the supporting cast. If she bothered to research the character beyond the comic books the look of the movie is based on, she would've seen that the voiceover device is often used---at least in early Punisher comic books, called his "War Journal".
I have to believe that in a more talented and experienced director's hands, War Zone could've been one of the best comic book movies ever made. After all, half the work was done with Ray Stevenson in the lead. If you're a Punisher fan, War Zone faithfully captures the spirit of the character and then some, it's a must-see or must-own. Otherwise, don't bother because it falls short in almost every other respect from a film making standpoint that it's completely understandable why the public at large stayed away.
Not So Happy Punisher Super Fan
2009-07-09 - I'm a big fan of the Punisher. He is easily my fav comic book character. And finally they got a movie of his right. The Dolph Lundgren movie had some good points but overall was a humorous joke. The Thomas Jane movie was a great drama/action movie. The only problem was it wasn't about the Punisher! (At least not the Punisher I know and have always seen for 16 years)
Kudos to Lexi Alexander for finally getting it right. She said they were sticking to the source and they largely did. However there were a slew of problems with the movie and ultimately her inexperienced directing. The script was kind of running all over the place. It had strong elements but didn't tie them together well. On the directing side the movie was chopped up and edited together like crazy. Scenes were not fluid and cut up all the time. This can be further witnessed in "the making of". I don't think it was bad actors, in fact I've seen many of those actors in their other works and they did just fine. I think the actors queues were off and the script at times was hard to pull off with very odd dialog and scenes that were not being directed well. The movie was not cut well in the end and this showed several times when it showed the actors standing there right after they were given their queue to go ahead and they weren't even in character yet.
Silly things in the film like Frank walking through all of New York in public with his full load out was just ridiculous. A 10 second scene showing him stow his gear into a duffel would have taken care of that. A heavily armed gunman walking through a subway multiples times at night just doesn't work. The constant pulling of multiple pistols, sheathing of said pistols, reloading pistols and my favorite, after he shoots up the mafia in the beginning, he sheaths all his weapons and gets ready to walk out then another guy assaults him. Frank, in enemy territory not holding a weapon? The chandelier seen visually looked cool but was also silly. The "heat seeking grenade" that blew up a guy in mid air was a bad joke. Lexi can definitely direct hand to hand combat action and she did so very well. For gun play, she hasn't got a clue and she is no John Woo. Even though she got the visuals down, everything else kind of hit and missed. I think a more experienced director with smarter spending in budget and a cleaner script that wasn't ripped piecemeal from the comics would have done a lot better. And Frank was in seminary? Somebody shoot me.
A good example of low budget, solid action and good directing would be Leon, The Professional. (made for 16 million in 94')
The reason I give this 4 out of 5 stars is because again, I'm a huge Punisher fan. However, if I were to rate this DVD subjectively I would have given it 1 out of 5 stars. I really wanted to support the movie and buy it so I bought the two disc special edition. Not good.
1. As several other mentioned the package is made from a earth friendly recyclable whatever. It flexes and bends, has cut out material underneath the outer paper. Where you press to release the dvd, it flexes so much it doesn't work! You just have to pry it off.
2. There are literally 7 movie previews that you have to fast forward by just to get to the movie. Not what I'd expect for a special edition.
3. When I tried to play the movie in xp64's Windows Media Player, it said it couldn't due to copyright issues. When I tried to get the digital version to mount of my Vista 32 laptop, it couldn't even recognize the DVD. I finally got the movie to play in Media Player Classic.
4. The digital version with it's heavy copyright protection from computer to computer is a bad joke.
5. The extra content IE the making of is VERY short and only half of it is good. It was cool watching the actors talk about he movie. The guns of the punisher was just sad. Hardly any up to date guns or exotic weapons. No fun footage of target practice, nothing. I did like the Training bit though. It was substantial and showed some fun footage. The same credits after every special got old. Fast forward time.
Unless Lions Gate makes another Punisher movie, I will never buy one of their productions again. Their production, materials, special digital content etc were lame, buggy and cheap at best.
If you're a punisher fan, buy the two disc. The extra content is BARELY worth it.
If you're an action fan it is definitely worth a watch.
If you're neither, steer clear.
Wow!
2009-07-06 - Too much violence--don't go see a Punisher film! What were you expecting? If there are any sequels to be made, without Ray Stevenson I wouldn't want to see it!
