This was one of my most anticipated movie of 2004.But when I watched it, I realized how fool I was!
The Punisher (Spoilers******)
Ex-Marine and now undercover G-Man Frank Castle (Jane) is retiring from the force. He decides to take his wife and son to a family reunion with approximately 30 family members. Howard Saint (Travolta) finds out that the undercover cop, who was supposedly killed along with his son, is still alive. He sends his own man and personal executioner, Quentin Glass (Patton) -- to take care of some unfinished business. Saint's wife Livia Saint (Laura Harring) wants more than a little vengeance.
As a matter of that Castle and his entire family gets slaughtered like cattle except Frank Castle survives. After being nursed back to health, he slaps on a skull T-shirt and proceeds to play sneaky games. The Punisher? No..just a pussy version of it.
Blame one man for this crap and that is the writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh (writer of "Die Hard with a Vengeance" in his directorial debut). A fairly simple formula (you killed my family..Now it's payback!) was treated ridiculously.
Instead of focusing on Frank Castle's hurting payback, the flick decided to explore his strange neighbors tubby Mr. Bumpo (John Pinette), piercing guru Spacker Dave (Ben Foster) and super model looking Joan (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos). It should be said that all three characters were derived from the comic...but they just didn't work in the film! Their presence was deviates the story away from Castle and his immediate goal.
For humor (or what) we get a surprise fight scene inter-cut with fat dude singing opera and dancing with his male friend. Also Punisher photographing (and staring) Gay kissing couples.
And the excruciating soreness didn't stop there. Frank Castle actually vanished from the film for a good part of the middle section with the poseur mobsters and the dumb ass neighbors getting more air play. Funny, I thought this was Castle's story. To add insult to insult, the flick failed in putting out the necessary tone.
Thomas Jane (The Punisher) don't even have the look (He supposed to be an expert, freelance crime fighter were Jane is still 'some one else' in the movie except in the climax and closing scenes).
Before director Jonathan Hensleigh came onto the project, Michael France (co-writer of "Cliffhanger") was working on the screenplay, which contained elements of the 12-issue "Welcome Back Frank" mini-series written by Garth Ennis. France's script was then re-written by Jonathan Hensleigh.
That all makes this movie '.1' out of 10
The Punisher (Spoilers******)
Ex-Marine and now undercover G-Man Frank Castle (Jane) is retiring from the force. He decides to take his wife and son to a family reunion with approximately 30 family members. Howard Saint (Travolta) finds out that the undercover cop, who was supposedly killed along with his son, is still alive. He sends his own man and personal executioner, Quentin Glass (Patton) -- to take care of some unfinished business. Saint's wife Livia Saint (Laura Harring) wants more than a little vengeance.
As a matter of that Castle and his entire family gets slaughtered like cattle except Frank Castle survives. After being nursed back to health, he slaps on a skull T-shirt and proceeds to play sneaky games. The Punisher? No..just a pussy version of it.
Blame one man for this crap and that is the writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh (writer of "Die Hard with a Vengeance" in his directorial debut). A fairly simple formula (you killed my family..Now it's payback!) was treated ridiculously.
Instead of focusing on Frank Castle's hurting payback, the flick decided to explore his strange neighbors tubby Mr. Bumpo (John Pinette), piercing guru Spacker Dave (Ben Foster) and super model looking Joan (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos). It should be said that all three characters were derived from the comic...but they just didn't work in the film! Their presence was deviates the story away from Castle and his immediate goal.
For humor (or what) we get a surprise fight scene inter-cut with fat dude singing opera and dancing with his male friend. Also Punisher photographing (and staring) Gay kissing couples.
And the excruciating soreness didn't stop there. Frank Castle actually vanished from the film for a good part of the middle section with the poseur mobsters and the dumb ass neighbors getting more air play. Funny, I thought this was Castle's story. To add insult to insult, the flick failed in putting out the necessary tone.
Thomas Jane (The Punisher) don't even have the look (He supposed to be an expert, freelance crime fighter were Jane is still 'some one else' in the movie except in the climax and closing scenes).
Before director Jonathan Hensleigh came onto the project, Michael France (co-writer of "Cliffhanger") was working on the screenplay, which contained elements of the 12-issue "Welcome Back Frank" mini-series written by Garth Ennis. France's script was then re-written by Jonathan Hensleigh.
That all makes this movie '.1' out of 10