DVD Movie Rating for: The Punisher

Rating for The Punisher: 3 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: The Punisher

FBI special agent Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) is finally moving out of the field and into a normal life with his wife, Maria (Samantha Mathis) and their young son. On his final assignment, the operation spins out of control and a young man, Bobby Saint, is inadvertently killed.

Inflamed by the death of their son, Tampa businessman Howard Saint (John Travolta) and his wife, Livia, whose wealth is linked to violent beginnings and underworld ties, are willing to risk their newfound legitimacy on a mission of vengeance. Castle's worst nightmare is about to come true, as Howard Saint and his lieutenants unleash hell at the Castle family reunion.

Castle's wife and son are killed, and experience tells him the law cannot adequately penalize the people who murdered his family. In planning his revenge, he realizes his life's work. As The Punisher, he will provide justice for ordinary people and exact retribution from society's villains.

DVD Production Details of: The Punisher

Starring: Laura Harring, Thomas Jane
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby
Aspect Ratio(s): 2.35:1
Audio Encoding: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX

Studio: Lionsgate/Fox
DVD Release Date: September 7, 2004
Run Time: 122 mins

The Punisher DVD Extra Bonus Features

Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1 EX)
Commentary by director Jonathan Hensleigh
28 page mini-comic, 10,000 random comics will have a limited edition cover
Keepin' It Real: The Punisher Stunts
Army of One: The Punisher Origins featuring an exclusive interview with the comic book writer Garth Ennis
War Journal: On the Set of The Punisher
Music Video "Step Up" Performed by Drowning Pool
Sneak Peek Trailer of The Punisher Video Game
Drawing Blood: Bradstreet Style - an interview with the Cover Artist
Deleted Scenes

Cast of the movie: The Punisher

• Thomas Jane .... Frank Castle (as Tom Jane)
• Laura Harring .... Livia Saint
• Rebecca Romijn-Stamos .... Joan
• John Travolta .... Howard Saint
• Roy Scheider .... Frank Castle, Sr.
• A. Russell Andrews .... Jimmy Weeks (as Russell Andrews)
• Omar Avila .... Joe Toro
• James Carpinello .... Bobby Saint/John Saint
• Mark Collie .... Harry Heck
• Russ Comegys .... Tattooed Mike
• Antoni Corone .... T.J.
• Rick Elmhurst .... Bay News 9 Newscaster
• Ben Foster .... Spacker Dave
• Michael Reardon .... Toro Croupier (as Michael Francis)
• Will Hasenzahl .... EMT
• Eddie Jemison .... Micky Duka
• Marco St. John .... Police Chief Morris
• Marcus Johns .... Will Castle
• Bonnie Johnson .... Betty Castle
• Veryl Jones .... Candelaria
• Carleth Keys .... Bay News 9 Newscaster
• Alan Lilly .... Accountant #3
• Terry Loughlin .... Spoon
• Marc Macaulay .... Dante
• Samantha Mathis .... Maria Castle
• Jim Meskimen .... Accountant #1
• Kevin Nash .... The Russian
• Tom Nowicki .... Lincoln
• Robin O'Dell .... Field Reporter
• Will Patton .... Quentin Glass
• Yamil Piedra .... Toro Pit Boss
• John Pinette .... Bumpo
• Steve Raulerson .... Yuri Astrov
• Hank Stone .... Cutter
• Sonny Surowiec .... Saint Puerto Rico Enforcer
• Jack Swanson .... Accountant #2
• Josh Thomas .... NBC Newscaster
• Eduardo Yáñez .... Mike Toro (as Eduardo Yanez)
• John Baker .... News Reporter
• Jeff Chase .... Enforcer
• Michael Thomas Dunn .... Beach Visitor
• Hatcher Flaschen .... Sales Person
• Nick Loren .... FBI Agent Moss

Photo Gallery of the movie: The Punisher

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size high quality photos, posters and wallpapers of The Punisher

The Punisher High Quaity Movie Posters

The Punisher High Quaity Photo Gallery

Reviews of the movie: The Punisher

Jonathan Hensleigh makes his directorial debut with The Punisher, the story of Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) a man who, after losing his family to the criminal element, has sworn to "punish" those who have done wrong.

Believing that special agent Frank Castle was to blame when a botched sting operation leaves the son of mob boss Howard Saint (John Travolta) dead, Saint orders a hit on Castle's entire family. With nothing and no one left to live for, Castle devotes his life to the vigilante cause, punishing the criminal element without mercy. As a comic book hero without super powers, Castle uses his advanced anti-terrorism training and weapons to deliver his swift perversion of justice. With a mediocre storyline, a slew of bad dialogue and sub-par performances this movie delivers a less than worthwhile movie experience. However, the movie does seem to turn up the juice towards the end of the film, which may possibly translate into a better executed sequel.

Considering their already existing fan base comic book characters are a logical market to exploit, plus with the box office success of X-men and Spiderman it was merely a matter of time before all the big wigs in Hollywood attempted to jump onto the band wagon and spew out as many comic book related movies as possible. Unfortunately what these Hollywood honchos fail to realize is that it's not a matter of quantity that fans are looking for but rather the quality.

The Punisher is a damn good movie. This is coming from somebody who never understood the appeal of the Death Wish or Dirty Harry movies. I suppose those movies would appeal to you if you believed that any consideration of human rights only served to interfere in carrying out of the righteous slaughter of the criminal element of society. Nevermind the debate on capital punishment, let's just skip the arrest, the trial and jury deliberations and just shoot criminals on sight! Hell, for that matter, why should I take the time to recommend this movie at all when I obviously strongly disagree with the very notion that any one man has the right to decide who lives and who dies? Indeed, there is even the subtle implication in the phrase "this is not revenge but punishment" that suggests that The Punisher is acting out of righteous indignation when he plays the role of judge, jury and executioner!

Thing is, as I said, this is a good movie, probably too good for the genre which is why it, ironically, didn't do as well as might have been expected. The basic problem, I suppose, was that this is not quite the same character as in the comics: in the comics, The Punisher was a Vietnam War vet who, after seeing his family shot down in a gangland style massacre in Central Park, snapped and started going after all criminals. I presume that he did so with the objective of, in the process, killing the people responsible for his family's death but, in the comics anyway, he didn't see it so much as his personal revenge but as some kind of war. The movie character is slightly different in the sense that Frank Castle (Thomas Jane), having apparently finished his military service, had been working for the FBI, hunting down the very criminals who ended up killing his family. In the movie, the murder of his family is no longer random and neither is his response. The result is a more thoughtful, more methodical character who can imagine more inventive ways of punishing you than simply blowing your head off.

The fact that Frank Castle didn't go straight to Howard Saint(John Travolta)'s home and blow his head off in act one was, no doubt, a source of great frustration to fans of the Death Wish and Dirty Harry movies. (Indeed, the character of the Punisher in the comics was no doubt inspired by these movies.) I must confess that I, too, was a bit confused seeing Frank Castle taking pictures and carrying around a fake fire hydrant. But where is the satisfaction in seeing the villain die without first being made to suffer? When Frank Castle's plan started to come together, I was satisfied to see that he had taken the time to play with his opponents head before blowing it off. After all, when a man has killed your entire family, one has the obligation to go to the extra effort of attacking him on more than one level!

Of course, we are "treated" to scenes in which the villains are shown to be truly evil so that we don't feel bad about their demise (much in the same way that the wedding massacre was shown over and over again in Kill Bill 1 & 2 in the hopes that we wouldn't start routing for the "bad" guys): Howard Saint kills one of his own men, his wife (Laura Harring) orders the massacre of Frank Castle's family, his second-in-command (Will Patton) carries it out and his surviving son has the honour of actually (making an attempt at) killing Frank Castle in revenge for his brother's death. Even so, Frank Castle's neighbour (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) asks the obvious question "What makes you any different from them?"

Well, he isn't any different. That was the point of the comics when he first appeared as a villain in the Spiderman series, a point that got lost along the way when he went on to get his own series. But in this movie I was able to root for this protagonist precisely because he was following the golden rule and doing unto the villains exactly as they had planned to do to him. Indeed, as I have already stated above, for Frank Castle to have killed Howard Saint in the first act would have made the rest of the movie not only anti-climactic but would have rendered the movie completely soulless with Frank Castle going on to kill random drug dealers with whom he didn't have a personal grudge.

Of course, with that in mind, I dread to think what a sequel to this movie would be like. Presumably, in a sequel, Frank Castle would be no different from the character in the comics, deciding who lives and who dies on the spot and without any sense of remorse, one way or the other. While I understand Thomas Jane's enthusiasm in wanting to make a sequel, I no sooner want to spend two hours watching the Punisher shoot people than I would want to watch a Hulk sequel which was merely two hours of "Hulk Smash!"

Of course, there is always the chance, should a Punisher sequel ever be made, that I might be pleasantly surprised, yet again. Maybe