Heather and I watched The Punisher (version 2, featuring less Dolph and more Thomas Jane) tonight. What an uneven pile of crap. I mean, there were moments of "Hey that was cool" and then long bouts of "Oh this is just stupid".
I wish that people would sit down at Marvel and go "Really folks, we're commited to making sure that comic book movies NEVER SUCK AGAIN, and to that end, Bryan Singer and Sam Raimi will lead seminars". I mean, you would think that Jonathan Hensleigh, the guy who wrote the screenplay and directed "The Punisher" would be half-decent, as he's worked with Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay on many of their best movies (The Rock, Con-Air, etc)...but come to think of it Michael Bay inflicted Pearl Harbor on us...so maybe it's a wash.
This was a movie with uneven timing, uneven flow, and an uneven atmosphere. It seemed like the director was more interested in showing us what the lives of the three madcap misfits that live in the same apartment building as Frank Castle are up to than what he was doing to avenge his family's death. Do we really care that Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' character has been "sober for over a year"? NO! Do we care about them eating ice cream and dancing to Verdi? NO!
Too often, the movie tried to make you laugh, and that took away from the starkness of the Punisher's mission.
So, it was not really worth seeing. Man on Fire took the same basic premise and did it much better. Bad Boys & Bad Boys II does a much better job of combining the laughs with the action.
3 out of 10 stars.
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