Friday, December 5, 2008
News Hollywood Product: Punisher: War Zone
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 10:07 PM
TITLE: Punisher: War Zone
GENRE: Ultraviolent comic book
THE PITCH: Ruthless anti-gangster vigilante Frank Castle (“Rome’s” Ray Stevenson), a.k.a. “The Punisher,” engages in escalating battles with a hideously scarred mob boss called “Jigsaw” (“The Wire’s” Dominic West).
MONEY SHOTS: The Punisher spins upside down from a chandelier and machine guns lots of bad guys in sort of an NRA version of a Cirque du Soleil act. West’s gangster falls into a recycled glass crusher and gets a new look. When a thief makes a mid-air flip, The Punisher explodes him with a grenade launcher. A bad guy shoots the heads off a little girl’s dolls just for kicks. A kickboxing brawl in a bathroom nods to German director Lexi Alexander’s background as a champion martial artist.
BODY COUNT: I make it close to 50: The Punisher routinely kills goons in bulk. Most of the violence seems unusually head specific, and includes a chair leg to the eye, a machete to the head, an old lady with her head mostly blown off, a fork through the throat, and a scene in which the Punisher pretty much caves in someone’s face with a punch.
BEST LINE: The Punisher pulls a fire axe from an injured pal's chest and is hilariously un-reassuring when he says, “Shut up, kid, you’re going to be fine.”
WORST LINE: “Did you know that kidneys and apple sauce are a delicacy in Sweden? Yesss. Yummy yummy yummy in my tummy tummy tummy.” Says Jigsaw’s brother Loony Bin Jim (Doug Hutchison), who seems to have a bet with West as to who can go the furthest over the top.
POP REFERENCES: Jigsaw sees a billboard out his window that discretely says "The World is Yours" in a footnote to both Scarface movies. His bandage-removal scene echoes the similar moment in Tim Burton’s Batman and too many other comic books to count.
FASHION STATEMENT: The Punisher wears his signature skull-logo T-shirt, but it’s fairly subdued for a former Spiderman adversary. He also wears this high-collar body armor thing that looks like a black turtle shell. Jigsaw sports fedoras, fur-collared coats and what looks like a tan suede Nehru jacket — he’d fit nicely in the Dick Tracy movie.
HEY, WAIT A MINUTE: Every time West says “Call me… Jigsaw!” I expect someone to say, “You mean like the killer in the Saw movies?” requiring another nickname.
BETTER THAN THE OTHERS? Yes. This hoot-and-a-half “reboot sequel” improves enormously on 2004’s Punisher that had Thomas Jane, John Travolta and no fun at all. (I’ve never seen the 1989 Dolph Lundgren Punisher, but my friends find it unintentionally hilarious.) Here, Ray Stevenson unquestionably shines as a terse tough guy, proving focused, scary and sorrowful when needed.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Unapologetically gory and almost maniacally dumb, Punisher: War Zone generally succeeds at giving the audience splashy, pulpy thrills. If The Dark Knight offered the cinematic equivalent of an ambitious graphic novel, Punisher: War Zone is a silly, guilty pleasure comic book movie that you shouldn’t punish yourself for enjoying.
Punisher: War Zone 3 stars Directed by Lexi Alexander. Stars Ray Stevenson, Dominic West. Rated R. Opens Fri., Dec. 5. At area theaters.
(Photo By Takashi Seida)
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