He should’ve been the bad guy in Quantum of Solace.
Mango would’ve been more frightening than Greene, now that you mention it.
Count me as one who liked the Jane film. Maybe it’s because my expectations were so low, but thought it was a pretty good movie. Of course, that was 90% owed to Jane’s performance, but I don’t think it’s the disaster some made it out to be.
I’m hoping it’s a question of “keep doing it til we get it right”.
As far as the Thomas Jane abomination…it did something no one would have thought possible.
It made the Dolph Lundgren movie look good by comparison.
-
Thomas Jane, ok, the voice he had, the rest, physical aspect, mannerisms, way off.
-
Casting.
Rebecca Romjin as “Joan the Mouse”? really? -
John Travolta?
John FUCKING Travolta?
Epic fail.
Unless he was gutted like a carp in the opening 5 seconds of the movie. -
The Punisher has an origin.
He and his family are on a picnic in Central Park in New York City.
They stumble on a mob hit and are gunned down.
Castle survives.
The people responsible are never caught because they are mob connected.
He becomes the Punisher, and begins killing mobsters and criminals in general.
Castle is shortened/Americanized Castiliogne which is an Italian name, not Puerto Rican.
It sounds like you didn’t enjoy the Thomas Jane Punisher flick mostly because it strayed from the comics in some key areas. That’s more than fair. As someone that isn’t well versed in the Punisher mythos, none of the things you listed bothered me at all. I thought the movie was great, even Travolta’s over-the-top performance. I especially liked how the Punisher brought Travolta down from the inside through various tricks and ruses. He got Travolta to murder his best friend and his own wife. I mean, that’s some harsh stuff. A lot better than simply busting in and shooting everyone. So yeah, I really liked the movie.
1)Yeah, I’ve read Punisher off and on for a while now, and am liking the new Max series.
So, yes, when they decided to change pretty much everything but the names, it sucked.
- Yeah, this was based on the special forces training he received in Viet Nam. More or less it showcased how he, along with his squad, would stalk their targets, gathering intel on them before taking them out doing maximum damage to the VC war machine.
I keep waiting for Thomas Jane to blow up, cos the guy’s a great actor who keeps getting mediocre roles.
I can never tell Thomas Jane and that dude who played Two Face apart. Eckhart? Anyway, though they are not identical twins, it’s close enough for my addled mind.
This reminds me - who’s seen the trailer for the upcoming Liam Neeson “I just want my family back!” movie? Dude’s been turned into the next Harrison Ford.
I finally watched Punisher War Zone this weekend. I actually enjoyed it, despite having very low expectations. First though, I must say that all the New York accents in the movie were God-awful. I’m not from New York or anything, but even I could tell that they were extremely awful imitations of awful imitations of New York accents. Watching the special features I realized that most of the cast was British, which explains some of the terribleness, but damn! Awful.
Also, I thought Jigsaw and Loony Bin Jim were way too over the top as compared to The Punisher. That is, it was like someone inserted the Joker and the Riddler from the old Adam West Batman into a gritty action movie. Or I suppose it was like watching Jim Carey and Tommy Lee Jones insanely overact in Batman Forever. They weren’t scary villians or believable villains. They were just stupid.
I thought the guy that played The Punisher did a great job. He was The Punisher. He’s a big, imposing dude and they just got everything right with him. The costume was great, the weapons were great, and the bloody executions were perfect. I also liked Newman as Micro. He couldn’t gone over the top as a comic relief character, but I thought the performance was just right.
Overall I’d recommend the movie for the crazy action. It was very well done in that regard, despite the atrocious villain duo of Jigsaw and Loony Bin Jim.
Two things that I took away from this movie.
-
The opening action scene is brutal. Not every day you see that kind of violence in a comic book movie.
-
McNulty’s (Jigsaw) accent is laughable.
Other then that it was a very forgetable experience.There are worse action movies out there so if you’re desperate it’s not god awful but that’s the best praise I can give.
by sheer bad luck, I rented two movies without consulting google.
Punisher War Zone and The Spirit
One hell of a way to spend your day off :(
The old Punisher game from 2005 has a much much better plot involving Jigsaw than this shitty movie.
The best/worst accent was that of the (American!) actor best known for playing Eugene Tooms on the X-Files. “I’m gonna get my ehhpplesoowaws behhck!”
Honestly, I thought Jigsaw and LBJ were the best parts of the movie. I agree that Dominic West was channeling Tommy Lee Jones’ Harvey Twoface, but also had a bit of Al Pacino’s Big Boy Caprice in the mix.
While they were both mediocre films, I still can’t decide whether I enjoyed Warzone more than the last Punisher movie. I loved Thomas Jane in the role, the overall quirkiness, and classic revenge-film structure, but Warzone seemed more consistently entertaining. Definitely more violent. I guess I’ll just have to watch them back-to-back one day and decide. Sorry, Dolph.
Favorite parts (SPOILERS!):
-Rooftop acrobat getting nailed with a heat-seeking rocket, and blowing up like a dealer in NARC.
-Punisher caving in the pale, emo henchman’s face.
-Punisher pulling an axe out of a friend’s chest, while saying, “You’re gonna be fine, kid.”
Oh yeah, Tooms’ accent was by far the worst, which is really saying something in that movie.
I very much enjoyed the Thomas Jane Punisher movie. Comparing it and War Zone is tough because they’re so different. I still think I enjoyed the Jane flick more than War Zone, but I really did enjoy War Zone quite a bit. I’m sure that’s a combination of my epically bad taste and very low expectations. Still, if I see War Zone for sale on Blu-ray for $15 or less, I’ll probably buy it.
I picked up Punisher: War Zone and Transporter 3 as a BOGO at Target ($30 for both). Both have the digital copy for iTunes included so now I can watch them anywhere. Interestingly both are some of the first (and only) movies available for purchase in HD on iTunes.
I haven’t actually watched the movie yet but I really enjoyed the Tom Jane version. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Transporter 3 was okay, but I think I actually prefer Punisher War Zone to it. I’m surprised how much I liked Punisher and as the days go by it sorta grows on me more and more.
I watched both of those back to back in theaters and Punisher is simply more enjoyable. The only good Transporter movie was the first.
Actually the first Transporter movie was awesome.
I’ve watched all of The Wire now, and I can’t believe McNulty’s actor did such a bad job in this movie.