Well it's been about 13 years since I've seen The Punisher and I have to say i'm pleasantly surprised. I wasn't expecting the movie to hold up at all, but it did alright. Thomas Jane's Frank Castle is enjoyable and John Travolta makes for an interesting (if not completely ridiculous) over the top Spanish banker. Now he's actually an American who's just a banker for a bunch of Spanish* cartels.
Frank Castle is a soon-to-be-retired cop who has to do one last drug bust, which results in the death of John Travolta son. Now he gets to go off to Puerto Rico to see his entire family and eventually move to England with his loving wife and son to live a long existence with no repercussions whatsoever.
Okay so the First Act of the movie is completely telegraphed and you know exactly what's going to happen. But that's kind of the point, your watching a movie called ''The Punisher'' it's pretty easy to figure out what's going to happen, even if you don't know anything about the comic character. I also the Punisher did what Mad Max took over an hour and a half to do in 30mins.
(They also ripped off Mad Max with Frank castles family dying almost exactly the same way as Max's family.)
The film wastes no time after the death of Frank Castle's family, he gets his guns suited up, he gets his fancy car made, he establishes his costume and he's ready to screw over the cartel in some pretty fun and creative ways. Such as convincing John Travolta to kill both his wife and his best friend by insinuating that the two had an affair.
What is it with John Pinette popping up in all these action films as a silly bumbling character and for that matter the other two bumbling idiots that accompany him as Frank castles neighbors in he's shity little Motel house. They're the characters that are supposed to give a bit of humanity to Frank Castle, including the one Flirty Girl and the awkward guy with a piercings. They have the weakest scenes in the movie and they're also kind of needed.
The dumb little characters helped break up the film, they give you little boring sections between each action event and although they don't really comedic in the way they wish they could be, they do at least give the film the ability to breathe. Otherwise you'd be swamped with a constant action film.
We get what is one of my favorite fight scenes in any movie The Punisher vs. ''The Russian'' or really when you think about it, he's a glorified Terminator, you can just keep throwing things at him and he won't die. But also it turns out that he's a real character from The Punisher comic books. I always thought he was just made up for the film, but he existed a few years before hand. The Russian has no name and no real identity he's just a big Burly man who fights people and talks with ''Horrible! Stereotype! Russian-accent'' (like I have any right to talk about someone's bad accent.)
I Miss the camera work in films like this. All the shots are nice flat and even. They're not bouncing around the place, everything looks like it set up on a tripod and the shots are actually steady. You can tell what's going on in an action scene. If this Punisher movie was made right now it'd be a jumbled uncomfortable mess and it would be almost impossible to see what's going on with anything.
*Okay so there actually Cuban's but who gives a damn.
Frank Castle is a soon-to-be-retired cop who has to do one last drug bust, which results in the death of John Travolta son. Now he gets to go off to Puerto Rico to see his entire family and eventually move to England with his loving wife and son to live a long existence with no repercussions whatsoever.
Okay so the First Act of the movie is completely telegraphed and you know exactly what's going to happen. But that's kind of the point, your watching a movie called ''The Punisher'' it's pretty easy to figure out what's going to happen, even if you don't know anything about the comic character. I also the Punisher did what Mad Max took over an hour and a half to do in 30mins.
(They also ripped off Mad Max with Frank castles family dying almost exactly the same way as Max's family.)
The film wastes no time after the death of Frank Castle's family, he gets his guns suited up, he gets his fancy car made, he establishes his costume and he's ready to screw over the cartel in some pretty fun and creative ways. Such as convincing John Travolta to kill both his wife and his best friend by insinuating that the two had an affair.
What is it with John Pinette popping up in all these action films as a silly bumbling character and for that matter the other two bumbling idiots that accompany him as Frank castles neighbors in he's shity little Motel house. They're the characters that are supposed to give a bit of humanity to Frank Castle, including the one Flirty Girl and the awkward guy with a piercings. They have the weakest scenes in the movie and they're also kind of needed.
The dumb little characters helped break up the film, they give you little boring sections between each action event and although they don't really comedic in the way they wish they could be, they do at least give the film the ability to breathe. Otherwise you'd be swamped with a constant action film.
We get what is one of my favorite fight scenes in any movie The Punisher vs. ''The Russian'' or really when you think about it, he's a glorified Terminator, you can just keep throwing things at him and he won't die. But also it turns out that he's a real character from The Punisher comic books. I always thought he was just made up for the film, but he existed a few years before hand. The Russian has no name and no real identity he's just a big Burly man who fights people and talks with ''Horrible! Stereotype! Russian-accent'' (like I have any right to talk about someone's bad accent.)
I Miss the camera work in films like this. All the shots are nice flat and even. They're not bouncing around the place, everything looks like it set up on a tripod and the shots are actually steady. You can tell what's going on in an action scene. If this Punisher movie was made right now it'd be a jumbled uncomfortable mess and it would be almost impossible to see what's going on with anything.
*Okay so there actually Cuban's but who gives a damn.
Comments
Post a Comment