Review of Punisher: War Zone (2-Disc Special Edition with Digital Copy)

We may well be into the 2000s, but if Sly Stallone's recent success with Rambo is any indication; gritty, uncompromising hyper-violence ripped directly from the "Schwarzenegger era" has a place in Hollywood right alongside Fall-time horror films and epic Summer blockbusters. Its box office failings aside, Punisher: War Zone is a refreshing breath of fresh air during a time when the moviegoing populace seems to be tired of Hollywood's adherance to the modern action flick formula.

In short, Punisher: War Zone goes a bit like this. Six years into his one-man war on crime, Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) inadvertently shoots and kills an undercover agent he believes to be part of Billy "the Beaut" Russoti's (Dominic West) band of murder-go-lucky criminals. After Russoti falls into a glass crusher with a little help from Castle - and later undergoes some serious facial reconstruction - he is birthed into maniacal mafia kingpin, Jigsaw, with top priority being to eliminate The Punisher. Racked with guilt over the shooting death of "one of the good guys," Castle decides to leave his extracurricular activities in the past and focus on the future. Melodrama ensues with the widow of said deceased agent (who is played laughably by Julie Benz), and after her and her young daughter are kidnapped by Russoti, Castle sees fit to dish out his unique brand of punishment one last time.

In a nutshell, Punisher: War Zone is as simple and as hokey as modern action films can probably get. The performances from nearly everyone involved are ridiculously cheesy and the cast's accompanying New York accents so forced and absurd you'd swear this was some kind of amateur film. But by putting your brain on "Junk Food Mode" and adapting to what kind of movie War Zone aims to be, it hits every mark that the Tom Jane 2004 Punisher reboot missed. Ray Stevenson, for one, is a more convincing Punisher/Frank Castle overall, both in performance and in look. The dark humor on display may rub some viewers the wrong way, but I found it a nice, if rather grim, contrast between the stark violence and more absurd elements of the picture.

War Zone's comic book-like visuals perfectly portray the world I'd always imagined Frank Castle inhabiting as well. Contrasting yellow, green, black, and white hues hit so strongly and so pervasively that the various scenes they affect look as if pulled directly from the pages of one of the Marvel issues the flick is adapting. Alexander has a fantastic handle on visual detail, and cinematographer, Steve Gainer, keeps everything aesthetically pleasing one shot to the next. More importantly, however, is the fact that Castle is shot from low angles which emphasizes Stevenson's already imposing figure. Not only does the film look and sound (that 1080p widescreen and 1000+ watt surround sound system are going to get a work out) like something straight out of Frank's one-of-a-kind world of crime, corruption, and violence, but this version of The Punisher has the tenacity of a loose Rottweiler and more gore gags than your average horror film.

And it's only right that a Punisher film relay the guilt, depression, and grief wallowing inside Castle during his every waking moment. War Zone has those moments aplenty and it pulls them off admirably. Alexander allows what at times appears to be a non-human killing machine to be completely vulnerable. At others, Castle simply does what he does best and shows absolutely no remorse. Stevenson is more than adept at both. Dominic West's portrayal of Jigsaw - though interpreted differently than the comic books' variation of the villain - was fun. Reminiscent of Heath Ledger's Joker in the excellent Dark Knight, definitely, but Jigsaw is so cartoonish in nature and so unjustifiably cold-hearted that West's performance elicited more laughs out of me than anything else. The biggest offender in the cast, however, is Doug Hutchison as Jigsaw's brother, "Loony Bin" Jim. Not an iota of talent was displayed as his overarching performance irritated more than it induced the general dislike for the character as I'm sure was intended.

Punisher: War Zone is a film that will most certainly divide moviegoers. This is a niche movie through and through. The acting is decidedly weak and the script so thin that if you got it wet, you could tear it in half just by breathing on it. But with the violence we've come to expect from this series of comics implemented so well throughout, a mash up of said hardcore violence with bleak, dark humor, the best Punisher we've seen thus far in Ray Stevenson, a cavalcade of Punisher regulars, as well as such an immense respect for its aforementioned source material, I wholeheartedly recommend Punisher: War Zone to fans of the comic books, and feel completely justified in naming it the best film in the franchise.

9/10