The Punisher

Here in Sweden most people talk about Zlatan, Måns Zelmerlöw and Gunilla Persson. Why ? Because here in Sweden many people will never admit who they really love, from the bottom of their hearts. Dolph Lundgren is the only swede who is a role model, who help us put Sweden on the map. But wait a second, did not Ace Of Base do that in the 90´s ? Yes, maybe for 30 minutes, but the legacy of Dolph will never die, so the legend lives on. When it comes to Lundgren movies, he is always great, even if the movie is terrible. Every year he brings another action movie on dvd, and most of them are pretty good. After playing He-Man in Masters Of The Universe, it was time to do a Marvel comic book character named The Punisher.

5 years ago, Frank Castle ( Dolph Lundgren ) watched his family become murdered by the mob. Now, 5 years later he punish criminals, making sure criminals are being punished. Frank have only one friend named Shake, a alcoholic. When Mafia leader Gianni Franco ( Jeroen Krabbé tries to kill Frank Castle with the help of his own men, he fails, and is just about to run into problems with Yakuza leader Lady Tanaka ( Kim Myori ). She have plans to both take over the Mafia and to muder Frank Castle. Deep underground in the sewer, Frank prepare himself for a war, to revenge his family and also bring justice into the streets.

Let´s not compare with the latest movie adaptions, because they are very different from the first motion picture based on The Punisher. Here we get a more ordinary action movie, with Dolph looking like he came from a funeral. The action scenes are pretty fun to watch, since you know Dolph would never have a stuntman do all of his work. Following the comic book character Frank Castle, you realise director Mark Goldblatt tries to do his own version of the character, but something is missing. There is nothing wrong with Dolph´s interpretation, still i feel that we could have had a more darker, disturbing tone on this movie adaption. To see Louis Gossett, Jr and Jeroen Krabbé on screen feels great, 2 actors who know how to make characters come to life. Apart from some smaller mistakes, that could have been made better, The Punisher is a classic 80´s movie, worth checking out again. Plenty of violence and guns make sure you feel at home. Maybe not the best movie adaption of The Punisher, but this is still a classic.

Rating: DDD