20 Years Anniversary Review Of The Punisher

We want to believe in justice, if you do right in society you will be treated good and live an ordinary life filled with precious memories. Unfortunately for some people they will never experience true happiness. Losing someone you love unexpected can change everything. When you thought you had a future and suddenly everything is taken away from you. That is exactly what happened to the comic book character Frank Castle in the comic book The Punisher where he lost his wife and 2 children. Back in the late 80´s i came across comic books of The Punisher in my local comic book shop in my hometown. Even though i never bought any copies of The Punisher at that time i did read some of the comic books in the store, we were allowed to by the owner thankfully. And i did see the 1989 film adaptation in 1990 on VHS with action star Dolph Lundgren as the character Frank Castle. I know that this film have divided fans of the comic books but i actually enjoyed this film from director Mark Globatt ( who is the editor of the classic sci fi horror film Hollow Man, a must buy on DVD or Blu Ray ). Since i didn´t read all of the comic books of The Punisher ( just some of them ) i don´t know if the 1989 film adaptation managed to caption the spirit of the comic books. I just rememer the film being a fun dark action film and Dolph Lundgren does a performance that matches the character well. That doesn´t mean i could not see problems with the film but i didn´t really think much about it and just wanted to see Dolph kicking ass. For a long time it seemed that The Punisher wasn´t going to get a reboot, at least i didn´t read much about it in the 90´s and i used to buy a lot of movie magazines back then. Until we got the news in 2002 that a new film was on the way and American actor Thomas Jane ( who can forget him from the 1997 classic Boogie Nights ) have been chosen to play Frank Castle. The film was finally released in the spring of 2004 and it seemed that fans of the comic books were much more pleased about this film than the 1989 film of The Punisher. I did see the 2004 film version in cinema and did enjoy it at that time. Since it is now 20 years in 2024 since the 2004 film version was released worldwide in cinemas i thought it might be nice to revisit the film and see if it is any good still today. Is it possible that The Punisher is still a solid action film or has it aged more than i expected?

An FBI bust of a smuggling operation results in the death of Bobby Saint ( James Carpinello ), the son of mafia boss Howard Saint ( John Travolta ), and Otto Krieg ( Thomas Jane ), an arms dealer. However, Krieg´s death was faked and is later revealed to be undercover FBI agent Frank Castle. Enraged at the death of his son, Howard Saint orders his men to find out all information they can find about Frank Castle. He finds out Frank is going to Puerto Rico on a family vacation with his wife, his son and relatives in the family. Howard´s wife Livia Saint ( Laura Harring ) order Howard´s men to kill Frank´s whole family as a revenge on their son´s death. Out in Puerto Rico no one is prepared for what´s to come when armed men assassinate Frank´s family completely. His wife Maria Castle ( Samantha Mathis ) and his son try to escape by getting to a boat but is run over by a car. Howard´s men shoot down Frank and try to burn the boat bridge down with Frank on it. Luckily he survives but is badly damaged and found in the water by local fisherman Candelaria( Veryl Jones ) who takes him home to take care of him. When Frank is healed enough to go on his own, he makes a pact. He will revenge the death of his wife and son no matter if it means he will not return home alive.

You can tell already from the beginning of this film that it is more well made than the 1989 film adaptation of The Punisher. The action scenes are much more effective, the dark tone of the comic book character is much more presented in this film. The character of Frank Castle is definetely much more deeper in this film, seeing a man who lost it all and now lives completely to revenge his dead family. There are scenes where you can clearly see his pain and how it feels to live inside an eternal darkness. I think anyone who have had a family member brutally murdered will recognize themselves in Frank Castle and understand what he is going through. Can you ever forgive someone who took away someone you loved more than anything? Will you ever be able to find any joy in your life again? Even if the action scenes are the best part of this film i do feel that the drama scenes does make at least a bit of an impact. Especially where legendary actor John Travolta deliver some of his groovy dialogue scenes as the main villain Howard Saint. That´s one thing i have always liked about John Travolta is when he knows how to be dramatic, even when he acts a bit over the top you know he will make it work. Lead actor Thomas Jane as Frank Castle works better than i expected, maybe because i didn´t really see him as Frank when i heard he was chosen for the role. It seems he really tried to capture the personality of Frank and he does this surprisingly good. Nice to see legendary actor Roy Schneider as the character Frank Castle, Sr even though i wish he had more screen time than what we get. When it comes to the action scenes there is plenty of really violent moments to enjoy. Not only weapons being used but body violence as well in a way that matches the tone of this film. You can tell the film have aged a bit and definetely looks like an action film from the 2000´s but that´s ok, what matters is that the film is good. Anything negative to say? Honestly i don´t really have anything negative to say even if i know this is not a perfect film in any way. As an action movie The Punisher does what it sets out to do, entertain the audience and especially the fans of the comic books. Director Jonathan Hensleigh ( director of the Liam Neeson action film The Ice Road, who is also directing the upcoming sequel ) seems to have taken the source material of The Punisher seriously and clearly wanted to please the fans of this comic book character. He delivers a good looking action film that´s definetely worth a watch if you enjoy this specific genre. The Punisher still holds up today and i have a feeling it will for future comic book fans as well, a film worth checking out no matter if it´s on streaming or a physical copy.

Rating: DDD