Badmovies.org Forum

Some of you may scoff at this notion, but I actually went and saw this movie on Friday night, with other people in the theater.  People were shouting, laughing, active in so many ways...and even though I heard people say that it sucked, it still got applause from the audience at the end. 

I think this movie has potential as a cult classic when it comes out on video.  It's just sooooo bad, that it's perversely entertaining.

Ray Stevenson, to his credit, makes a convincing Punisher, much more so than Tom Jane...but, he didn't get to show off the kind of acting talent that he proved in HBO's Rome.  Throw in a stupid script, and an even worse director (A kickboxer?  You've gotta be f**king kidding me!), and you have a film that was pretty much doomed from the start.   

Hopefully for Stevenson, the upcoming "Book of Eli" will prove to be much better, and he can look at this film the way Susan Sarandon looks at Rocky Horror...

Some friends of mine saw it this past weekend (and from what I've read hardly anyone saw it as it only pulled in 4 million over the weekend). They said it's almost like the filmmakers knew going into it how bad the script and acting was going to be and to compensate for that they just overloaded it with some of the most gloriously overwrought gore and violence that has been seen in a hard R rated movie in quite some time.

I think that Lionsgate was originally intending for this one to go direct to DVD but instead decided to try a theatrical release instead during pre-production.   

So, it's pretty much written in the stars that The Punisher can't get a decent movie then?

Shame too. 

Doesn't look like it.  But he's not the only one.  Spawn will never have a decent movie, or video game either. 

I always thought of the original Punisher movie with Dolph "I will Break You" Lungren a really good B-Movie. 

When I first heard that a new guy was playing Punisher I was kind of mad.  I thought Thomas Jane did pretty good in the role and looked the part.  Stevenson is Irish and looks looks like he is foriegn.  I thought Dolph looked more American than he does in the previews I have seen. lol

I'll have to see it and see what I think of it.

I thought the Spawn movie was great!
So did Roger Ebert, who gave it 3.5 stars out of 4.  Read his review here (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19970801/REVIEWS/708010303/1023).

The Dolph movie was okay enough, but it was a B-movie. 

Shame though, cause I'd think a Punisher movie can work well if they give it enough thought.  Problem is, most people think of him as some sort of superhero, when he's really not.  People assume, "Oh, it's a comic book movie.  He's a superhero."  Then they take their kids, and he's kidnapping people, ripping off hands, blowing stuff up, and the parents are like, "Oh my lord."

The most frustrating thing is that, if any Marvel character ever could be translated easily into film, it'd be The Punisher. It's not too hard to do. I swear, the people behind these movies must be going out of their way to eff the thing up. Ugh!

I gotta say though, I love the Dolph version, but I don't think it's a genuinely "technically" good movie. Kinda like Masters Of The Universe. Oh, that wacky Dolph Lundgren!

I'm with you on that.  I think Spawn at times looked more like a music video than a movie.

As WilliamWeird put it, this shouldn't be a hard movie to pull off.  Just have lots of gritty blood and guts a la Sin City and it should sell.  Ray Stevenson is a good actor and I could easily buy him in the role.  But as always the script and the direction has to be there.  I haven't seen it but it seems to be getting panned. 

I think Punisher was a good book but on film its just a guy who shoots people.

Punisher is a fairly vapid character really.  His character is basically one-dimensional; in fact, that's the entire point. 

I did see the new movie.  I enjoyed it for what it was.  You really can't take it too seriously though.  I heard a review describe it as something like Verhoeven.  That isn't quite spot on (the gore doesn't have his wit), but I can see what they mean.  The movie has a ton of excessive gore for no real reason - the Punisher punches a guy and his head caves in for some reason at one point. 

It's also refreshing to see an action movie shot without vibrato-cam.  Solid shooting, very traditional.  The action scenes are decent, though not great.  Other than the gore, they're generally realistic as far as comic book action goes.  I also liked the relationship between Jigsaw and his brother.

As far as the director, Lexi Alexander goes..  She's actually, from what I can tell, a quite solid director.  Her short, Johnny Flynton, was nominated for Best Short at the Oscars in 2002.  And Hooligans, her previous feature, has a 7.5 on the IMDB with 25,000 votes.

I hated the Dolph Lungren one wasted 4 bucks on that one I really like the Thomas Jane one but I don't like the new  The New Punisher he looked like one of those bad guy from Harley Davidson And The Marlbro Man.

Robert ebert hated the original uncut Godzilla. and included his review in his book YOUR MOVIE SUCK. i never listend to him after that.