One thing I learned from this movie:
12 gauge shot guns can hold up to 15 to 20 shots before reloading. Check out the scene where he's chasing the van that ends up in the drink at the end of the dock.
Sweet! One of my favorite comic-based movies on BadMovies.org!
You're review was damn near perfect Andrew, but more attention should have been paid to how good the action scenes were considering the movies low budget. And three slimes just doesn't seem to be enough.
Dolph Lundgren gets to be an unstoppable tank in this movie, and I feel that it is still his best performance.
And remember people, when you're taking on a monster sized guy with a 12 Guage, a chain just isn' going to cut it!
I can´t help it I just love this kind of movies where the "good guy" goes around killing people trough the hole movie and he never gets cought =)
This is absolutly one of Dolph´s best movies!!!
Here's something interesting to look out for. At one point Dolph and his buddy are captured by the Yakuza and left in an operating room to be tortured by the group's evil doctor. Once the doctor is left alone in the room with Dolph to do his dirty work, the doc's suddenly wearing a pair of women's red highheels!! You can even see them laying next to the guy once Doplh's overpowered him and tied the Doc up to his own operating table. Maybe they'll have an explanation as to the Doc's choice of footwear for this torturing ensemble in the remake.
This movie is awesome.
Period.
Just one small criticism: Instead of the ramdom killing of slot machines, I'd love to see on video the scene where The Punisher and that mobster nail all that ninjas without effort.
Embarrassingly enough I own this movie. I recently viewed the Punisher and was able to tell what era it was by the uzis and ninjas.
This review was quite accurate and very detailed. The reviewer was right on the mark with all of the comments, very well written review.
Watch for the new Punisher movie, to come out in 2004 (http://www.punisherthemovie.com/). It can only be better than the original.
The movie totaly raped the Punisher comic.Come on what is up with him naked in a sewer!Where is the damn skull on his chest for christ sake.Stallone should have played the Punisher.He would be great as the Garth Ennis Punisher,and they could get him cheap!My favorite Dolph movie is Bridge of Dragons and Show Down In Little Tokyo where the great Cary Takagawa plays the villian.He was also good as He-man,to bad the movie sucked.
This movie may not have had anything to do with "The Punisher," but I liked it. As someone mentioned, this is one of Lundgren's best movies, and I like Lundgren.
Holy Crap! What the hell was up with that movie. At least Lady Tanaka says a ton of stupid things that make you laugh. ["We are Yakuza. While your ancestors were still shepards screwing sheep on the Meddeterainan Coast. Ours were the crime lords of Asia."... ..."That was an expensive question you asked at the pier last night. It cost us nearly 2 million doh-lars in cash!"... ... "You handle your pain very well. Let's see how you handle the pain of others."] Plus you would think that the leader of the Yakuza would have nice teeth. Yes they may look fine, but check them out when she has the white make up on. My favorite murder in The Punisher was when she poisoned the glasses and made creepy sounds with the glass and watch them die. YAY for Lady Tanaka!
Out of all of(the recently retired)Dolph Lungren's movies,this ranks as one of his best:not highly faithful to the Marvel comic,but still heavily action-packed,sheeringly ultra-violent,richly thick with exciting showdowns(and fights),chock full of nasty villains that you wanna see(and do see)get mightily pounded,Louis Gossett Jr. in a nothing-to-do role,decent directing by Mark Goldblatt,and a better-than-average script for a Dolph movie(which were extremely rare).Too bad that New World Pictures(in their post-Roger Corman,mini-major phase)went bankrupt,and then belly-upied,killing this film's chance of the theatrical release that it richly deserved. Hope the upcoming Artisan Entertainment remake will be as good,and heavily violent,as
this film was(but with Frank Castle wearing his ultra-cool trademark skull t-shirt,this time around).
I absolutely hated this movie!!!! I am a huge fan of "The Punisher" and this movie turned a complex character into a simpleton who goes around killing people. Which is not to say that Frank Castle doesn't kill people, but he always has a good reason. No ironic statements in the movie, just bang-bang-you're dead. Sylvester Stallone would have been a better casting choice (at least he's Italian). Granted, Dolph didn't have much to work with Someone ought to tell the scriptwriter that Frank was a Marine who did tours of Recon duty in Vietnam, which is where he learned the fine art of killing people, not a cop.
I really enjoyed this movie. Once you rise above the fact that it's not really a comicbook adaption but really a great action movie that has good actionscenes and decent acting for the genre. It's very entertaining. Overall I thought that Dolph gave probally the only good performance in his life in this movie.
Overall the movie would have benefited from not such a schlocky score but one cannot deny the fact that this works as a straight foward action flick.
Dolph Lundgren has for the most part disappeared into the genre and hasn't made a movie ever this good (Well "Blackjack" and "Universal Soldier" came close), it is without a doubt his best work. Dolph Lundgren went on to do some really bad movies after "The Punisher"
That include "Showdown In Little Tokyo" (Warner),"Pentathlon"(Artisan),"The Minion" (Touchtone)"Sweepers" (Trimark) and "Agent Red" (Columbia)
The bes tthing about the movie is undoubtedly the cool, mute ninja daughter. She even has a decent fight with Dolph, before a nasty exit...
If only there were more of her in the film, instead of one big scene and a few glimpses.
Part of the Dolph Lungren @ss-shot collection.
You will be punished mentally if you subject yourself to this god-awful movie!
this was a decent movie, felt like a tv movie, cause it had so many fade-to-black scenes & you may be expecting a commerical or something.
It was good 4 what it was. 1 of Dolph's better movies.
I wish people would just stop wittering on about that damn skull. I didn't miss it. The Punisher is big brutal fun, and so's Dolph Lundgren in the role of Frank Castle. If the movie doesn't resemble the comic, too bad for the comic.
This is the best movie from Dolph Lundgren.;-)
I like on how he perfectly fires two handguns in quick succesion, despite the fact that the knockback is huge and should break his wrists.
This movie is in no way a proper Punisher movie. He isn't wearing the Punishcostume, and the tone of the movie was all wrong.
However, this is a wonderful action movie in and of itself. As long as you don't try to force yourself to believe that you're watching a Punisher movie, you should have a great time.
Lundgren looks great, even in the wrong costume. The yakuza coming in to fill the void left by the Punisher killing all the mafia was a brilliantly clever idea--who would have thought? And yet it makes total sense. I liked the Shakespearean homeless guy, at least the first time I saw the movie--he started to get on my nerves in subsequent viewings, but that's not really a fair test.
Jeroen Krabbe was good as the one remaining mafia don.
Best dialogue in the whole movie:
Mafia guy #1: I gotta pee.
Mafia guy #2: So PEEEE!
Sadly, the guy peeing is the first to die, falling into the ocean with a dagger in his chest and his penis in his hand. I hope he at least finished peeing before he died.
I also love Lady Tanaka's snooty accent when the blond mafia guy says "The champagne!" and she says "The glasses." She pronounces it "glawsses." Delightful!
Two other things:
1. I do not like the new Punisher comics by Ennis/Dillon. The truest Punisher comics IMO were the first six issues of Punisher War Zone by Dixon/Romita Jr., along with a select handful of assorted individual issues of the main title over the years. Ron Wagner is the best Punishartist next to John Romita Jr.
2. I have no interest in seeing the new Punisher movie. For one thing, they *still* do not have the costume right--just an old faded T-shirt with the skull on it. Hollywood really needs to get over its pathological fear of using the correct costumes as they appear in the comics, or else stop making comic-based movies once and for all.
One other Dolph Lundgren movie I really enjoy: "I" Come in Peace.
I remember seeing this film on Channel 5 years ago and I enjoyed it, Dolph did a good job portraing Frank Castle and this film did have a lot of action in it unlike the 2005 Punisher film that only had a few action scenes.
If you wan't to buy itin the UK you can't. it seems it was taken off the market ages ago so the only chance of getting is to get it imported or see if E-BAY has it in stock.
This film might not be too close to the Marvel Comic but hate it because of that, this is a good action film.
It's surprising that a great action flick can come from such a gay comic. But hey The Punisher (With Dolph) is great.
I'm a big Punisher fan. And even I have to admit. It was gay.
This old combat shlock movie, kicks the latest Punisher movie to the curb. I love the idea of Frank living in the sewer, looking as filthy as ever. Frank waiting for God's judgement was a nice touch. Sylvester Stallone you guys can't be serious. The Punisher is at least six foot tall.
I believe the The Mute Blonde Female Ninja was actually French. That would make her the The Mute Blonde French Female Ninja (TMBFFN), thus pretty much covering all the bases...