Punisher-War Zone (2008)

"Like last year's "Shoot 'em Up", this film is just a blast from beginning to end.  Fiore Mastracci, Outtakes with Fiore
"Rarely have moviegoers seen such a two-fisted wrecking ball of vengeance such as the one realized here by Ray Stevenson.  Jeremy Wheeler, TV Guide
"The ultraviolent third stab at Marvel's homicidal vigilante is the best and closest to the source material.  Mark Rahner, Seattle Times
"Assuming you can appreciate the high level of gore and assorted sadistic weirdness, the action is satisfying.  Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
"...doesn't cheat action fans of intense violence; they'll be treated to a vast array of vicious butchery.  Stanley A. Miller, II, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Editor's Note PUNISHER: WAR ZONE, the third screen appearance from Marvel Comics' angel of death, continues the saga of Frank Castle, normal New York City citizen turned Mafia-slaying vigilante following the murder of his wife and daughter. Upping the violence level to the intensity of a horror film, this outing requires no prior knowledge of the character's screen antics and features an appealingly stoic performance from Ray Stevenson, who cuts an imposing physical presence, and is a more-than-worthy successor to previous Punishers Dolph Lundgren (1990) and Thomas Jane (2004). Six years after the death of his family, Frank Castle is still waging war against organized crime in New York. After he ambushes a party for an aging mob boss and turns it into a bloodbath, the battle moves to a recycling warehouse where Castle pushes gangster Billy Russoti (Dominic West) into a swirling vat of broken glass. During his escape, Castle accidentally shoots one of the FBI men who have arrived on the scene. Russoti undergoes plastic surgery, but after seeing his badly disfigured face for the first time, he shoots his surgeon and dubs himself "Jigsaw." While a deeply regretful Castle attempts to make amends with the widow (Julie Benz) of the agent he has slain, Jigsaw rallies an army of criminals in an attempt to take down the seemingly indestructible Punisher. Though there are plenty of tongue-in-cheek moments to lighten its impact, the graphic bloodshed in PUNISHER: WARZONE is often startling and is sure to satisfy the bloodlust of any fan of violent action cinema. Directed by former karate and kickboxing champion Lexi Alexander (GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS), the film is frenetically paced and retains a true comic book feel, mostly due to a colorful lighting scheme and a particularly hammy performance by West, who seems to be having a blast.

	Wayne Knight
	Doug Hutchison
	Julie Benz
	Ray Stevenson
	Dash Mihok
	Dominic West
	Colin Salmon
	Gale Anne Hurd - Producer
	Lexi Alexander - Screenwriter
	Kevin Feige - Executive Producer
	Steve Gainer - Director of Photography
	Jeremy Latcham - Executive Producer
	Ogden Gavanski - Executive Producer
	Matthew Holloway - Screenwriter
	Nick Santora - Screenwriter
	Art Marcum - Screenwriter
	Christopher Franke - Composer
	Avi Arad - Producer
	Oliver Hengst - Executive Producer
	Kurt Sutter - Screenwriter
	Lexi Alexander - Director

Los Angeles Times
"The film works a bit better than the 2004 PUNISHER installment....Stevenson brings some gravity to the viscera." 12/05/2008

Reel.com 5 of 10
As superheroes go, Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher, doesn't seem like the most worthy candidate to warrant three different movie adaptations in 20 years. His mission is vengeance, and his superpower is just a van full of guns. Someone like Spider-Man or Batman requires a rich yet relatable backstory, explaining the relationship between his fate- or self-given powers and how he chooses to use them. The Punisher's logline is comparably simple (bad guys killed his family; now he kills bad guys), and no one needs to explain where he got his van or guns (probably Wal-Mart)...To make this man interesting requires a certain amount of style and attention to detail, two of many qualities lacking in Punisher: War Zone. Like The Incredible Hulk, Punisher: War Zone ignores but doesn't quite contradict the events of its immediate predecessor; it's not a direct sequel to 2004's The Punisher, but at least allows the previous film to take care of the origin business...Stevenson makes a meatier, less charismatic Punisher than Thomas Jane, without any cartoon energy to match Jigsaw, who looks and sounds like a third-rate Dick Tracy villain. While Stevenson glowers, most of the rest cast competes to give the least believable, most wooden performance. This quickly devolves into a run-off between Colin Salmon as a glowering FBI agent and Hutchison, whose Loony Bin Jim would be mannered if the actor could settle on a mere one or two mannerisms. Instead, he overacts like a distracted little kid who taught himself from watching late night cable...The action sequences, too, have a childlike sensibility (if not innocence), predicated on the idea that nothing is more badass than people getting really, really thoroughly killed...Punisher: War Zone is occasionally terrible enough to be funny, but never funny enough to overcome its thundering stupidity. - Jesse Hassenger

Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
You used to be able to depend on a bad film being poorly made. No longer. "The Punisher: War Zone" is one of the best-made bad movies I've seen. It looks great, it hurtles through its paces and is well-acted. The soundtrack is like elevator music if the elevator were in a death plunge. The special effects are state of the art. Its only flaw is that it's disgusting...There's a big audience for disgusting, and I confidently predict the movie will "win the weekend," if not very many hearts and minds. Here you will see a man's kidney ripped out and eaten, a chair leg pushed through a head via the eyeball, a roomful of men wiped out by the Punisher revolving upside-down from a chandelier and firing machine-guns with both hands, a widow and her wee girl threatened with mayhem, heads sliced off, victims impaled and skewered, and the villain thrown into a machine that crushes glass bottles in much the same way concrete is mixed...The glass-crushing machine caught my eye. Billy (Dominic West) is socked into it by the Punisher (Ray Stevenson) and revolves up to his neck in cutting edges while screaming many, many four-letter words, which, under the circumstances, are appropriate...The movie is not heavy on plot. By my Timex Indiglo, there was no meaningful exposition at all during the first 15 minutes, just men getting slaughtered..."The Punisher: War Zone" is the third in a series of Punisher movies. It follows "The Punisher" (1989) starring Dolph Lundgren and "The Punisher" (2004), starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta. Since the second film has the same title as the first, it's hard to tell them apart, but why would you want to? My fellow critic Bill Stamets, settling down for the screening, shared with me that he watched the 2004 movie for his homework. I did my algebra. - Roger Ebert