Punisher: War Zone starts moving quickly with flashes of the Punisher, played by Ray Stevenson (Rome, King Arthur) getting ready for war in what one can only assume is a “zone”. A crime boss has just escaped prison once more due to the gunning down of a key witness. Outside of the party celebrating his boss’s renewed freedom we meet Billy “The Beaut” Russoti played by Dominic West (Hannibal Rising, 300) who is a mid-level operator in the Italian mob with a bad attitude and an ego three sizes too big. West begins to insult his host and almost gets in a fire fight due to his lack of respect for anyone but himself which leaves him to dally behind for a drink while everyone else goes to a formal dinner; lucky for him. The dinner is shortly interrupted by Stevenson’s Punisher who kills the lights and then everyone else.
This is the basic theme of the movie: the Punisher shows up and then kills all the bad guys. After the dinner massacre that he so narrowly avoided, Russoti retires to his recycling center hideout on the docks. The Punisher shows up thanks to a tip from a cop and proceeds to go on a beating and killing rampage on the small group of villains found in the warehouse that includes dumping Russoti into a glass breaking machine and then starting the engine, which ruins his face and creates the villain JigSaw. After the FBI breaks in, the Punisher escapes only to find that one of the mobsters he has put the murder on is an undercover FBI agent Nicky Donatelli played by Romano Orzari (Pure, Eternal). Donatelli is survived by his wife Angela who is layed by Julie Benz (Dexter, Rambo) and daughter Grace played by Stephanie Janusauskas in her first role.
Punisher: War Zone is not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it has some valid redeemable qualities in my mind. The movie looks fantastic and the lighting design really sets the tone well in a lot of scenes, giving a great comic feel. For me, Ray Stevenson really captured Frank Castle (The Punisher). I felt he took this role very seriously and got in touch with his inner-vigilante. There is also a lot of over the top violence which i happen to love- he shoots a guy flying through the air with a rocket launcher… freakin’ awesome! This movie was not helped at all by the interaction between West’s Jigsaw and his brother Looney Bin Jim played by Doug Hutchison (Lost, The Green Mile). And not just for the fact that the Hutchison’s character was not in the Punisher comic, but mainly for the fact that they seemed to be dopey slapstick mobsters that where very hard to take seriously. The police supporter of the Punisher, detective Martin Soap played by Dash Mihok (I am Legend, Mojave) was just plain dumb and cowardly at times which played very badly off of Colin Salmon (Doctor Who, Credo) who plays his unwilling and overly dramatic partner FBI agent Paul Budiansky who is out to avenge his former partner that was killed by the Punisher.
Frank Castle - Inventor of emo
I would say over all this was a fun movie, worth seeing at least once just for the enjoyment of seeing a guy get his head cut off with a combat knife. A solid rental for anyone who is not a Punisher fan.
