Marvel May - The Punisher (2004)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, for today's review for Marvel May, we're going to take a look at one of my favorite Marvel films aimed primarily at an adult audience. A film that focuses on one of Marvel's more violent comic book characters, and one of my all-time favorite comic book characters. This is my review of the 2004 Jonathan Hensleigh film The Punisher starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta. 

          So, the movie opens with an arms deal going down at the docks in Tampa, Florida, only to be busted up in a sting operation by The FBI. This leads to the unintentional death of Robert Saint, son of Tampa nightclub owner and crime boss Howard Saint. One of the FBI agents involved with the sting operation is revealed to be Frank Castle, who is preparing to take some time off at his parents home in Puerto Rico for a family reunion, and will then move with his wife, Maria, and their son, Will, to London. 

        Unfortunately, Howard Saint has other plans for Frank, as he sends some of his goons, including Robert's twin brother John, to Puerto Rico to take out Frank, his wife, his son, his parents, and all of his extended relatives. Frank, however, is nursed back to health by a local named Candelaria, returns to the scene of the massacre of his family, and gathers some weapons and a shirt his son got for him, and heads back to Tampa with one goal in mind: kill the men responsible for the death of his family. 

          Frank sets himself up in a rundown apartment building, with the only other tenants being Spacker Dave and his buddy Bumpo, as well as a woman named Joan. Even though he does his best to remain distant from them, Frank does start to become somewhat more acquainted with his new neighbors as the movie goes on. But, Frank's goal is to get back at Howard Saint, and he starts by going after the weakest link in Howard's arsenal: Mickey Duka. Frank strings Mickey up in a scene torn right out of the comics, and it's a really funny scene. I'm not going to ruin it here, but I'll just say it's worth it to see it firsthand. 

          Frank then starts to bring down Howard's while operation, as well as sowing seeds of doubt in regards to his wife, Liv, and his best friend, Quentin Glass. Howard sends various assassins, including a brutish thug called The Russian and a country singer named Harry Heck, to take down Frank, but he defeats them, instead. Frank then starts to deal the final blow, forcing Howard to kill Quentin and Liv, and then going after him and the rest of his men at his club. Frank takes them all down, including John, and faces Howard in one final showdown, killing him with a single shot. 

          Frank then goes off, leaving stacks of cash for Joan, Dave, and Bumpo, and decides to take down criminals everywhere, christening himself as The Punisher. 

          Now, to this day, Thomas Jane is my favorite actor to have taken on the character of Frank Castle, and I still hold by that sentiment, as he really embodies who the Punisher is. One thing that's really neat is that he actually did a majority of his own stunts in the movie. I also really enjoyed both Samantha Mathis as Maria and Rebecca Romijn as Joan, as both ladies really do a great job with some of the lighter scenes involving Frank and their two characters. 

          John Travolta does a really good job as Howard Saint, and he definitely has the temperament of a crime boss in this movie. I also enjoyed the dual performance of James Carpinello as John and Robert, Howard's twin sons, as well as Will Patton as Quentin Glass. 

       Now, while I, personally, enjoy this movie, I do accept that it's definitely not for everyone. So, if you're not a fan of movies like The Godfather, Scarface, or any other crime film of note, then you probably won't enjoy this movie. However, while this movie doesn't fall into the familiar patterns of the superhero films that were being made at the time, it does have a lot of really great moments, as well as a really neat car chase involving Frank's armored GTO. Now, while it's a shame that he didn't have his battle van from the comics, giving him a GTO was pretty cool. 

        But as I said, this movie isn't for everyone. The Punisher is definitely one of those Marvel movies you put on while eating pizza and drinking beers with the guys on a Friday night. So, as much as I personally love this movie, I'm giving The Punisher a rating of 4.15/5. Now, there's been additional iterations of the Punisher since the release of this movie, including the MCU version portrayed by Jon Bernthal. Now, I'll most likely get to his version of Frank Castle in a future edition of Marvel May, but I'll certainly say that his version of the character is about on par with Thomas Jane's version. I still prefer Thomas Jane as the Punisher, especially since he returned to the character for a fan-made short film called The Punisher: Dirty Laundry, which is currently available on YouTube, and I highly recommend it. However, Jon Bernthal definitely got the rage of the Punisher down, whereas Thomas Jane played him a little too cool. 

         Anyway, this is Chuck signing off, and Marvel May will continue next Monday with Fantastic 4.