The Punisher: Blu-ray disc DVD Review

The latest superhero movie to be plucked from the pages of Marvel Comics is “The Punisher” and my, does it live up to its title. The film is a masochist’s dream.

It stars Thomas Jane (“The Sweetest Thing,” “61*”) as Frank Castle, a buff, brooding undercover FBI agent whose entire family is massacred by the Saint, an ironically named villain played by John Travolta in the sort of big, humiliating performance he already gave in “Swordfish.”

The Saint is a wealthy, smoky tough from Tampa who enjoys sweeping into rooms in full tantrum, sputtering about who did him wrong and how they’re going to pay for it, all in an effort to rally the legion of black-suited minions toiling after him.

Though the Saint would never admit it, he’s essentially a diva. He makes paranoid accusations about his enemies, ridicules those close to him, dresses impeccably and makes outrageous demands from everyone in sight. If he weren’t in a suit, he’d be in “Connie & Carla.”

And yet who can blame him for his histrionics? The Saint is seeking revenge for his son’s death, which he directly attributes to Castle. Now arch enemies, Castle and the Saint have at each other in a movie filled with so much gunfire and beef, it becomes hamburger onscreen.

Indeed, as directed by Jonathan Hensleigh from a script he co-wrote with Michael France, “The Punisher” earns its R rating by putting Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher, through the bloody wringer for much of the film’s 2-hour running time. Like Batman before him, he has no superpowers, though he does have rage, which apparently makes him immune to such life-threatening events as being blown up, repeatedly shot in the chest, stabbed, crushed and thrown through cement walls.

The movie is too long by a third and it will fade from memory quicker than “The Shadow,” but it’s hardly the worst of the superhero lot—it’s no “Flash Gordon,” for instance, and God knows it’s no “Daredevil” or “Howard the Duck.”

When it’s not startling the screen with its surprising run of graphic violence, its actually rather good. Its action scenes are creative, Jane holds your attention and Hensleigh manages to find pockets of humor, particularly with the Punisher’s interactions with his down-on-their-luck neighbors Joan (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Mr. Bumpo (John Pinette) and Spacker Dave (Ben Foster), a social outcast who predictably comes to regret the numerous piercings crisscrossing his face.

Grade: C