Punisher-War Zone (Blu-ray) (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