Favorite Punisher?

[Jetfire]

Who is your favorite Punisher(Frank Castle)?

Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane or Ray Stevenson?

I didn't care for Dolph too much, Ray was spot on though...but my fav was Thomas Jane.

I know Ray Stevenson wants to keep doing the role...anyone know if another movie is in the works?

 

[Shazam!]

Tom Jane, but Warzone was the best movie.

 

[zakkrusz]

My favorite adaptation was the 2004 film with Thomas Jane.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

Ray Stevenson by far.

 

[Ganja Tea]

I liked Dolph's punisher. He just looked dead and uncaring and had a kind of flat unsympathetic voice, like a real alcoholic who spends his free time dispatching thugs. I even liked the movie.

 

[exodus]

Ray Stevenson, hands down.

 

[Roshi]

Ray Stevenson. I couldn't believe in the other Punishers.

 

[zakkrusz]

Wow, people actually liked something about War Zone?

Personally, it goes down as one the worst films I've ever seen. Just laughably, bad and corny. To each his own I guess, but I really wish I'd rented it instead of buying it.

This comes from a guy who enjoyed the 2004 Punisher movie a lot, but otherwise didn't follow The Punisher comic, though.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Ray Stevenson. And I think War Zone was also the truest Punisher film.

 

[Shazam!]

Personally, it goes down as one the worst films I've ever seen. Just laughably, bad and corny. To each his own I guess, but I really wish I'd rented it instead of buying it.

This comes from a guy who enjoyed the 2004 Punisher movie a lot

Other than Tom Jane and the fight with Russian, there is nothing to like about the 2004 film. It was such a half-assed version of Welcome Back, Frank that they may as well have not bothered.

Warzone at least acknowledged how corny it was and [literally] didn't pull any punches.

 

[captcalhoun]

Tom Jane

 

[Aragorn]

You'd think something like The Punisher would be easy to adapt to the big screen.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Thomas Jane. Ray Stevenson lacked any charisma and was very one-note in his performance.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Haven't seen the Stevenson version,though I liked him a lot in Rome and he seems a good fit for the part.

The Lundgren version was kust a typical revenge action flick of the late 80s/ early 90s. Nothing memorable. The Jane version was disappointing, not least of all cos he is usually an excellent actor and because writer/ director Jonathan Hensleigh had previously been involved in Die Hard With a Vengeance and Armaggedon. But it was dull, uninteresting and uneven in tone.

It should be easy to get Punisher right on bigscreen but the problem is, when he is onscreen, there's nothing to distinguish him from all the other revenge flicks, apart from his cool t-shirt (which the Dolph version omitted anyway).

 

[zakkrusz]

Personally, it goes down as one the worst films I've ever seen. Just laughably, bad and corny. To each his own I guess, but I really wish I'd rented it instead of buying it.

This comes from a guy who enjoyed the 2004 Punisher movie a lot

Other than Tom Jane and the fight with Russian, there is nothing to like about the 2004 film. It was such a half-assed version of Welcome Back, Frank that they may as well have not bothered.

Warzone at least acknowledged how corny it was and [literally] didn't pull any punches.

Well, I liked it especially for the fact that it took itself seriously and was a more realistic and entertaining revenge flick. Instead of being a bit cartoonish like War Zone, it had a good balance of realism while still being "over the top." The best of both worlds so to speak. The main reason why I liked the 2004 Punisher though is the villain. A good revenge story hinges on the antagonist and how much the viewer personally wants to see the guy dead. To me, Travolta played a much more interesting villain than Jigsaw in War Zone who I felt was just a big joke and couldn't take seriously. In relation to that, I also liked how

Spoiler: Punisher (2004)

the massacre of Frank's family went down, a lot more.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Personally, it goes down as one the worst films I've ever seen. Just laughably, bad and corny. To each his own I guess, but I really wish I'd rented it instead of buying it.

This comes from a guy who enjoyed the 2004 Punisher movie a lot

Other than Tom Jane and the fight with Russian, there is nothing to like about the 2004 film. It was such a half-assed version of Welcome Back, Frank that they may as well have not bothered.

Warzone at least acknowledged how corny it was and [literally] didn't pull any punches.

Well, I liked it especially for the fact that it took itself seriously and was a more realistic and entertaining revenge flick instead of being a bit cartoonish like War Zone. It had a good balance of realism while still being "over the top." The main reason why I liked the 2004 Punisher though is the villain. A good revenge story hinges on the how much the viewer wants to see the guy dead. To me, Travolta played a much better villain than Jigsaw in War Zone who I felt was just a big joke and couldn't take seriously. In relation to that, I also liked how

Spoiler: Punisher (2004)

the massacre of Frank's family went down, a lot more.

I think I would have to agree. The Punisher was more of a bare bones, gritty revenge flick. However, the film is tonally uneven. Spacker Dave and Bumpo were almost as equally cartoonish (and annoying) as anything in War Zone. The story could have been sharper and the low budget was obvious: it felt like an 80's generic action movie without any of the style or substance of films like Death Wish or The Mechanic.

War Zone, on the other hand, was just completely over-the-top and unbelievable. The colorful production design really didn't add much to the supposed grittiness of the story and Ray Stevenson as I mentioned before was one-note and uncharismatic. At least Thomas Jane added some dimension to the role, partially because his character actually goes through changes in the story, whereas Ray Stevenson's character was pretty static throughout the entirety of War Zone, which is admittedly more attributable to the screenplay verses the actor's performance.

I haven't seen Dolph Lungdren's version but I haven't heard pleasant things. I often compare the two recent Punisher flicks to the Hulk movies: two movies that are decent but uneven. However, if you combined them somehow, you might have a really good movie.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ More likely one REALLY shitty one!

 

[JacksonArcher]

^ More likely one REALLY shitty one!

Very possibly.