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I’m not too sure if “Punisher: War Zone” is a comic
book adaptation or milder version of an exploitation film.
There are moments when it seemed like it wanted to be a
comic book, not the least of which are the action scenes,
which are so preposterous that you can’t help but be somewhat
entertained by them. Everything else, however, felt like
a freak show, a look-at-this-if-you-dare exercise, an excuse
to indulge in the grotesque. ***
For all I know, that’s exactly what the original “Punisher”
magazines were going for; I haven’t read a single issue.
But even if that’s the case, shouldn’t there be something
more to a film adaptation than brutal death scenes? As good-looking
as this movie is, the story is paper thin, and boy, is it
violent. Not violent in that fun comic book way, but in
that bloody disgusting way that’s really best left for campy
horror films. You will see many gory acts in the course
of this movie, from heads being blown up to bodies getting
impaled to a man’s kidney being ripped out and eaten. ***
It doesn’t help that the performances are hilariously
bad. Considering the fact that moments of the story actually
go for serious drama, it’s a little hard to believe that
it was intentional. Let’s start with the title character,
a.k.a., Frank Castle. He’s played by Ray Stevenson, a British
actor that can’t seem to hide behind a fake American accent
no matter how hard he tries. ***
I wasn’t bothered by his monotone voice. Remember,
he’s playing a character whose wife and children were horribly
murdered; that would leave anyone just shy of emotionless,
and that’s helpful when you take it upon yourself to rid
the city of crime. I was, however, bothered by Stevenson’s
lack of originality, an inability to make the Punisher anything
more than what we’re already used to. He doesn’t perform
so much as he recites his lines, which is incredibly boring
for such a ruthless antihero. ***
And then there’s the film’s main villain, who starts
as a vain crime boss named Billy Russoti. He’s played by
Dominic West, another British actor. His fake New York accent
is so exaggerated that it actually surpasses a lampoon.
It’s a lampoon of a lampoon--he’s making fun of actors that
make fun of hard-edged New York accents. I’d ask if he even
took his role seriously, but considering the ridiculous
natures of the plot and his character, there’s no need.
**
At a certain point, during an especially brutal fight
scene in some kind of factory, the Punisher drops Russoti
into machine that grinds glass bottles into little shards.
The Punisher then turns the machine on. Russoti screams
obscenities as glass tears his face to shreds. Later on,
in a moment too reminiscent of the mirror scene in Tim Burton’s
“Batman,” Russoti sits on a chair in a plastic surgeon’s
office, his entire head bandaged. ***
The surgeon removes the bandages, revealing Russoti’s
horribly disfigured face; pronounced stitches trail over
grafted skin that looks like it’s been stretched one too
many times. Because of his looks, he no longer goes by his
given name. He’s now called Jigsaw, a name that could have
been original were it not for the “Saw” series. ***
Hiding somewhere within this visual sideshow is a plot,
one that isn’t a sequel to the 2004 film “The Punisher”
so much as it’s a complete rewrite. The location has shifted
from Tampa Bay, Florida to New York City, where Castle is
seen as nothing more than a crazed vigilante in the eyes
of the NYPD. He sets his sites on Russoti, who’s in talks
with the Russian Mafia to have biological weapons shipped
into the city and given to terrorist factions. ***
Castle’s attempts to bring Russoti down backfire when
he accidentally kills an FBI agent disguised as one of Russoti’s
men; consumed with guilt, Castle vows to make it up to the
agent’s widow (Julie Benz) and young daughter (Stephanie
Janusauskas). ***
But that won’t be so easy. Russoti, now Jigsaw, has
broken his psychopathic brother, James “Looney Bin Jim”
Russoti (Doug Hutchison), out of the local mental hospital,
and they both have the agent’s family in their sights. Hoping
to bring the Punisher down, Jigsaw recruits an army of gangsters
from all over the city. ***
Meanwhile, another FBI agent, Paul Budiansky (Colin
Salmon), teams up with a goofy NYPD detective named Martin
Soap (Dash Mihok) with the intention of finding the Punisher.
For Budiansky, it’s personal; his partner was the one the
Punisher unintentionally killed. As usual, Castle has no
plans to play by the rules, and with a little help from
his personal weapons dealer, Linus “Microchip” Lieberman
(Wayne Knight), he’ll be more than adequately equipped to
track down Jigsaw and bring him to justice. ***
If only this movie was fun. It certainly could have
been, but the over-the-top violence and gore greatly weighs
it down. I might have even gotten a kick out of the bad
performances had there not been so many dramatic pauses
featuring Stevenson and Janusauskas, all of which were approached
so unoriginally. Their characters constantly stare at each
other with sorrow in their eyes, and yes, I know that that
was the point. Still, I couldn’t help but feel that something
more complex could have been developed, something that would
reveal more than the fact that these characters are lost
souls. ***
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