The Punisher extended edition. Out now. (*****5/10)
This summer, we’re pretty spoiled when it comes to the big, blockbuster comic book movies. Iron Man was absolutely fantastic, and The Dark Knight is the best comic book flick ever made. And looked at in that light, the re-release of The Punisher, special extended edition, would be easy to overlook. And perhaps that’s for the best. Now, I must say I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the original Punisher, starring Dolph Lundgren in 1989. That scene where he’s being tortured on that table, and the bad guys are about to do that comic book thing where they leave the room, assuming he’s going to die. And through the pain, and the horror, he yells at their departing backs; “Hey! HEY! Have a nice day.” Magnificently idiotic!
And although there are parts of the new Punisher that are aggressively mediocre enough to be kind of funny, and there are moments that actually verge on the magnificently idiotic, the movie just doesn’t have enough of those moments to justify watching it. This new, extended edition, appears to have added a whole new story line. One which requires a major military scene in Kuwait to start the movie and set up this story line. And yet, that scene was never filmed. Too expensive, you see. So what they have done is photograph the actors, and they’ve animated the scene to kick off the movie. The main problem with that is that not only does it feel tacked on, but it also makes that whole story line tacked on, and they were probably right to cut it out in the first cut of the movie.
This movie was too long the first time. Now they’ve added an extra twenty minutes, making it interminable. It just isn’t compelling enough to get me to sit there for two hours plus. Thomas Jane is OK as the comic book hero (who has no superpowers or special abilities, except…anger?) And John Travolta is alright as the Comic Book villain, Howard Saint. But there are so many bothersome moments in the film. If Saint wants the Punisher dead so badly, why does he send one person at a time? Why not send his whole team? And if the Punisher keeps losing all these fights, isn’t he more the Punished than the Punisher? And why does he go to such great lengths to mess with the minds of his targets when he’s just going to walk in and blow them away three days later anyway?
Not only was this movie average at best the first time around, it has become even more bloated and obnoxious this time. While it’s an easy DVD to watch when you’ve shut off your brain, there is no real redeeming value to this film or DVD edition. Even the special features are weak - all we get is a “making-of” nine minute feature about this extended edition, which involves picture taking and drawing. Boring. Just like the movie. It came out July 15th from Alliance Films.