I love “crunchy” action movies.

After that thing, Friday morning/afternoon, I arrived in the Ortigas area at 3 in the afternoon.  No one was answering my messages, (Kimmy replied when I was already inside the theater!) so I decided to watch a movie instead.

I got a ticket for the 4:25 screening at cinema 2 of The Podium.  I went in alone — not alone-didn’t-have-anyone-else-to-watch-with-alone, but alone-I’m-the-only-one-at-the-cinema.    It was like renting the whole cinema for my special viewing of The Punisher!

Again, we’re a couple months too late — we get it here in the Philippines as the DVD/Blu-Ray is rolling out in the US.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Punisher — first off, why? — second off, he’s Frank Castle, happy family man (happy enough to look like he’s in a constant toothpaste commercial) in flashbacks — his family witnesses a brutal mob execution and they get gunned down for it.  He survives, and, well, starts wearing a skull shirt and delivering his own brand of “punishment” to the evils who ended his happy days.  It’s been pretty much that since the character’s debut, so that’s still his story.

In this movie, however, it is revealed that The Punisher vigilante has been active for a couple of years now, and, as a routine thing, he goes off eliminating a mob family, in the dark, with a knife, and in the most violent ways possible.  This is where it wins: this is like how, say, Ennis would write Frank (played by Ray Stevenson):  Barely speaking a word, just doing the work that needs to be done.

Introduced in the movie is Punisher comicbook villain, Jigsaw.  In a twist near the end of the movie, the title is given two meanings: one, it ties up to the Punisher:Warzone title from years back, and, well, Jigsaw’s making it a literal war against Frank — with a recruitment video you must see — it’s LULZ.

Having that “accident” near the start of the film gives Frank a bit of humanity.  The little girl and Julie Benz playing a widow (with an obvious fake accent!  But I still love her anyway.) give Frank reason enough to care, but not enough to make him stop what he does.

The plot’s a little … meh, but I watch action movies for the ACTION — in which this movie delivers.  Also in the movie is Microchip, played by Wayne Knight — upon seeing him, I clutched my fist and said, “Newman!” — who provides Punisher with support, in hardware, and, well, in humanity.

I’d recommend you see it, but with the DVD premiering a day before the Philippine premiere?  Maybe watch out for that one instead — the cinema version has various cuts that take away potentially excessive excesses?  Of drug use and violence.  And also that one scene where he fixes his nose…

4/5

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