Punisher: War Zone

PUNISHER: WAR ZONE (2008) - Dec. 12, 2008
I was sure there was nowhere to go but up after the insipid Thomas Jane version from a couple of years ago, but this was just as bad, if not a little bit worse. This was an unpleasantly boring, disjointed mess of a film. Ray Stevenson was a good choice for the Punisher, but he's completely wasted here -- the role, as portrayed in this film, doesn't even require an actor, just a guy who can look tough while holding a gun. The movie was pretty violent, I guess -- or so I could gather from the ridiculously over-the-top squishy sound effects during all the action scenes -- but it was cut so choppily it was hard to tell. I think one of the many, many problems with War Zone is that it seems to spend less time with the Punisher than with the villain and his cronies, who all seem to be played for camp value -- subtlety is definitely not a word in this film's vocabulary. It really doesn't help that it's clear right from the opening frames that Lexi Alexander is completely inept as a director -- the non-action stuff looks ugly and unpleasant, and the action is almost completely incoherent. I never thought I'd be longing for the comparatively sure hand of Jonathan Hensleigh, but here we are. *1/2