Gloom, gore beat down gun-crazy 'Punisher'
You can't win them all. And "Punisher: War Zone" - about a gun crazy super-vigilante running amok in a neo-noir city festering with criminal gangs and psycho killers - unhappily breaks the recent string of keen-o Marvel Comics- derived movies.
"Iron Man" was surprisingly witty and entertaining - and a great comeback vehicle for star Robert Downey, Jr. "The Incredible Hulk" was a continuously exciting action blast with a few good tormented-hero moments for star Edward Norton.
"Punisher: War Zone," on the other hand, is a gruesome, creepy, over-loud, over-bloody, poorly scripted mess, which wastes the talents of its glowering star, Ray Stevenson, and of pretty much everyone else.
Based on the pulpy Marvel comic series "The Punisher" - filmed twice before, with Dolph Lundgren and Thomas Jane, respectively, playing the relentless Punisher, aka Frank Castle - it's a movie that starts with a loony Mafia party massacre with a lot of "Godfather" impersonators blown up while wisecracking cops watch.
This is a movie that tosses its star villain (Dominic West as Mafioso Billy Russoti, aka Jigsaw) into a vat of glass to have his face shredded and justify his new nickname. Then, it has Jigsaw team up with his insanely overacting relative Loony Bin Jim (Doug Hutchison), lets hero Frank kill an undercover federal agent and brings on nervous Micro (Wayne Knight) to keep Frank supplied with weaponry and angry FBI guy Paul Budiansky (Colin Salmon) to hunt Frank while Frank hunts Jigsaw. All the while, "Punisher" keeps the blood spurting and the clichés flying until the last stomach-heaving moment.
This is the kind of movie where the writers - including, amazingly, two from "Iron Man," Art Marcum and Matt Holloway - bring on the dead agent's distraught wife (Julie Benz) and cute little daughter (Stephanie Janusauskas), and you worry that they're only there to be abducted and terrorized. Similarly, when you see an invalid old lady (Micro's mother, played by Lynne De Bel), you worry that she's only there to have her head blown off. Your fears are usually justified.
Stevenson, who's essentially playing a pulpier, brawnier version of Charles Bronson's vengeful vigilante in "Death Wish" - but with more firepower and less emotion - is pretty good at registering stoic sadism. But the writers mostly cheat him of the revenge back-story that explains his hatred and his vendettas. And any overacting that the tight-lipped Stevenson avoids is injected by the screaming, giggling heavies West and Hutchison, who start out over the top and then keep piling it on.
As for director Lexi Alexander, an ex-world karate and kickboxing champion who's made some award-winning shorts and the British-set "Hooligans," she, like the others, has her talents buried here in the slime of howling stereotypes and nonstop carnage. Alexander may direct a bang-up action movie one day, but not until she gets a script that doesn't rely on massacres for its punch lines.
"Punisher: War Zone"
Rating: 1½ stars
Starring: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Doug Hutchison, Colin Salmon, Wayne Knight, Dash Mihok, Julie Benz
Directed by: Lexi Alexander
Other: A Lionsgate release. Rated R for strong violence, language and some drug use. 107 minutes