Sunday, October 17, 2004

The Punisher

After watching this movie last night I've come to the conclusion that the name is less about the movie's plot than the role the movie is supposed to play on the viewer.

Its not like the potential is not there for a "high octane", explosive movie its just that the writers and producers failed miserably in giving us something watchable. Think about it man watches family get killed and is almost killed himself. He returns months later to get revenge on those who killed him. Simplistic storyline yet ripe with potential for serious action and mayhem in a Hollywood blockbuster. What more could one ask for. Its been done to death already but still.

Now what does Hollywood do? They give us one of the slowest action movies every made and made it about 2 hours long. They set the scene quite nicely in the first half hour but after that they just bumble their way around as 'the Punisher' takes his sweet time going from one boring encounter with the enemy to another. Even the final showdown is disappointing. 30 or 40 bad guys vs the Punisher. I'm not looking for realism here. The Punisher with his revenge filled mind vs these lackeys as he goes after the number 1 badguy would have been totally cliche but lets face it action movies are about style vs substance and given the lack of substance and style of the first hour and 45 minutes why not go out with some style. I mean Blade wasn't the greatest of movies but that last showdown with Wes Snipes and the vampires was flippin amazing. So what happens in this movie? The Punisher blows up three quarters of the guys straight off the bat leaving him only a couple to deal with man on man. BOOOOOO!

Anyway enough of this blog before it becomes slow and 2 hrs long like the movie. Whoops too late. Sorry

1 comment:

chrome said...

son dont get me started. came back from watching Alien Vs. Predator. what a waste of hard earned dollies. started to watch punisher on bootleg and after half an hour I switch off. I was like "whatever". dolph ludgren be happy.