Reviews

I like this movie because I am nothing more than a man wearing a suit to cover up the little boy inside. He's The Punisher, he fights bad guys, and he blows stuff up. That's my kind of movie.

For all of its merits (did I mention that he blows stuff up), The Punisher does have its problems. Let's start with our bad guy. I really like John Travolta, and this is one of his most understated, yet stronger performances. However, writer/director John Hensleigh needs to make him a better nemesis for The Punisher. Saint comes off too much like a small time hood instead of the imposing man who can order the elimination of a family. Travolta seems to be aching for a chance to be darker, meaner, nastier, and Hensleigh should have found a way to do it.

Also, I was put off by the comic relief and love story. Most of the "laughs" are supposed to come from Castle's interactions and growing familiarity with other outcasts who live in his apartment building on the wrong side of town (his new "family", yuck), and we have to watch the hint of a love story when The Punisher wins Jane's heart (Rebecca Romijn, no more Romijn-Stamos now that divorce is looming). Of course, she's the tough luck gal down the hall who happens to look like a supermodel because all cruddy apartments are full of supermodels.

All of this might be in the comic book and graphic novel, but Hensleigh detaches us from The Punisher and the drama surrounding his cause by including less dramatic stuff, and he doesn't help with constant music that fails to capture the moment as well as inserting increasingly comic book-like fights between The Punisher and Saint's assassins. All of that takes us out of the movie and makes us remember that none of this is real (the fight with Harry Heck is awesome, the one with the Russian, not so much).

What do I like about The Punisher? He's a cool good guy. The Punisher does what most of us would wish we could do if we were the victim of such a horrible crime, but Jane is too buff for a guy who drinks away his pain as much as Castle. Maybe I need to try that Wild Turkey diet because he is ripped much more than you have ever seen him in previous movies. I liked Travolta, and wish he could have had more to do. Finally, I like the general plot where Castle increasingly pursues and hurts Saint. His attacks grow more and more menacing as Hensleigh puts them together in a sequence that never makes us feel bad about rooting for Castle because he doesn't lose moral authority.

The Punisher needs some improvements, but it's an action packed, dark story that keeps you interested.

While it's no worse than much of the action movie junk that makes it to theatres, Bobby Z, originally entitled The Death and Life of Bobby Z, is a action thriller with Tim Kearney (Walker) as our hero. Kearney is a convict who's an ex-Marine and clearly not so much a bad person as one who has frequently found himself in trouble due to circumstance rather than intent. This gives director John Herzfeld, whose own career hacs been on less than an up-tick since the appropriately named 15 Minutes came and went in about that long, a premise for having a good guy hero who still fits the label of a tough convict.

The slightly convoluted storyline sees Kearney – whose life is in peril since he killed a biker gang boss in prison (self defence, of course) – offered an opportunity to walk free, as long as he's willing to impersonate a drug kingpin who happens to look just like Kearney, and who has just died. Fishburne plays the Drug Enforcement Agency cop who puts Kearney up to this task.

Before you can say 'gunfights are fun', Kearney is being shot at by the cops, manhandled by Mexican drug thugs, pursued by the bikers, and generally in demand by everyone, regardless of whether they think he's Kearney or Bobby Z. Our hero, of course, dodges the bullets, battles the bad guys, befriends Bobby Z's son (who has never met his dad) and romances a beautiful woman (Olivia Wilde) whose relationship with the bad guys is a bit hazy, but clearly quite intimate.

Filled with head scratching twists and cornball dialogue, this is not exactly a brilliant film. Yet it's got a slick look and at least a few passably enjoyable action scenes. And Walker, while never likely to be mistaken for a Shakespearian thespian, has the good looks and charisma to lead the way here. At least his character isn't loaded down with as many stupidly threatening lines as Fishburne's. Wilde also does a passable job as Kearney's conflicted love interest; she's mainly called upon to look good (which she accomplishes rather easily), but also doesn't muff her lines when she does have something to say.

Movie was funny, entertaining and I enjoyed it.