Has anyone seen The Punisher?

[Killarney]

Trying to decide between The Punisher or Man on Fire...

[bkcc]

1. Man on Fire.

I haven't seen "The Punisher", but I have heard nothing good about it at all...except from my girlfriend's 17-year-old brother.

Even my friends who love the comic books and were excited for the movie said that it's absolutely dreadful.

Go with Denzel.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. I've seen the Punisher

It's not nearly as bad as the critics say. The dialog does blow, and it could use a little more action, but it's a decent movie. Extra points if you liked the comic books.

[noahmijo]

3. Screw those who say it sucks

I thought it was awesome and so did my girlfriend and she doesn't even like action movies all that much.

In my opinion one of the greatest forms of revenge I've ever seen dished out on the big screen. I won't give anything away but let's say what he does phsychologically to the bad guys is far worse than what he does to them physically.

Don't expect a deep story. I c'mon what do these elitst critics (A job I think is about as important as a guy who hands out those lobster bibs at a fancy resteraunt) expect out of a movie like this? It's a friggin action flick you go for the mindless fun, but personally I'd say it was almost as good as The Crow not quite but very close.

So if you like The Crow you'll like The Punisher.

[FunBobbyMucha]

4. There's good action junk and bad.

I've heard the Punisher has some ridiculous elements, like his being shot in the chest and left for dead in water, and no scar or explanation of his survival is provided later on. Even action movies have to play by their own rules. Compare the fun-as-hell Die Hard to its vastly inferior sequels.

Why not expect a deep story? Kill Bill is both a revenge flick and deep. The measure of compassion an audience feels for a character is proportional to the pathos of said character. It's hard to root for a cardboard cut-up.

This latest Marvel co-opt just sounds lazy. And after the leaden, flat-as-day-old-open-soda Daredevil, I think I'm gonna pass. Sounds like a Playstation 2 game more than a narrative film.

[Blue_Chill]

6. Kill Bill is not deep

People keep thinking it is because of the way the story is presented but all Kill Bill is, is a brain dead violent movie presented to you thru the eyes of a great director. It's art but it sure as hell isn't deep.

The Punisher is a comic book movie that has to follow a story line never intended for adults. It does well with what it had to work with and is certainly better then other comic book movies like 'the hulk' which was just plain awful.

I especially like the lunacy of the russian character. heh. That was so stupid I found myslef laughing my but off after the movie was over just by thinking about it.

[Killarney]

7. "So if you like The Crow you'll like The Punisher"

The Crow is on my all-time favorite list!

[EarlG]

5. I thought it was good

A lot better than Hellboy, which I saw the previous week. RottenTomatoes.com gave Hellboy 77% and The Punisher 27%, so make of the reviews what you will.

As a fan of action movies though, I thought it was good. It had a sense of humor, and you got the impression that the director and the cast were in on the joke - everybody knew that they weren't making a work of art, just a frickin' action movie. In contrast, I got the impression from Hellboy that the director and cast THOUGHT they were making something witty and hip, but in the end it was just boring. Be prepared to laugh at all the completely over the top stuff in The Punisher.

One more thing - I liked the return to what you might call "traditional" action. There were no super-slick computerized special effects (that you'd notice) and there were no super-stylized "bullet time" action sequences which John Woo did so brilliantly before every action director in the world ripped him off.

To sum up: very little slo-mo-flying-through-the-air-dodging-hails-of-bullets, lots of unpleasant stabbings. Good stuff.

Edited to add: if you like that sort of thing :)