The Punisher (1989)

To me, this movie is perfection.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This movie is the best version out there of "The Punisher." Believe it or not, Dolph Lundgren did a hell of a job on his character. Since Dolph's all about body count, Lou Goseph Jr. really balances out the acting and plot parts of this movie. While Tom Jane did alright on the modern version and war zone was really that, this one really portraits the true dark nature of Frank Castle and the demons and criminals he swore to fight after events in his life.Guns, knives, throwing stars, explosions, it's all here (well, as far as the explosions, at one point the Punisher is firing a grenade launcher, and the explosions seem less than spectacular, more flashy than boom boomy). Not only that but there's a good amount of karate. Lundgren, a former karate champion himself, performs most all of his own stunts, and there is almost no choreography within the marital arts scenes, as real artists were used, and training in stunt techniques. Does the film stay true to the original character portrayed in the comics? For the most part...some minor changes, along with a few major ones (he never dons a shirt emblazoned with a white skull on it). I think one of the main reasons this film was ill received is because comic fans are a particular picky lot, as they spend a lot of time getting to know these characters, and tend to have high expectations when someone adapts one of their favorite characters to the silver screen.The direction was pretty good in most areas, given that this was Goldblatt's second film, his first being the Joe Piscopo/Treat Williams cop flick Dead Heat (1988). Goldblatt has since returned to editing, which seems a much better fit for him. Gossett is fun to watch, but again, given the dialog, he is given some completely rotten lines, but he does seem to try to make the best of it, earning whatever he got for appearing in this film.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

When Frank Castle's family is murdered by criminals, he wages war on crime as a vigilante assassin known only as the Punisher. The Original Punisher of the 80's with less John Travolta although the remake did gave a much better origins to the character this one gave a much better action with some pretty cool action sequences from start to finish and Dolph Lundgren is a much better Frank Castle than Thomas Jane and it makes no sense for critics and even fans to hate this film because he doesn't have the iconic logo in his shirt sure it's stupid but what about Marvel's Daredevil on Netflix Punisher doesn't have the logo until episode 11 or 12 i think does that mean he sucked? Of course not. Let me tell you what i liked or should i say loved? First of all Lundgren as Castle was really great he understood the character and although Dolph is more of an B Movie actor who smiles and throws one liners all the time he basically never smiles in this one he is serious and full on pain there are 4 scenes in this film that the director basically tried to humanize Castle one is of course the escape with the bus where Castle saved the children and the way he speaks to this little girl is like he is speaking to his daughter, number 2 is when his friend Jake played by Louis Gossett Jr. tries to make him open his heart and talk to him but he refuses, the 3rd one is when Shake tries to make The Punisher understand that all this 5 years he is fighting he might have done more bad than good sure he killed a lot of bad people but their kids don't deserve to die and he basically tries to connect with him in order to save those children and the last one is when Frank talks to to Tommy and tells him to become a good man because if he doesn't he will wait for him it kinda reminded me a lot of Kill Bill Volume 1 for some reason. Guys in the end The Punisher (1989) is a film that beats the 2004 film in every single level except origins and story maybe but in terms of villains and even acting and characters this is the superior film it has cool opening titles and although it's a Marvel film they throwed a reference to Batman who is DC since Tim Burton released Batman with Michael Keaton back on 1989 don't you just love that? Back when there was no Fanboy Wars between the MCU v.s DCEU good times right? The Punisher gets an A+

I remember looking forward to this so much back in the day when we didn't get comic book movies very often. When we did get them, they were usually crap unless Batman was involved. Anyway, when this came out I was very disappointed. Punisher was far from my favorite comic book character (even less so now than then), but I had certain expectations about how he should look and act and how a movie centered on him would be. This is pretty much a generic action movie with little in it to remind you of the comic character. But, as far as low budget actioners go, it's not bad. It's past the Cannon heyday and before we really get into the '90s doldrums. The plot is about a former cop named Frank Castle (a wooden Dolph Lundgren) whose family is killed by the mob, so he becomes a vigilante and starts killing mobsters right and left, earning the name The Punisher from the media. But then the Yakuza comes to town to take over and starts by kidnapping the children of mob bosses, so Castle must team up with one of the mobsters (Jeroen Krabbe) to fight them.It's a dark and gritty movie but also cheesy and hard to take seriously. Lundgren is dressed in black leather, head to toe, like Elvis in the '68 comeback special. He even has his hair dyed greasy black and what looks like shoe polish smeared on his face to give the appearance of a five o'clock shadow. Louis Gossett, Jr. and Nancy Everhard are both fine as the cops investigating the Punisher. Jeroen Krabbe is an easy-to-hate villain. Punisher is given a Vitamin Flintheart-type sidekick here, played by Barry Otto. He's mildly amusing. Kim Miyori is great as the sadistic Yakuza leader. She chews scenery with the best of 'em. The action scenes are pretty decent for the time, although the upbeat music is sometimes at odds with the violence being depicted on screen. The biggest problem with the movie (besides a hackneyed script) is the bland direction from Mark Goldblatt. There's no style to it that separates it from any of a dozen other cheap actioners from the late '80s and early '90s. And, like I said, the music doesn't fit the action and that gets a little distracting sometimes. It's worth a look if you're a die-hard Punisher fan or Dolph Lundgren fan (I'm sure those exist). Just don't expect much. I think some of the over-the-top praise in some of these reviews might be sarcasm or something. I can't believe anyone really thinks this is the greatest comic book movie ever made.

In preparation for the second season of Marvel's "DareDevil" I decided to take a look back into the filmography of the two characters that will be going head to head, DareDevil and the Punisher. I just took another look at the first live action appearance of Matt Murdock's alter ego, so now it's time to go back to Frank Castle's. A man, who's family was gunned down by the mafia, takes it upon himself to punish anyone he finds guilty of the crimes against New York City in a way to never let what has happened to him happen to anyone else. In his current crusade against crime, things start to heat up between New York's mob against the Japanese while Castle is stuck right in the middle of it. His old partner in the midst of the chaos is attempting to bring Frank out of the vigilante life before it gets him killed. Comparing this film to the 2004 Thomas Jane "Punisher" and 2008 Ray Stevenson "Punisher: War Zone" films, this probably comes out on top with being the better movie while also coming closest to representing its source material. Not saying that it pulls it off perfectly because it isn't the most faithful adaptation ever put into a comic book film, but in comparison to the other feature films that were later made, this has more things done right while still being a good movie. The title character is portrayed fantastically by Dolph Lundgren, capturing the tortured loneliness that comes with the man who lost his whole family while simultaneously handling all of the action scenes with ease. His ex-partner, Louis Gossett Jr., also handles the emotional aspects of being apart of Castle's past and being a bad- ass perfectly. With these two I was able to get a real sense of the men they used to be and deep down wanting to go back to the way things were before Castle took on being the Punisher, but they sadly just can't. All the action is well filmed and choreographed, it holds a lot of fun to be had with this movie. No, I can't say that this is the definitive Punisher movie because in the end in its routes it is mostly a straight-up 80s action film. In terms of the depressingly dark tone and over-the-top violence that is known to be affiliated with the comic is only touched upon here. It is not 100% faithful to its source material in terms of some of the characters that come to play either, but Lundgren is without a doubt Frank Castle. He owns this role and I wish that it had done better in its theatrical run so maybe I could have seen him reprise his role for another film. On its own, it is a really fun sit with a slight edge that comes from the dynamic relationship between Lundgren and Gossett. For anyone who likes or misses some 80s action, this is made for you.