Punisher: War Zone

The time has finally come. This is the 300th article. So, maybe it’s good occasion to review movie Lionsgate’s Punisher: War Zone (2008) 

Nice title logo although the many laser pointers feel unnecessary to me. The movie is based on Marvel’s The Punisher, the ruthless vigilant who doesn’t hesitate to spray hot lead on armed criminals. I don’t think he will shoot shoplifter or pickpocket in the head though. The Punisher or his real name Frank Castle is known to kill any criminal if not with gun or other ruthless means. He makes Batman looks like the peaceful Mahatma Gandhi in comparison. If you barely know about The Punisher, I won’t blame you. In Marvel universe, being some ordinary man with gun must be very insignificant or very low profile compared to Spiderman, Dr. Strange, Wolverine, or any other Marvel super hero that you can think of. Even so, The Punisher is my most favorite Marvel’s character after Ironman. My crazy theory is: if every country has The Punisher, the armed crime rate in the whole world will be reduced to 60% at least. The background story of The Punisher is really simple. Frank Castle, veteran US Marine Corps goes to picnic with his family: a wife and two kids, on NY Central Park. However, his family accidentally witness a mob’s execution and they’re instantly murdered by the mob. That unfortunate event drives Frank Castle into vengeance to all criminals including the mob which I assume is Italian Mafia. I’m surprised to know that Frank Castle himself is Sicilian American. The fact that I know very recently through Wikipedia even though I’m fans of him for very long time. Because I really like The Punisher, my expectation to this movie is very high, naturally. 

Warning: this article contains ultra violence images that may be disturbing. I try to put the least violence images but still beware!

 

It all begins in a mansion of some Italian mafia. Billy Russoti meets his uncle and given some bucks. He also talks about he had transaction with bio-organic things. His uncle looks unpleasant and replies “We don’t deal with that s**t”. There’s bit gunpoint conflict but it settles down because Billy’s side is outnumbered. Billy bitterly leaves.

 

Then Billy’s uncle invites everyone to the dinner table. Everything goes well, but suddenly lights out and Frank Castle lit a flare while standing on the table menacingly. Frank kills anyone on dining table. Man and woman alike because punishment is unisex. To be fair, the old lady tries to attack Frank with dining knife and he counter it with swift headshot. As for Billy’s uncle, he’s the first victim. Frank decapitates him cleanly with military knife.         

 

After killing everyone in the dinner table, the light is back. Frank decides to hang upside down on chandelier and prepare his automatic handgun. As mafia thugs rush in the room, Frank spins around and spray. Strangely, this stupid gunslinger trick works very well. He mows down every enemy that comes while he takes no damage at all! Medic_cheers01.wav 

Billy and his men watch the gun rampage from the upper balcony and they decide to leave. Wise choice.

 

Eventually, Frank needs to reload his gun. There’s someone who attempts to attack Frank with chair only Frank push it back and hit the guy right in the socket.

 

As Frank leaves the mansion, a police points gun at him. Frank obediently turns around with hands behind his head. The police realize that he’s Frank Castle. He gives his car key to Frank and tells him there’s transaction at Billy’s place at harbor. After Frank leaves, the police punch himself in the cheek. Later he confesses to his police reinforcement that Frank punched him and stole his car key to avoid suspicion that he lets Frank go.

Billy arrives safely at his office in the harbor. He has meeting with these street thugs who love to parkour on their way. They have deal with Billy as he gives them bunch of money on paper wrap and later, they leave…to the rooftop. Weirdos.

 

Soon after that, Frank Castle kills one of the guards with dart pistol. As other guard approach the victim to ask “Is he ok?”. Frank drops on them with his back.

 

The Punisher’s next victim is this guy that just come out from toilet. Frank just shot him with hot lead. Nice and simple. I find it strange to see toilet in the middle of warehouse catwalk 

 

Billy investigates the gunshot noise. Thinking he can defeat The Punisher, Billy recklessly engages a gunfight with Frank only get thrown to bottle compactor machine. Without hesitate, Frank turns on the machine and menacingly watches Billy get crushed.

 

The enemies pouring in but Frank can handle them clean and easy. Not with hanging upside down on Chandelier trick again but by simply having high ground. Obi Wan Kenobi will be proud of him.

 

Frank is out of ammo. As he searches for more ammo, he’s surprised to discover tapping device on his victim that came out of toilet. Turns out, the guy is undercover FBI agent.

Soon after that, FBI agents rush in and apprehend anyone that not die. The Punisher, escapes from the place in time. I question the weaponry of these FBI agents. They only carry handgun. They should carry something bigger, like Heckler& Koch MP5, Streyr, or M4A1 Colt.

 

Frank retreats safely to his base in between subway rail which is very dangerous place to put your secret base. But again, it has to be in dangerous place otherwise enemies can infiltrate it very easily. If I remember correctly in Punisher: War Journal comic, his base is in normal house. I could be wrong though. Anyway, Frank tries to make some coffee but later he throws his coffee glass because he’s frustrated that he killed that FBI agent.

 

The Punisher attend the funeral of the FBI agent he killed from distance. No one aware of him except for the daughter of the FBI agent.

 

Later, Frank goes to the tombstone of his deceased family. As he wiping the tombstone, he has flashback when his family killed. Then he sits down and cries. I notice the year they deceased, it’s 2002. I assume Punisher: War Journal takes place around 90s. So, the time of their death is retconned.

Paul Budiansky is very upset with the murder of his FBI subordinate. He goes to police precinct and blame the police captain for the death of the FBI agent and how the polices don’t do anything about The Punisher. The situation tenses up as Paul begins to swear and shout how incompetence the polices are. But inspector calm Paul down and suggests him to help Punisher Task Force if he so desires to take down The Punisher. Paul agrees. Once he leaves, the captain and inspector laugh at him in the back.

 

Paul Budiansky (on the right) meets up with Martin Soap (on the left), who’s the only person in -so called- Punisher Task Force. Martin is very welcome Paul to the team. He also explains the story of Frank Castle with the film projector. To be honest, Martin Soap is easily recognizable by me because he looks the Australian conservationist and environmentalist: (late) Steve Irwin.

 

He also tells Paul that Frank mainly targets all Italian mafia family in NY. What are left is Billy Russoti and the unknown Jimmy Russoti. We know that Billy is dead in that bottle-crusher machine. So, what’s left is Jimmy.

 

Meanwhile, Chip meets up with Frank to provide him with new gun. Much to Chip’s surprise, Frank has plan to retire and never go back to NY because of his guilty.

Hey! I know who’s the actor of Chip there. He’s Wayne Knight, who has role of Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park! Dennis Nedry as Chip. I’m sold! For those of you who’s new to The Punisher, Chip is Frank’s assistant. He’s portly chap with glasses. He provides Frank with information and intelligences. He also good at tampering fake passport and computer hacking.   

 

Much to my surprise, Billy Russoti survives from that bottle-crusher machine. If he was in Deception series game, he wouldn’t survive that horrible machine or at least I (as veteran Deception player) wouldn’t let him survive afterward as I ready back-up traps. Anyway, Billy’s face is beyond repair. Not even the best plastic surgeon in NY, can do nothing about it. One of Billy’s men pukes as the surgeon uncover the wrap on his face.  

 

Billy wishes to have private conversation with the doctor, so he orders his 2 men to leave for a while. As they returned, the doctor has been killed. I see the expression of the deceased doctor resembles bored expression. I imagine he think “Great, another unsatisfied customer and this one plants a scissor on my forehead.”

 

In Kentworth Asylum, a patient is being feed with some sort of porridge, I think. But suddenly, the caretaker feed it for himself and he enjoys doing it.   

 

Suddenly, there’s knock on the door that claim it was doctor. I mean it’s doctor who knock the door but soon after the door opened, Billy snaps the doctor’s neck in seconds. Oh, excuse me. Billy wants to be called Jigsaw at this point. I know Jigsaw is one of The Punisher’s nemesis but I don’t know the detail of him. I’m more familiar with Von Burian the Sniper in Punisher: War Journal. So, the patient in this isolation room is none other than Billy’s brother Jimmy Russoti.

 

Once he’s released, Jimmy kills the caretaker with barehanded and eat his kidney. No wonder, he was in asylum and his uncle doesn’t like him. He’s maniac but he is shown some high intelligence. Before he kills the caretaker, he says to the fat guy “Did you know kidney and apple sauce are delicacy in Sweden?”. So, the porridge is actually apple sauce.  

 

Far from the bloody scene, Frank visits the family of the deceased FBI agent. He obscured the light for the daughter that do some sort of art in the terrace. Frank steps away and give her a flashlight. That’s quite adorable. But why the daughter is in terrace at late evening? That’s dangerous.

Suddenly, the mother points gun at Frank and tell the daughter to get inside. Frank feels no remorse or fear at the gun point. Moreover, he tells the widow to shoot him. But then, the daughter asks the mother about her pants. The widow decides to get inside and she refuses the sport bag that contains Billy’s money that Frank asks her to take as compensation and redemption.

 

As Frank leaves the house, the widow turns off all the light. But then, the kid gives light signal to Frank. That’s also adorable. The signal could be Morse code but I don’t know much about it.

 

Jigsaw and the gang return to the apartment. Jimmy promises 2 things to Jigsaw: 1) He will kill The Punisher. 2) As long as he lives, Jigsaw doesn’t need to see his horrible face. Then Jimmy proceeds to destroy all the mirror in the foyer with barehand. Once again, I’m impressed with Jimmy. He’s maniac but he also loves his big brother with big devotion.

 

Jigsaw and co proceed to hold a meeting with Russian Mafia. Damn! I just notice how tall those wine glasses. Jigsaw kill one of the Russian bodyguards with piece of glass wine stab on his throats because he insults Jigsaw’s face. But the Russian boss stays calm and let the negotiation under control. He quotes his father “We must respect the host” so he’s ok with Jigsaw kill the rude bodyguard. Eventually, they make a deal.

 

Meanwhile in Chip’s house, he invites the street-smart guy into his house. This guy is ex-criminal and he’s the supplier for The Punisher’s gun. It’s very astounding that Chip has secret gun racks on his house. They’re well hidden from Chip’s mother who -I assume- having bad case of dementia and can only see cooking show on TV. I don’t know why Frank insists on retired after come this far. But chip predicts that Billy and co will hit the widow. Frank leaves the room. But after 3 counts down from Chip, he backs to business. But this case will be the last one said Frank.

 

With the help of the street-smart guy, The Punisher tracks down the parkour-loving thugs. They robbed a mart and killed the cashier by splitting him with machete. As they run away from the police through rooftop, Frank shoot one of them while in the middle of jump between buildings…with a rocket-propelled grenade! That’s right. Frank kills a human with 40 mm explosive grenade. I think 40 mm grenade is meant for armored or shielded target. It goes without saying that the thug instantly become chunks of meat upon impact. With sniper rifle, Frank shoots the other thug in the head. Then he shoots the leader in the knees so he can interrogate about Billy.

 

Then Frank throws the bandit into spike fence and land on his neck. He certainly dead. Through coincidence, Paul Budiansky and Martin Soap are near where the bandit killed. Paul chases Frank.

 

Meanwhile, Jigsaw and his company barge into the widow’s house to search for the money. I don’t like Jigsaw scares the kid that will potentially induce unforgettable trauma on her.

 

After some fisticuff, Paul put handcuff on Frank as he turns careless. Probably, he doesn’t want to bring his fully violent potential on police which is wise thinking. Besides, he wants to hurry to the widow’s house. Although Paul manages to catch Frank, he agrees to go to the widow’s house.

 

Two cops arrive at the widow’s house because of all commotion that Jigsaw and co made. I’m impressed with how they handle the polices. Jimmy opens the door and pretends to be the victim. When the polices ask “Is something wrong?” and Jimmy replies with yes calmly. As the polices checks on the mess on living room, Jimmy hit one of the police’s head with baseball bat from behind. As for the policewoman, she’s killed by getting pushed into decorative sword that Jigsaw’s man held. I said that I’m impressed with what Jimmy did but I notice the flaw. Shouldn’t be the polices informed who resides the house? From neighbor, police’s database or something. If they’re well informed, they should know that there’s no man resides the house, only the widow and her daughter. Then they should suspect who’s this Jimmy. Even if they didn’t get the information, shouldn’t they at least ask who’s is he first before fully trusting him? Even though he opens the door for them in rather calm manner.

 

Jigsaw is disappointed to know that the money bag isn’t in the hidden safe. He proceeds to destroy any furniture while Jimmy shoots all the daughter’s talking dolls. I just notice the kitten portrait besides the doorway! :)

Paul arrives at the widow’s house but only taken as hostage by the Jigsaw’s men. Unbeknownst to Paul, Martin released Frank from the handcuff. Frank goes through the backdoor killing one of Jigsaw’s men with repeated punch to the face against the wall until he makes hole out of the thug’s face. Using the commotion made by Frank, Paul manages to turn the table with the Jigsaw’s last man and taking him as hostage. After securing the widow and her daughter, Frank suddenly shoots the thug’s head with shotgun taken from previous victim. Understandably, Paul freaks out. To be honest, I’m also surprised with this sudden kill because it happens so fast.  

 

Frank takes the innocents to his hideout, leaving Paul having gunfight with Jigsaw and Jimmy. Martin comes to help but Paul takes his pocket gun instead to dual wield pistol against the villains. Miraculously no one gets hit despite how intense the gunfight is. Moreover, Jigsaw and Jimmy only takes cover behind stair’s banister that’s very small and very not ideal for cover. Eventually, the villains surrender because they’re out of ammo. Shouldn’t use those bullets unnecessarily for the dolls there, Jimmy!

 

Back in Punisher’s hideout, Frank reveals the chest that contains his deceased family’s possession to the kid. She also wears hairpin that used to be his daughter’s lovely accessory.

 

Meanwhile in police precinct, Jigsaw and Jimmy are being interrogated. Later on, the interrogation diverted to FBI. I like to point out the crack on the glass there. It must be caused by Jimmy because he swore to Billy that he wouldn’t ever need to see his face again.

 

Jigsaw and Jimmy are free, on the deal they help FBI to capture the Russian mafia in their transaction with bio-organic things. The Russian mafia can do nothing except he swears that his father will server him Jigsaw’s head in silver platter.

 

Not only FBI give the villains the freedom and the money, but also a document regarding Punisher’s assistant: chip! They kidnap chip and killed his mother with brutal headshot presumably with shotgun. She doesn’t look “great” so I can’t show her to you.

 

As Punisher goes to chip’s apartment, Jimmy already infiltrates Punisher’s hideout, killing the street-smart guy who is tasked to protect the widow and her daughter despite not having any weapon as precaution. Jimmy asks the ex-criminal where’s the money and slash him with axe. He said “I AXE you a question” while doing so. That kind of pun is something that come out of my mind. Jimmy keeps showing of his amazingness.

 

Meanwhile, Jigsaw takes the hostages to abandoned Brad Street Hotel and turns on the electricity there as the place for the final showdown.

 

Frank comes late twice. First on Chip’s apartment and now he’s late to return to his hideout. There’s typical kidnap note at the end of the axe. “Meet us at Brad Street Hotel tonight. If we smell cops, the hostages die”. The street-wise guy, still breathing and he asks Frank to conduct mercy kill on him. Frank reluctantly does it. While he prepares his handgun, he also covers the guy’s eyes. 

 

Because he lost all his men, Jigsaw recruit other gangster and mafia to aid him with the promise of huge money reward and The Punisher will be killed. I think Jigsaw should show off the big money -presumably- from FBI to set up the Russian mafia. These thugs way too trust Jigsaw or the promise of Punisher killed is already good enough for them.  

 

While the thugs arm themselves and prepared in Brad Street Hotel, The Punisher also prepare himself to attack the hotel. He paid visit to a church before. Talked to the priest and Paul that happens to be in the church. Frank is willing to accept Paul’s assist but he warns that Paul doesn’t bring polices with him or he better be resigned.

 

Paul brings along Martin to the base of Russian mafia. He informs the leader that Paul knows who set up his boy to FBI custody and know where to find the culprit. Paul doesn’t want anything from the Russian mafia and want Jigsaw and his men dead. The Russian mafia leader agrees to attack Jigsaw.

 

The Russian mafia manage to infiltrate the hotel through front door, pretending as recruits on Jigsaw’s plan. Unbeknownst to the Chinese mafia on the front door that the Russian mafia actually hold a grudge with Jigsaw. Not far from the front door, there are Frank, Martin, and Paul.

 

Paul wants to get in but swift strike from Frank’s buttstock strike, knocks him unconscious instantly. I agree with what Frank did there because Paul only armed with a handgun. What does Paul think he is? John Wick?

 

The Russian mafias unpack their luggage and arm themselves. Once their leader gives a nod, they start blasting at the other mafia. Paul said that the Russian mafia leader is known man slayer.

Once the Russian mafias start blasting, The Punisher jumps to the second floor’s window and start another slaughter himself. He uses assault rifle to wipe those gangsters. He uses smoke grenade to make smokescreen for himself. He uses grenade, put it into empty paint bucket, and kick it. I like the resign expression of the thug who find out that there’s grenade hidden inside the bucket that Frank kicked to him.  

 

Frank wipes the enemies, floor by floor. He encounters this situation where enemies holed up in this room, aim at the door that’s the only entry way that Frank can break in. Care to guess what Frank’s solution to this?

 

He thrusts his assault rifle into the door and fires grenade from the M203 grenade launcher attachment, killing everyone in the room. That’s quite absurd. How did Frank know that the assault rifle is strong enough to punch in through the door. The hotel is abandoned thus the door is most likely weathered, sure. But how about the enemy’s reaction. They know that they face the infamous Punisher, they fully tense up. Any change on the door, most likely will make them jumpy and fire at the door immediately at full force. But that doesn’t happen. They let Frank have enough time to fire the 40 mm grenade which is unthinkable.

 

After killing a thug who has cigar break with headshot by magnum gun. Jimmy ambushes and forces him to have some close-quarter combat in toilet. I know that it’s typical in Hollywood action movie to have some fisticuffs in “boss fight” but in Frank’s defense he did try to reach for the trusty magnum and his other gun are empty.

 

Jimmy manages to bites Frank in the neck which is outrageous but then he grabs the lunatic through shower’s walls and lastly throw him into the toilet’s mirror. Jimmy probably likes the last part because he hates any mirror that can reflect Jigsaw’s face.  

 

Eventually, Frank manages to grab the magnum but Jimmy runs away into abandoned bathing pool section where the hostages are being held. Frank has no choice to throw down the magnum. Jigsaw picks it up and shoot at Frank in the body where is protected with Kevlar vest, until there’s only one bullet left. Maybe you think Jigsaw is being stupid for not shooting Frank in the head. But Jigsaw did say that he wants to kill Frank painfully and slowly so him being playful is justifiable.

Jimmy aims his gun at the kid while Jigsaw aims his gun at Dennis Nedry Chip. Jigsaw tells Frank to shoot at one of those two and he lets the other free.

 

Chip tells Frank to shoot him. “She’s only kid” he said. He takes the best way to solve the problem: He shoots Jimmy’s head a few seconds after aim at Chip’s head. Chip is dead anyway. I know it’s common in Hollywood action movie that the protagonist can swiftly shoot other target’s head with handgun but it’s still unacceptable to me. If it’s bodyshot, it will be more acceptable because torso is significantly bigger target than head. Shooting target in the head with any gun require fully focused aim for optimal accuracy and impact. At least that’s my opinion.      

Jigsaw is just being dumb here. He’s run out of ammo and Frank beats him up very badly after rescued the widow and the daughter. Jigsaw is pushover at close combat. Frank hit him with bottle. Slam him at the edge of bathing pool.

 

Jigsaw try to hit Frank with some sort of iron bar. Probably, something you use to poke coal in fireplace or something. Then Frank grabs it and use it to stab Jigsaw’s side. Then he throws the villain into the lit brazier. “This is only the beginning.” said Frank Castle.

 

The widow and her daughter come out the building safely. Not long after that, Frank follows. I’m not sure about the Russian mafias. Maybe they continue to where Jigsaw whereabouts and kill him for real thus Frank’s statement “This is only the beginning” makes sense. Anyway, the widow said that she remembers what her late husband said about The Punisher is good guy. So, with that Frank’s guilty is absolved. 

 

Paul takes the widow and her daughter to safety while Martin accompanies Frank. He even willing to buy The Punisher a drink. Suddenly, Frank vanishes as Martin talks about now is probably the best time for The Punisher to retire because the Italian mafias are all gone and maybe the remaining criminals only need rehabilitation to fix. Some bandit suddenly tries to rob Martin. He keeps shouting Frank’s name to help him.

 

Frank appears to help Martin. He stands on upper stairs long enough like Jason Voorhees. The light written “Jesus” on the church dims out, leaving only “Saves” light still on. The screen slowly fades to black and eventually Frank fires his gun. Martin complains that the mugger’s brain splattered on him. The End.  

 

I expect no less from Lionsgate’s Punisher: War Zone (2008) other than being very good movie. It has the action, the drama, and the comedy. They all are blend well into the mix. I don’t think I ever see Frank Castle showing any drama emotion in “Punisher: War Journal” comic that I read. But him being guilt over the FBI agent that he killed or sentimental toward the widow and the daughter, is believable to me. Even though I very like the movie I like to point out some flaw. First thing is the moment where Frank is out of ammo. In comic book I read, Frank doesn’t hesitate to pick up gun from fallen enemies so he can keep on firing. Whereas in this movie, I don’t see Frank does that. So, he ran out of ammo eventually and that’s kind of unacceptable to me. I also don’t like Punisher throws away guns that he uses like in scene where he kills the parkour-loving thugs. He throws them in ventilation chimney, wasting of good weapons. Such a shame. Maybe he did that to dispose evident so police don’t charge him for murder. But then he doesn’t try to conceal himself by wearing mask. Moreover, police don’t bother with his vigilance act. As the matter of fact, they seem subtly supports Frank. “Punisher Task Force” is just there for pretense that Police do something with Punisher. Second, about the origin of Jigsaw. His face become disfigured and grotesque like that because Frank knocked him through a glass window pane. Whereas in the movie, he got his face destroyed because he’s thrown to bottle-crushing machine. I don’t agree that only makes his face destroyed. His hair should be ruined as well but turn out his hair is perfectly fine. I also think that some of his bones should be fractured because he’s in the middle of crusher machine. I also think that pile of crushed bottle is hard enough to broke some of your bones if you’re thrown in the middle of it. Orthopedic or anyone knowledgeable enough regarding injury on human body may correct me about this.    

Even with those flaws, I really like this movie and I’m very satisfied watching it. You may argue “This look like typical gun-action Hollywood movie” and I can’t disagree with that. You need to know about The Punisher franchise first to enjoy the movie to the fullest. Ray Stevenson really hit the nail on the head as Frank Castle. He acts as The Punisher very perfectly. The way he looks imposing and intimidating when do the vigilance act. His hairstyle also accurate. I also like the pacing of the storyline. It’s pretty comprehensive and fast with reasonable story progress, like how brilliant Paul’s idea to tell the Russian Mafia about Jigsaw or Jigsaw cooperate with FBI for his freedom and information about Punisher’s assistant: Dennis Nedry Chip. It goes without saying that this movie gets AAA+ recommendation for me. If you don’t like it, Punisher will break down the door of your room and proceed to break your nose. Maybe.