The Punisher: hated it!
OTOH if you like the character you might like the film, but I’m doubtful.
UPDATE: they ran it in The Mercury as well as The Stranger. I gather it might show up elsewhere too but until I see it mum’s the word.
UPDATE II: the review was picked up by AlterNet too, and appeared there on April 19.
It’s too bad. Not that I had high hopes for the movie after learning that Thomas Jane (???) was playing Punisher and that it was set in Tampa (???)…and the trailers lowered my expectations even further. What I don’t get is, why did they even bother making this film? From all appearances, it’s barely even a Punisher movie…it’s just a standard revenge action flick with a Punisher label on it. Feh I say.
I think Brodie Bruce said it best: “Well, after X-Men hit at the box office, all the studios started buying up every comic property they could get their hands on. [Lion’s Gate] optioned [The Punisher].” For Christ’s sake, Warner Bros optioned (and have supposedly are in the development stages of) a “Wonder Twins” movie. Neither logic nor shame is a factor in such matters.
The Stranger didn’t update their site fast enough today, so I travelled all the way across the street to grab a hot copy. Good work, Mike.
And wow, my proofreading skills really go to hell when I’m in code hacking mode. That was worse than my most recent Ask MeFi response.