Punisher: War Zone

I've noticed a slight trend on the Internet where occasionally, a shitty film will have a sequel that really isn't much better, but is at least more enjoyable because it wasn't trying too hard, yet the consensus will seem to be that it was actually worse. It happened with Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem, and it happened with Punisher: War Zone. War Zone is a very stupid movie. But unlike the Thomas Jane Punisher movie, it was stupid in a fun way. The 2004 version certainly aspired to be a bit better, but it failed pretty badly, while this 2008 film is just simply enjoyable over-the-top violence.

And man, there's a crap load of that. I loved Ray Stevenson as the jovial yet bloodthirsty Titus Pullo on Rome, and I have to say I liked his version of Frank Castle quite a bit. He's stoic and brutal, but has a heart under all that body armor and ammunition. He doesn't even have a line for like the first half hour of the film, letting his fists and guns do the talking for him. And any time he's on screen killing some dudes, it's probably going to be fun. He slits throats, shoots parkour douche bags out of the air with rockets (I don't understand the director's disdain for that particular action movie trend but still found the scene humorous), punches way harder than a human being should be able to, and fills dozens of guys with lead. If it wasn't so over the top it might be disturbing, but it actually comes off as carefree in comparison to the other movie's sadistic revenge plot.

The support structure around Stevenson isn't quite as strong. Like The Incredible Hulk, War Zone is a reboot that doesn't entirely ignore the contributions of the film it's overwriting. It changes the basic origin story to match the original comic (and actually make a bit of sense), but rather than tell that all over again it merely jumps forward and shows you what Castle's up to five years into his quest. Dominic West and his compatriots are almost too crazy as some New York gangsters who declare war on the Punisher, with the former star of The Wire hamming it up especially as Jigsaw. Julie Benz doesn't do a whole lot with the material as an obligatory female influence on the plot, playing the widow of an undercover FBI agent Frank killed unwittingly (is this a commentary on the last movie's idiotic premise? Probably not), and Wayne Knight of all people shows up as a gun supplier. The plot doesn't have much to it, and whenever violence is occurring without the Punisher around it tends to lack bite, but I definitely had a decent time watching it. If a movie's going to be kind of bad, it should at least be fun.