Latest Comments
Online Members
Newest Members
Region Zero
Your completely non-definitive guide to world wide horror and other pop culture detritus.
Punisher: War Zone Might Not Suck
Submitted by John Shelton on Tue, 08/26/2008 - 23:32.
The Punisher is not exactly the greatest character in the Marvel catalog. He doesn't have any powers or cool gadgets, he doesn't have much of a rogue's gallery because he kills everybody he goes up against and his backstory is identical to the plot to every Steven Seagal movie ever. About all he's got going for him is a cool shirt.
The 2004 Punisher movie, while not a Elektra-level POS, was enough of a "meh"-worthy venture for Thomas Jane to back out of playing the title role in the sequel. In the upcoming "Punisher: War Zone" Ray Stevenson of "Rome" takes over for Jane, rounding out a cast heavy on actors from great TV shows, including "The Wire" (Dominic West), "Buffy"/"Dexter" (Julie Benz) and, er, "Seinfeld" (Wayne Knight).
The first red-band trailer screened at Comicon and if it's any indication, "Punisher: War Zone" is going to be a gory, hard-R action flick in the mold of the recent "Rambo" movie, which, in my eyes at least, is nothing but a good thing. What do you guys think? Is the Punisher worth a reboot or should he get the boot?
- John Shelton's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this page
Wow
That trailer looks pretty sweet! I only hope that they didn't show us all the good stuff. That said, that dude getting impaled with a chair leg is pretty bad ass.
The last Punisher flick is some what of a guilty pleasure for me. I like Thomas Jane a lot, and I liked him as Frank Castle. The story even some what went with the Garth Ennis reboot in the books. Fucking John Travolta though! Who the hell thought that was a good idea? I thought I read at one point that Jane backed out to work on something else, but I don't remember for sure. Maybe Mutant Chronicles?
Anyways, I grew up a Punisher fanboi so I'll at least go see this with mild hopes. That trailer looks badass though.
Probably not
Clearly you haven't heard about all the shenanigans going on behind the scenes. At the SDCC Lionsgate announced that the director couldn't make it to the Punish panel because she was on vacation. Turns out "vacation" is slang for "we fired her and aren't going to replace her."
Also, you'll notice that this trailer is devoid of dialogue. That because the first trailer (basically the same as this one but without the gore) had dialogue in it and it was all atrocious.
That said, I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that Lionsgate finds a way to unfuck up this movie as I'd love a balls to the wall Punisher movie (I'm particual to the original actually).
"I like it when they lie still like that."
Does Lionsgate ruin movies on purpose?
No, I didn't know about all the backstage drama. I guess that Lionsgate logo at the beginning should have been a tip off that they find some way to screw this up. I'm particularly aghast that in preproduction LGF turned down Walter Hill as director. Morons.
Here's a pretty good summary/analysis/wild guess as to what's going on with the film, though I'm still not sure how you fire a director after the film is shot. Reminds me of the hoohah with the Exorcist prequels from a few years ago. The theatrical release might suck but maybe in 3 years or so we'll get a good special edition Director's Cut on DVD.
answers...
Firing a director after principal photography has ended is pretty easy if they're promised a say in the editing process. This happens a lot. They get the movie in the can, then they get canned themselves and locked out of the editing room, where all the studio execs bring in their yes men where they (this is only speculation) all try to piss into the computer at the same time.
And as far as I know, both versions of the Exorcist prequel have been released on DVD, which was actually pretty surprising when it happened. You need to get back in the states to keep up on this stuff Shelton!
Yeah both Exorcist prequels
Yeah both Exorcist prequels got released, ones called Exorcist: The Beginning and is abismal, the other has a really bad title, Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist and sucks slightly less.
www.myspace.com/devil2pay
Dominion
Yeah it was clear after watching it why the producers fired the director, too bad they replaced him with a hack.
"I like it when they lie still like that."
what we have here is a failure to communicate
I think there's a misunderstanding here. I was foolish/curious enough to watch both Exorcist prequels a long time ago. I was saying that maybe in a few years Lionsgate will patch things up with Lexi Whateverherlastnameis and she'll get to do a non-pissed-on directors cut for DVD.
Also, I'm pretty sure I am back in the States- either that or people overseas have all of a sudden gotten a lot fatter and taken to wearing Alabama Crimson Tide baseball caps.
And their English has gotten a lot worse (*rimshot*).
So Im taking it this isnt a
So Im taking it this isnt a sequel then, as theres clips of his family etc in the trailer. So this will be the third attempt at restarting the franchise. Me, Ive always liked the Dolph Lundgren version.
www.myspace.com/devil2pay
Red Band
I am glad you posted this. I haven't seen the Red band trailer. When I saw the regular trailer, my hopes sank, cause it looked like 'Hitman'. Jigaw looks creepy as hell, but this still looks like a B movie, just a hell of alot gorier than I expected.