'Punisher' is silly, sadistic

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

THE PUNISHER (R) Two Stars (Fair) The Punisher comes to the big screen with vengeance on his mind and blood on his hands. Tom Jane and John Travolta co-star for first-time director Jonathan Hensleigh. Lion's Gate, 124 minutes.

With no superpowers, no funny cape and little socially redeeming value, he isn't like a comic book hero at all. He's just a ruthless, relentless judge-and-jury killer, and his story is a strange and violent blend of silliness and sadism.

"The Punisher," aka Frank Castle (Tom Jane) is out for blood. Castle's family is destroyed by a Florida gangster in the film's intense first act. Then, in an approach more fascist than fastidious, Castle goes on his rampage, killing all sorts of underlings and blowing up buildings and parking lots full of cars, regardless of who else may be on the scene.

His ultimate target, of course, is the gangster, a big-time Florida money-launderer played in entertaining, intense, operatic style by John Travolta. (He seems to be slumming here; but his appeal is undeniable.)

Vigilante stories are always on shaky moral ground as they tease gratuitously with our baser desires for unbridled revenge. "The Punisher" seems especially so, perhaps because the character never acknowledges the quivering ground upon which he stands. As played by the handsome Jane ("The Sweetest Thing"), Castle is a single-purpose, one-note killing machine. However, Jane is good enough as an actor to suggest more depth than Dolph Lundgren, the giant Swede who first played the role in the 1989 B-movie version of "The Punisher."

Though Jonathan Hensleigh is a prolific action-film writer whose credits include "Die Hard with a Vengeance" and "Armageddon," he's less successful in this uneven and overly long directorial debut. He tries to spice up the dark, gritty story with moments of slapstick and whimsy, but they're largely incongruous. And his violence is too often disgustingly sadistic and gratuitous.

Rated R, with ultra violence, profanity.