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FTMN Quickie: Punisher Extended Cut
Punisher: Extended Cut 2004
Often there aren’t very many differences between an extended cut of a film and the theatrical edition. Often it’s just a scene or two, or a couple extra shots before or after certain scenes. And once in a while there’s a film that has some drastic differences between the theatrical cut and the director’s or extended cut like with Superman II or Daredevil. This falls somewhere inbetween those two. There is enough of a difference that I felt like I should comment on it, but there’s not enough of a difference to write a completely new review for the whole film, so instead I decided to just do a little quickie review of the Extended edition of the Thomas Jane Punisher film from 2004. If you would like to read my full thoughts on the theatrical version of the film, read here.
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Filmwhys #52 Primer and The Punisher
Episode 52 of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Jason Soto from Your Face! who asks me why I hadn’t seen Primer, one of the most realistic examinations of how time travel might eventually work in the real world. And in return, I ask him why he hadn’t seen the 1989 Punisher starring 80’s action star Dolph Lundgren that never really got released in the US. And in return, he asks me why I hadn’t seen Primer one of the most realistic examinations of how time travel might eventually work in the real world.
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Filmwhys #49 An American Werewolf in London and Punisher: War Zone
Episode #49 of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Dean from The Science Fiction Film Podcast as well as a couple other podcasts who asks me why I haven’t seen An American Werewolf in London, a classic horror film and one of the best werewolf movies ever made filled with still some of the most impressive practical effects which created a new category in the Academy Awards. And in return, I ask him why he hasn’t seen Punisher: War Zone, one of the many attempts at bringing the Punisher to film, one of the only superhero films to be directed by a woman, and filled with ridiculous to the point of being comedic ultra-violence, even though it’s unfortunately not all that great in the end.
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Superhero Shorts: Punisher No Mercy
Superhero Shorts: Punisher No Mercy
Welcome to another edition of Superhero Shorts where I feature a superhero themed short film and ask a few questions from the filmmakers. This time around I’m talking with director Jason Ambrus and producer/writer/actor Shawn Baichoo and their Punisher short where he takes on a small group of mob bosses and also faces off against Elektra. As usual, you can watch it below or you can view it on their YouTube channel and you can also visit their Facebook page.
Superhero Shorts: #DirtyLaundry
Superhero Shorts: #Dirty Laundry
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m pleased to say that I’m talking with Thomas Jane, who played the Punisher in the 2004 film, and reprised his role in a new short film created by his own production company Raw Studios. You can read our conversation below as usual, or for the first time, you can actually listen in. But first, you should check out the short film right below.
Superhero Shorts: Blinky Productions
Superhero Shorts: Blinky Productions
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week is a double feature from prolific fan-film creator Chris Notarile of Blinky Productions. He has created dozens of fan films of superheroes such as The Punisher, The Question, The Shadow, Power-Girl, the Joker, and many more. He’s also created many horror fan films as well as full length original horror films. Today I’ll be looking at two of his films, The Protector and Punisher ’79 which you can watch right below.
The Punisher
The Punisher 2004
I’ve been a fan of this movie ever since it came out, I’m not sure if I saw it in theaters, but if I didn’t, then I saw it shortly afterwards. I have yet to see the extended edition of this movie but I would really like to sometime. Extended editions aren’t always improvements to the movie, I know several times that I watched the extended edition of a movie without realizing it, and I know in the case of Superman: The Movie, it felt like it was too drawn out and I think I would have preferred watching the theatrical version rather than the extended edition. But other times, movies get cut down for other reasons and the extended edition is actually the preferred version, like in the case of Daredevil. But since I already own the regular version of this DVD, I went ahead and watched it tonight instead of watching The Spirit that we rented last night so I could finish up the non-trilogy of Punisher movies. There were a few scenes that I didn’t care for as much as I did when I first watched the movie, but I still enjoyed it a ton more than either of the other Punisher movies I’ve watched this week.
Punisher
Punisher 1989
It was Sunday morning, and I hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep. When I got up I realized that Jena had made her way into our bed at some point during the night. I’m a very heavy sleeper by the way. Considering how little my wife enjoyed Punisher: War Zone, I decided to let her out of watching this movie which by my understanding was just as bad of a movie and just watch it by myself downstairs while they slept. This was on my list of 33 of the worst movies, but when I watched it, it didn’t seem that bad to me. I mean, it wasn’t a great piece of cinema by any means, but it was a solid if fairly generic 80’s action movie. And as I looked through some of the trivia, I was surprised that this has the second highest body count of the three movies at 91 kills, War Zone comes in first at 97, and the Thomas Jane version comes in at a paltry 45. This also has the benefit (or possibly detriment) of having a few brief nude scenes, but then half of them are of Dolph Lundgren.
Punisher: War Zone
Punisher: War Zone 2008
I’d like to take a quick moment before starting this review to talk about video rental stores. Many people say they’re a dying breed, and many big chains have shut their doors for good, but at least here in the midwest, there’s still one chain that seems to be doing just fine. It’s the same one I’ve been going to since I was a kid and I’ve seen it grow and it still appears to be doing well when other stores are closing their gates. I’m not sure what it is they do right, but Family Video is a great place to go. It’s a lot harder for me to browse around on the internet unless I’ve got some inclination of a movie that I want to see, but my favorite section to browse around Family Video is their large 2 for $1 section that features tons of straight to video classics and B movies. That’s where I found this gem of a movie, sadly they didn’t have the Dolph Lundgren version of the Punisher or I would have rented that one there as well. But anyway I watched Punisher: War Zone yesterday evening and I chased it down with a much better movie called The Expendables. They felt surprisingly similar in certain ways, but where War Zone faltered, Expendables flourished.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 