village voice
RSS/Podcast feed for Village Voice News Status Ain't Hood
Eerie Misanthropic Wednesday
City Gourmet
Win an Office Party from City Gourmet Eatery!
Latino Poets Society
Enter for your chance to win tickets to The Latino Poet’s Society Spoken Word Tour at The Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village!
Jammin' with Jazz at Lincoln Center
Win admission for two to one performance at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, New York’s hottest jazz club, plus a collection of jazz CDs and more!
Bash'd
Enter to win tickets to a performance of Bash'd: A Gay Rap Opera!
Film
Not As Punishing As Dolph: Gothy Antihero Seeks Revenge
by Benjamin Strong
April 13th, 2004 12:00 AM

Hack work for Jane
photo: Gene Page
The Punisher
Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh
Lions Gate, in release
An amateur light opera of payback based loosely on a Marvel Comics icon, The Punisher earns faint praise where it can find it: As Frank Castle, ex-G-man turned mob-exterminating vigilante, Tom Jane notably improves on Dolph Lundgren's 1989 straight-to-video interpretation. Lundgren's Castle brooded woodenly underneath falling forelocks, but Jane plays the gothy antihero as straight man, beleaguered not so much by his own demons (murdered family, Wild Turkey) as by a series of cartoon assassins. In the film's best scene, Castle suffers a Looney Tunes beating from the Russian, a beefy platinum giant played by WWF veteran Kevin Nash. (Where was Lundgren to revive Drago, his signature Rocky IV Soviet?)

Before the fun begins, the expository first half hour plods until a Tampa crimelord (an unenthused John Travolta) orders the massacre of the entire extended Castle brood—relieving a grateful audience from the strange sight of a heretofore peaceful family reunion. With topical revenge fantasies already available (Dogville, the Kill Bills) and with Roy Scheider on hand as a gun-loving paterfamilias, The Punisher mismanages its greatest asset: an unusual embarrassment of camp riches.

More by Benjamin Strong
Rudy Awakening
A new book on Giuliani provides a needed corrective to the worship of false idols

'Psychopathia Sexualis'

Youth in Revolt
Shaikhing up race, faith, and adolescence for a potent shot of Updike noir

What the Butler Saw
In which we summarize Proust competition

Accidents Will Happen
Pay no more than $27.50 for this book!

Add a Comment

Not ? Login as a different user.

All reader comments are subject to our Terms of Use. By submitting a comment, you acknowledge that you have reviewed and agree to these Terms of Use.

Login or Register

Login or register to have a chance to win Free Stuff, subscribe to newsletters and much more!

Login Register


The Village Voice Ad Index
The Village Voice Guide To Atlantic City

» click here to see more...

The Village Voice Summer Guide 2008

» click here to see more...

The Village Voice Summer 2008 Education Supplement

» click here to see more...

The Village Voice Spring Arts Supplement

» click here to see more...