Punisher: War Zone

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Punisher: War Zone

R,

2008,

1h 47m,

Action/

Crime/

Drama/

Mystery & Thriller

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Watchlist

29%

110 Reviews

Tomatometer

42%

100,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

29%

Tomatometer

110 Reviews

42%

Popcornmeter

100,000+ Ratings

Frank Castle, aka The Punisher (Ray Stevenson), turns the streets of New York City red as he wages a one-man war against the crime syndicate responsible for the death of his wife and two kids. Aided by his trusted sidekick, Microchip (Wayne Knight), he almost kills Billy Russoti (Dominic West) and leaves him horribly disfigured. Billy renames himself Jigsaw and with the help of his crazed brother Loony Bin Jim, recruits criminals from every corner of the city to do battle with Frank.

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Critics Consensus

Punisher: War Zone recalls the excessively violent, dialogue-challenged actioners of the 1980s, and coincidentally feels two decades out of date.

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Andrew Pulver

Guardian

Feb 6, 2009

1/5

You couldn't call it shoddy, exactly, and the actors take it painfully seriously; it's just dispiriting to see all this endeavour in the service of something so humourless and disgusting.

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Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

Metro Newspaper (UK)

Feb 6, 2009

3/5

As its absurdly macho title hints, this action film is on a mission: not to delight or beguile so much as to club you over the head.

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Tom Ambrose

Empire Magazine

Feb 5, 2009

2/5

Another violently unsuccessful attempt to bring this comic book character to screen.

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Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

Mar 7, 2024

2.5/4

This movie has its moments, and most of them involve cheap thrills.

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Joseph Garcia

Dynamic Duel Podcast

Jul 11, 2023

2.5/5

The film adapts the fun violence and dark humor of the comics but neglects the nuance, making it more of a guilty pleasure than a satisfying experience.

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Emilie Black

Cinema Crazed

Jul 26, 2022

4.5/5

Punisher: War Zone is a colorful, violent, almost perfect comic book adaptation which seems to be forgotten by some fans of the genre.

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Albus W

Jan 29, 2019

Surprisingly an improvement over the last shootout with Stevenson's portrayal and Salmon's also decent performance which both had been further validated in a close combat between the two as the film's most engaging action piece surrounded by mindlessly-violent, heavily-flawed mediocre blandness. (C+)

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Ron W

Jan 27, 2019

Its an action movie people, and a great one at that. Top villain

Han S

Jan 2, 2019

I honestly don't understand how critics gave this movie the exact same score as the 2004 version. The script is horrible as well as the acting. It looked as though a high schooler wrote this for a school project. At least with the 2004 version it had good acting and a good script. This one was cringeworthy at best and barely worth one watch.

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Hermione R

Dec 21, 2018

Un exelent Punisher, plein de sang qui coule

Theodore S

Nov 19, 2018

one of the best superhero movies ever

Abraham S

Nov 5, 2018

Underrated, fun guilty pleasure. If you like cool, great action scenes, a badass main character, dark humor, excessive violence, blood, and gore, then this movie is for you. A trillion times better than all the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, which are atrocious beyond human comprehension. Punisher: War Zone is a prime example of an extremely violent, bloody, and gory R-rated bloody gore-fest that is fun and entertaining unlike the stupid, overrated Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies which are beyond stupid and mean-spirited. Anyone who likes any of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies is retarded. The same people who hate Punisher: War Zone are the same people who like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies. Therefore, all of those people lose all credibility and have horrible taste in movies. Punisher: War Zone is a TRUE guilty pleasure. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies are just PLAIN, BORING, PURE HOT STEAMING PILES OF HORSESHIT only liked by sick morons. Anyway, I had a blast watching this film! Punisher: War Zone deserves to have at least a 63% RT audience score.

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Lexi Alexander

Director

Ray Stevenson

Frank Castle

Dominic West

Billy Russoti

Doug Hutchison

Looney Bin Jim

Colin Salmon

Agent Paul Budiansky

Wayne Knight

Linus Lieberman

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Synopsis

Frank Castle, aka The Punisher (Ray Stevenson), turns the streets of New York City red as he wages a one-man war against the crime syndicate responsible for the death of his wife and two kids. Aided by his trusted sidekick, Microchip (Wayne Knight), he almost kills Billy Russoti (Dominic West) and leaves him horribly disfigured. Billy renames himself Jigsaw and with the help of his crazed brother Loony Bin Jim, recruits criminals from every corner of the city to do battle with Frank.

Director: Lexi Alexander
Producer: Gale Anne Hurd
Screenwriter: Matt Holloway, Art Marcum, Nick Santora
Distributor: Lionsgate Films
Production Co: MHF Zweite Academy Film, Lionsgate Films, Valhalla Motion Pictures, Marvel Studios Inc., Lions Gate Films
Rating: R (Pervasive Strong Brutal Violen|Language|Some Drug Use)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 5, 2008, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 10, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $7.9M
Runtime: 1h 47m

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