Punisher War Zone Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Thanks to advancements in movie-going technology over the years, all one needs to view tomorrow's slasher remake, My Bloody Valentine, in three dimensions is a special pair of glasses. And according to Lionsgate's marketing department, all one needs in order to see the film in four dimensions is a set of beer goggles.

The above picture is of an online ad that I just came across while watching a video on YouTube. (Whether or not said video was a RickRoll, I'll neither confirm nor deny.) Apparently, the studio is so confident in the quality of their film that they hope young viewers over the age of 21 will stumble up to the ticket window before tossing their cookies mid-movie in an effort to create an interactive "splash zone" of sorts for some lucky viewers.

When we were kicking around ideas for year-end superlative Cinematical Sevens, I was proudly tasked with chronicling the year's finest in big-screen mayhem, violence, destruction and other such shenanigans. When I was kicking around ideas for said feature between me, myself, and I, there were too many titles to leave off the list, so instead of highlighting only a mere couple of movies, I've opted to sort these puppies out by specific manner of cinematic excess.

So there.

1. Most pervasive destruction - The Joker may have terrorized Gotham to the tune of a destroyed hospital, a wrecked helicopter, a sunken SWAT truck, a toasty fire engine, and a golden district attorney, but even he can't top the Cloverfield monster's swath of destruction across the real-life Gotham. Statue of Liberty? Gone. Brooklyn Bridge? History. Central Park? Adios. And that's not including all the Hollister stores that our protagonists might've fled to. (On a smaller scale, though, Inside's lady in black terrorizes a pregnant woman on Christmas Eve to the point of all but painting every last wall in her house with the blood of her victims. Gotta love the French!)

What's going on with Summit Entertainment pulling Catherine Hardwicke off of the Twilight films? And who should they get to replace her? Does The Day the Earth Stood Still work as 'hard" science fiction, or is it just hard to watch? And what can cooking with pork tell us about modern leading men? Joining us to talk about these topics and much, much more on The Rocchi Review this week is writer and editor Devin Faraci of Chud.com, who shares his thoughts on the Oscar race and why, precisely, Punisher: War Zone works for him and a wide variety of other topics. You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:



As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

Holdovers ruled the box office as no one much cared about any of the movies that opened in wide release this weekend. Lexi Alexander's Punisher reboot turned out to be a huge mistake, opening to a fraction of what the original Jonathan Hensleigh/Thomas Jane version did four and a half years ago. $4 million is painful, though not terribly surprising -- the film was marketed as a totally generic action movie, with no stars and no draw except the Punisher trademark. (The most recognizable name in the cast is probably Wayne Knight.)

Even worse off was the Alan Rickman-starring caper comedy Nobel Son. Tossed into 900 screens by indie Freestyle Releasing, the movie grossed all of $371,000, or $415 per screen -- a foregone conclusion. I'm not sure why Freestyle shelled out the money for such a relatively wide release, or what they were hoping for. Maybe a pre-Christmas miracle.

The "winner" among the weekend's new wide releases would have to be Cadillac Records, which managed a respectable $3.5 million on under 700 screens. That was enough for 9th place, just behind Punisher (on 2500 screens).

Leading the holdovers was Four Christmases, which took first place for a second straight weekend; it will have a tough time breaking $100 million, but should squeak to around $95. Twilight bummed around second place, and should be at $150 million by next week. Bolt finally took a hit after its excellent second weekend over Thanksgiving, and should top out around $95 million as well.

The full chart after the jump.

Who do you prefer: Frank Martin (Jason Statham in Transporter 3) or Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson in Punisher: War Zone)? While munching popcorn at my local multiplex on Friday night, I realized that both movies I was watching featured lead characters named Frank! Since both flicks were disappointing to various degrees (as explained at length by William Goss and Eric D. Snider), my mind wandered and I began imagining a movie in which the two battled to the death. Call it Frank vs. Frank.

If that calls to mind the horror movie stand-off Freddy vs. Jason, you're not far off from my idle imaginings. In fact, the extreme body count and ultra-violence inflicted by Frank Castle -- I can't remember when I've seen so many blown-apart faces and shotgunned heads -- means that Punisher: War Zone closely resembles an 80s slasher movie. Of course, Transporter Frank would rather avoid violence altogether, but he too manages to lay waste to dozens of bad guys.

Both Franks live by their own set of rules: Transporter Frank insists on no names, no opening the package, and no changing the deal, while Punisher Frank only kills criminals who deserve to die -- which is all of them, but still, it's a rule. Both men prefer to work alone. And both men enforce their own dress code: Transporter Frank wears a black suit, white shirt, and black tie, while Punisher Frank wears a skull on his full-length costume (admittedly, not so prominent in the latest version).

I know who'd win in my movie version, but I thought I'd throw it out there to my fellow action movie junkies. Who would win: the more cerebral, 'let me alone, I want to retire' Transporter Frank? Or the merciless, 'forever hell bent on vengeance' Punisher Frank?

Punisher: War Zone is proof of just how tenacious the people at Marvel Comics are. They're going to keep remaking and rebooting their characters' franchises whether anyone likes it or not!

This is the third time they've taken a stab at Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, the sourpuss vigilante who's been murdering villains in comic books for over 30 years. The first film, in 1989, starred Dolph Lundgren. It turned out as well as could be expected, considering it starred Dolph Lundgren. The reboot, in 2004, starred Thomas Jane and was ridiculed by critics and ignored by audiences.

But hey, third time's the charm, right? Punisher: War Zone, which is as laughably campy and violent as ever, follows the same procedure as this summer's Incredible Hulk in that it's not another origin story, but it's not really a sequel to the last entry, either. 2004's Punisher had Castle's entire extended family being murdered; here, it was only his wife and children. Maybe they realized it's hard to relate to a guy being upset that his mother-in-law was killed.

Castle, now played personality-free by Ray Stevenson (HBO's Rome), has been living in the shadows of New York City and killing bad guys for either four years or five years, depending on which character in the movie you ask. He has an endless stockpile of weapons and some military training. He also has a serious grudge against organized crime -- not just the specific Mafiosi who murdered his family (he dispatched them long ago), but all Italian-named thugs, gangsters, and racketeers.

His primary opponent this time is Billy "the Beaut" Russoti (Dominic West), who renames himself Jigsaw after suffering a Punisher-related accident that tears up his face. An undercover FBI agent is killed during the same scuffle, which Castle feels incredibly guilty about. That guy had a wife and kid, after all! Of course, so did many of the hundreds of criminals Castle has murdered over the last four/five years, but never mind.

I'm hoping that Ray Stevenson will dominate the screen completely as Frank Castle, setting wrongs to right and creating utter mayhem, in Lexi Alexander's Punisher: War Zone, which opens wide tomorrow. I loved Stevenson as Titus Pullo in HBO's Rome, an atypical brute with a little boy's heart and a joyous young man's full-bodied embrace of life. At the very least, he should erase memories of Thomas Jane, who glowered and scowled without ever embodying the role in 2004's The Punisher.

With so many sequels being made, it's inevitable that some actors will not reprise their original role. (Just think of all the fuss kicked up by Don Cheadle taking over the part of War Machine from Terence Howard, in the Iron Man sequel.) Whether it's death, Broadway, pregnancy, caring for a family member, money, or the realization that the sequel will suck, sequel replacement actors face the daunting task of replacing a familiar face in the role of a beloved character.

History has not been kind, and while it would be easier to list the worst, we thought we'd be positive and list the best sequel replacement actors. (James Bond and superheroes need a separate list.) We're also noting the role and the actor that was replaced.

1. Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox)

Brian Cox played the flesh-hungry Dr. Lecter in Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986) effectively, but Hopkins added a whole new layer when he took over the role five years later in The Silence of the Lambs. Hopkins pushed Lecter right to the edge of camp ("fava beans and a nice kee-anti") yet kept him firmly rooted at the edge of humanity with his probing eyes and ultra-controlled body language.

Finally, someone at the Punisher: War Zone premiere asked Lexi Alexander the big question -- what the hell was all that "taking your name off the film" talk? Give a hand to SciFi Wire for doing so.

Alexander's answer managed to confirm and deny the post-ComicCon drama that surrounded Punisher: War Zone. "No, no, I never was going to take my name off the film. Let me say this. Harry Knowles [of Ain't It Cool News] is one of the greatest people I know. He's a great supporter of mine. I'm his biggest fan, not because he supports filmmakers, [but] because I think he fights for film ... I think in this case, what happened is when the first trailers came out, I think he knew and he's been told there was kind of trouble. So he wrote, "F--k, they should have just let her do it, and she was pushed aside." [That is] true. He did write the right thing, and he stood up for me and for this film. I think that each Internet site that took it on brought it to a new level ... [What Knowles wrote] really is the correct thing. I was never fired, and I never wanted to take my name off. "

What Knowles wrote (if I have the right piece) was this: "Lexi Alexander has been kicked to the curb -- part of that treatment was her "honeymoon" from Comic Con. However, there's more totally awesome wedding gifts that Lionsgate has given the blushing bride. She's off the movie and wrapped up in a non-disclosure clause - so we won't be hearing from her anytime soon, UNLESS THINGS CHANGE RADICALLY." That explains the deafening silence -- though I'm curious how one can be "pushed aside," yet remain unfired. However that works, it's clear Alexander kicked ass, made the Punisher she wanted, and is getting rave reviews from the film geeks for her trouble. There's nothing like a happy ending.