Clearly doesn't understand The Punisher. You can't sit there and praise this thing and tell you're a fan of the character. This movie is a cool gritty short. Sure. Call it ANYTHING else and I'd probably enjoy it more. But it is NOT The Punisher!
The people that made this and the people that like this obviously don't understand thing-one about the Punisher!
Amen!
It annoys whenever someone says this is the best Punisher movie. Yeah, its a decent standalone short, and Tom Jane is good at being Tom Jane gruff guy.
But the character in it is not the Punisher.
Hopefully, Marvel, Jon Bernthal and Netflix will give us the first definitive Punisher where everything clicks. The true canon MCU Punisher.
Tesla was robbed!
I agree. But unfortunately it's the closest that we've come.
shareTom Jane IS the Punisher. If there's any actor that can top his performance then more power to them but it was Marvel's mistake for not picking him up for a sequel. I think Tom Jane took a lot of the blame for the film's shortcomings when it was a poor budget and bad producing and screenwriting that killed the movie. Critics are pretty skeptical when it comes to shorts like Dirty Laundry but let's put more focus on all the horrible X-men movies that have been successful even though they're nothing like the comics
shareYou are aware that they wanted him for a sequel, but he declined to do it, right? So it isn't "Marvel's mistake for not picking him up for a sequel," it's Jane's.
Hey, how about the fact that I fought an Avenger and didn't die?share
This, I think, is more a continuation of what we saw from Frank Castle as previously played by Tom Jane- still with some semblance of a human being under all the armor. He knows what he needs to do, but the conversation with Ron Perlman's character sets the tone for the internal monologue he was no doubt having at the laundromat: "If I kill these guys, there will just be more taking their place tomorrow." This is Frank Castle, weary of his war, not sure of whether to keep fighting it; he started out just to avenge his family, but for every one scumbag he takes down, two or three more show up in their place. He knows it's a losing battle, and anyone- anyone- would wrestle with that fact and whether it was something he could keep doing.
I can agree that the pacing feels off for what we know about the character from the comics; the situation never would have gotten half as far as it did- but that's the departure between a serialized print like a comic book versus a short film. With this, we had to see him wrestle with that decision, we had to see what his target was capable of to give us the kind of catharsis necessary to make a vigilante story feel good. It wouldn't have been as dramatically satisfying to have him debate the same line of reasoning with himself, then go out and bash their heads in; we had to feel, in no uncertain terms, that his methods are not just effective, but deserved.
Let me ask you this: did we need all the exposition in The Slavers?
Si vis Pacem, Parabellum.
Frank would have dispatched those goons the minute they started screwing with the guys unloading the truck, nevermind the prostitute and the kid. Also, the real Punisher would already be armed--a sidearm, a holdout or two, knives, etc. No need to buy an improvised weapon from a store across the street.
Just like the disappointing '04 Punisher movie, this short rambles on for too long while trying to figure out what it wants to do with itself before finally getting where it needs to be. I admire Jane's dedication to the role, but he's clearly not the right fit.
I concur. Thomas Jane playing his version of the character again was great to see, but it still didn't feel like a proper Punisher. It could be argued that this version of the character was retired here or that he finally had his "awakening" after his discussion with Ron Perlman's character (I reckon that should have happened the moment his family was gunned down though), but either way his portrayal missed the mark.
Now having said that, this short is certainly neat for fans of the 2004 movie.
You want something corny? You got it!