Frank Castle is a man who has seen too much death in his life, first as a Delta Force Op and later as an FBI special agent. He has managed to beat considerable odds, and is finally moving out of the field and into a normal life with his wife and son. On his final assignment, Castle plays his undercover role perfectly, but the operation spins out of control. This places the FBI on the wrong side of Tampa businessman Howard Saint and his glamorous wife Livia whose son was killed as they were making their bust. Notwithstanding their glossy social profile, the Saints are no genteel Florida couple; behind their copious wealth are violent beginnings, underworld ties and a chilling capacity for brutality. Castle’s worst nightmare is about to come true, as Howard Saint and his lieutenants unleash hell at the Castle family reunion. But Castle, to his everlasting torment, survives. Drawing upon all he has learned in 20 years, Castle sets in motion a brilliant plan to punish the murderers. He takes up residence among in a dilapidated tenement building on Tampa’s industrial waterfront, where his fellow tenants include Joan, a waitress at a nearby diner who is trying to put her life back on track. Castle’s neighbors become his last link to the idea of human community and warmth. It is this makeshift family, forgotten men and women with no one to protect them, who enable Castle to find the one thing he least expects: redemption but not before he finds vengeance and delivers punishment to those who have done him harm.

Ok, I am a sucker for a really good popcorn flick and that’s what this movie is. There is no deep meanings, there is no real drama all there is, is lots of action and explosions. The movie gets across what the comic book is about and that is simply vengeance. Frank Castle is the punisher because of what is done to him and he feels that the law has failed him and he is justified and dealing out punishment for those who deserve it, and the movie conveys this beautifully. Even though his path is set he still has the doubts that make the story so good. I thought Thomas Jane did a great job as Frank Castle as you could so easily see him as the punisher as he slid into the role wonderfully. I always think it is a little bit of a mistake to cast John Travolta as the bad guy because he so rarely pulls it off, but while he was by no means great in this film as the villain he did do a plausible job as Howard Saint. I blame them constantly casting him as villain because of Pulp Fiction, but at least this time around you could believe him as the bad guy because those around him were a lot worse and are the first to get punished. I still question them moving the locale of the film to Florida as the movie should have been more dark and in taken place in New York but maybe they will fix that in the sequel as the movie did a good enough job to merit one. Go and see it if you like lots of action and aren’t squeamish about some brutal killings.en more than the first one as together the movies are a masterpiece of modern filmmaking borrowing from movies of the past.
4 stars out of 5