In PUNISHER: WAR ZONE, Dominic West dons Frankensteinian makeup to prove Lionsgate can’t have enough movie villains named Jigsaw.
Deciding on the new and more fitting moniker of Jigsaw, he pro- ceeds to free his even more so- ciopathic brother “Loony Bin” Jim (THE GREEN MILE’s Doug Hutchinson) from a local asylum, before setting out for revenge. Realizing that one of the victims in his last mob cleansing was actually undercover FBI agent Nicky Donatelli (Romano Orzari), Castle tries to help the man’s widow (DEXTER’s Julie Benz) and young daughter, but is rebuked. Deciding to leave the city and his years long quest for vengeance against the underworld, Castle is temporarily dissuaded when in- formed by weapons supplier Mi- cro (SEINFELD’s Wayne Knight) that Jigsaw and his minions have set out to kill the remain- ing Donatellis. Castle’s success- ful intervention persuades Jigsaw to launch a last, definitive attempt to eliminate The Punisher. To
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that end, he recruits dozens of street hoods to his cause and uses hostages to lure Castle into what will certainly be a death trap.
With Castle’s backstory hav- ing been told previously, PUN- ISHER: WAR ZONE dispenses with the preliminaries (save for a brief flashback to his wife and child, the circumstances of their fate differing from that previ- ously seen) and, for the most part, characterization. The main concern here is stylization of both the imagery and comic’s trademark savagery. Attempting to emulate its inspiration, the visual design is much more ar- resting than seen in the first two entries, with many dynamically framed views of Stevenson (who more closely resembles the comic Castle than Lundgren or Jane) and no more than three colors visible at any given time.
This approach is pleasing to the senses and also makes it clear that we are in an imaginary uni- verse, making one more recep- tive to the screenplay’s flights of logical fancy. In refreshing contrast to the ultra-tight angles and ludicrously incoherent ed- iting plaguing virtually all con- temporary action movies (with the simultaneously released QUANTUM OF SOLACE and TRANSPORTER 3 being two of the worst offenders yet), direc- tor Lexi Alexander, a former stuntwoman/karate/kickboxing champion, keeps everything properly framed and onscreen long enough to register com- fortably in the viewer’s brain. It is also refreshing to see Castle actually reload at several points, rather than being supplied with magical weaponry that gener- ates its own ammo. With his 6' 4" frame, slicked-back hair and
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