customary all-black garb, Stevenson (who doesn’t utter a word until partway through Reel 2 and is best known in this part of the globe for his role as Titus Pullo in the ROME miniseries) looks terrific in the role and handles the dra- matics well. In another depar- ture from the action hero norm, Castle’s retorts (“Let me put you out of my misery”) are thank- fully kept to a minimum. Jigsaw (not to be confused with the vil- lain of another Lionsgate fran- chise) and Loony Bin Jim (an original character not from the comic) are fittingly monstrous antagonists, played with infec- tious, over-the-top glee by West and, especially, Hutchinson. The remaining characters are far less distinctive, with a pair of prominently featured police- men on Castle’s trail (recent James Bond regular Colin Salmon and I AM LEGEND’s Dash Mihok) adding little more than a couple of minor plot de- tours and some lame attempts at humor.
When Jack Valenti finally de- parted the MPAA, the standards regarding violence in R-rated movies changed dramatically and PUNISHER: WAR ZONE is one of several Lionsgate titles that have since pushed that classification to its absolute breaking point. Heads are blown off, eyes are gouged out, necks are broken, throats are slit, and faces are punched-in (literally!). Castle uti- lizes a pencil to fix his broken nose and an impaled thug’s face to break his leap from a rooftop, and when Loony Bin Jim an- nounces that he is going to re- cover the apple sauce a foolish orderly stole from him, well, he’s not planning on breaking into the man’s locker. While obviously not in any way for the delicate of con- stitution, the carnage is so cartoonishly excessive and free of
Torture Porn sadism, it is diffi- cult not to chuckle at the sheer ludicrousness of the splattery spectacle. While a more complex structure and wittier repartee cer- tainly would not have hurt, PUN- ISHER: WAR ZONE still marks a distinct improvement over its pre- decessors. In fact, after all the brooding solemnity of THE DARK KNIGHT (to which this Punisher is a low-rent doppelgänger in both senses), it was something of a relief.
It didn’t suffer the ignoble fate of being dumped onto a few dozen “Dollar Theater” screens, à la THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, but PUNISHER WAR ZONE (onscreen) seems to have been another victim of the recent Lionsgate regime change, opening in a suicidal early December slot with little promotion. The studio’s Blu-ray edition is a bit light on features, but presents the film looking and sounding as good as it did at any multiplex. The 2.35:1 1080p image is immaculate when it is supposed to be (su- per saturated colors always look stable and blacks are wonder- fully deep) and fittingly gritty the rest of the time, with natural looking grain levels. The DTS 7.1 audio is as strong and stir- ring as the firefights need, with particularly aggressive bass. A French dub in Dolby Digital 5.1 is also included, along with En- glish SDH and subtitles, and Spanish subs.
Alexander and cinematogra- pher Steve Gainer talk about the production in a fairly informative commentary. There is a great deal of back patting, but also rea- sonably interesting details about the compromises brought about by time, budget and disputes with management, problems created by the extremely cold weather that plagued the Montreal por- tions of the shoot, and the great
care taken at several points to emulate famous frames from the comic. There are also brief, dis- posable featurettes (all in HD) covering what one would expect (training, weapons, make-up, behind-the-scenes, visual de- sign), though it is fun to hear British cast members Stevenson and West speaking with their natural accents. We were unable to utilize the new fangled MoLog feature, which allows the user to add shapes and text to the im- age. Bookmarks can also be gen- erated and a digital copy for Macs and PCs is included. The trailer is also presented in HD, along with other Lionsgate genre titles, similarly formatted. Also available on DVD in a wide- screen/fullscreen single disc edition ($29.95) with no signifi- cant extras, and a two disc version ($34.98) with most of the supplements featured on the Blu-ray.
GAMERA THE BRAVE
Chiisaki Yushatachi Gamera 2006, Tokyo Shock, $19.99, 96m 43s, DVD By Eric Somer
After Toho dismissed the sug- gestion of a Godzilla vs. Gamera collaboration, Kadokawa Pictures elected to return the Gamera series to the instantly familiar framework put in place in the 1960s by screenwriter Nisan (Fumi) Takahashi. Director Ryuta Tasaki’s foray into the series in- deed emphasizes the famous turtle’s special kinship with chil- dren, but smoothly manages to avoid the goofiness that tarnished the Gamera films from the Shôwa era. For children of any age, there is much to admire about GAMERA THE BRAVE, which stands as the high point of the series thus far.
In what at first appears to be a continuation of the three
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