The Punisher (1989)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Mark Goldblatt

Writer (WGA):

Boaz Yakin (written by)

Release Date:

5 October 1989 (West Germany)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

If society won't punish the guilty, he will.

Plot:

When Frank Castle's family is murdered by criminals, he wages war on crime as a vigilante assassin known only as the Punisher.

Plot Keywords:

Vigilante | Murder | Japanese | Yakuza | Marvel Comics

Cast

Dolph Lundgren	...	Frank Castle
Louis Gossett Jr.	...	Jake Berkowitz
Jeroen Krabbé	...	Gianni Franco (as Jeroen Krabbe)
Kim Miyori	...	Lady Tanaka
Bryan Marshall	...	Dino Moretti
Nancy Everhard	...	Sam Leary
Barry Otto	...	Shake
Brian Rooney	...	Tommy Franco
Zoshka Mizak	...	Tanaka's Daughter
Kenji Yamaki	...	Sato
Hirofumi Kanayama	...	Tomio
Larry McCormick	...	TV Newsreader
Todd Boyce	...	Terrone
Lani John Tupu	...	Laccone (as Larney Tupu)
John Negroponte	...	Musso

Runtime:

89 min | Finland:76 min (heavily cut) (1990) (1995)

Country:

Australia | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Spain:18 | Finland:K-16 (heavily cut) (1990) | Finland:K-16 (heavily cut) (1995) | Netherlands:16 | Finland:K-18 (2006) (self applied) (film festival rating) | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Ontario) | USA:R (cut) (certificate #29751) | Australia:R | France:-12 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 (video premiere) | Sweden:(Banned) | UK:18 (cut) | West Germany:18 (cut) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

New World Pictures (Australia)

Trivia:

In the opening sequence, on a cinema marquee, a poster is visible for the film "Make Them Die Slowly", better known as Cannibal ferox (1981).

Goofs:

Continuity: After the lights go off, some goons shoot at where two characters are standing, only to find them gone when the emergency lights come on. Not a single bullet hole is visible in the Japanese paper screen they were standing before, however.

Quotes:

Lady Tanaka: [answering the question, "Who the fuck do you think you are?"] We are Yakuza. When your ancestors were shepherds still screwing sheep on the Mediterranean coast, ours were the crime lords of Asia.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The President's Man (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Vicious Minds

An exciting action-packed thriller

This film was pretty good. Frank Castle is The Punisher, a former police officer whose family was murdered by mobsters and years later, he comes back and wages a one-man war against crime. Although thought dead, he slowly kills off leading mobsters and criminals, one by one, in the name of "street justice". This movie had good music, and Louis Gosset Jr. played his role well as a police chief who was a friend of Castle. This movie had a decent story and exciting well-filmed gunbattles, but there were some bad things too. It relied more on pure action than on acting, for there was little talking in the whole film, just gunfire. It was somewhat fake to the point where it no longer seemed like a film (more like a video game) where a single man kills dozens of mobsters and is only hit by a single bullet in the whole film (in the shoulder!!!). But besides the bad things, this was pretty exciting and I would recommend it to all who enjoy action films. Feel free to email me with any questions or comments.