Review: Mark Goldblatt's The Punisher.

The Punisher is an action film directed by Mark Goldblatt and stars Dolph Lungdren as the titular role, with other roles filled by Louis Gossett Jr., Jeroen Krabbe, Kim Miyori, Nancy Everhard and Barry Otto.

The film revolves around The Punisher who, in his war on the mafia (led by Jeroen Krabbe), ends up facing the yakuza (led by Kim Miyoi) all the while is pursued by his former partner Jake (Louis Gossett Jr.) and his new partner Sam (Nancy Everhard).

I've seen Goldblatt's only other directorial film, Dead Heat, once back in 2024 and while both are the peak of 80s action movie cheese, I think The Punisher did it better and is a more enjoyable film overall.

Both films focus heavily on over the top borderline cartoon-level action consisting of flashing lights, giant fireball explosions, and large bodycounts with simple plots similar to an episode of a TV show, and while Dead Heat failed to make this format work due to being a multitude of other reasons, it worked and fit The Punisher.

And don't get me wrong, this film is still a complete tonal rollercoaster. It goes from serious, to goofy, to serious to goofy, you get the idea. Filled with simple gags and cheesy dialogue ("Who sent you? - "Batman."), it's still a very over the top, borderline comic book, film.

Dolph Lungdren, in my opinion, is still one of the best casting choices for The Punisher. He's got the physical bulk, the head shape, and overall intimidating appearance as a silent beast and much like other actors of the time like Arnold or Sylvester, he manages to balance the grit of the character and the deadpan one liners when he does end up talking. He's so straight forward and raw, and by all means is one of the most enjoyable parts of the film.

Although I did enjoy both Jake and Sam, I did find myself let down due to them being a much more minor role in the film than I expected, as they only intermittently reappeared throughout the film and don't really do much on their hunt for Frank.

Kim Miyori's performance is up there with Dolph Lungdren's in this film for me, she's very cold throughout it and has a sorta eerieness to her emotionless performance, and Lady Tanaka was a very interesting performance overall for me seeing how she is almost on par with Dolph Lungdren's when the two are compared with eachother. She's way less aggressive than Dolph was in the film and still remained just about as brutal.

The film's biggest strength, intentional or not, is the comic bookness of it as it turns many of the film's quirks and flaws into more likeable aspects of the film and is one of the most comic come to life films I've ever seen.

Mainly the fact The Punisher is operating out of a sewer system like he's one of the ninja turtles, fights scuba yakuza ninjas, appears out of nowhere like he's an apparition, rides a motorcycle, has nearly all of his lines be rather silly action hero lines, all work for this film.

Not to mention the action, 85-90% of this film is just The Punisher killing people. He has a wide arsenal used against yakuza ninjas, the regular yakuza, and the occasional mobster. There's an entire near 2 minute portion of him just shooting up a casino and it just works, it's blinding, but it works.

It's hard for me to describe it but due to me knowing the cheesiness a lot of comics had around the time, it really felt like The Punisher was less of a rip off of other contemporary action films and more of a true genuine adaptation of a comic book even if it's much unlike The Punisher in later versions/films. That's just my take on it though, I know by all means this is not a good film.

While it's not a great adaptation of the character, I still found myself enjoying the grit and the predictable humor of the movie and it proved a very entertaining piece of media, especially for a time when pretty much every other Marvel movie was rather subpar.

I would recommend it to fans of bad 80s action movies, Dolph Lungdren fans, and fans of The Punisher who want to see a time capsule adaptation of the character.

That's all for now, Love and Peace!