The Punisher (2004)

Director: Jonathan Hensleigh

Cast: A. Russell Andrews as Jimmy Weeks (as Russell Andrews), Omar Avila as Joe Toro, James Carpinello as Bobby Saint / John Saint, Mark Collie as Harry Heck, Russell Durham Comegys as Tattooed Mike (as Russ Comegys), Antoni Corone as T.J., Rick Elmhurst as Bay News 9 Newscaster, Ben Foster as Spacker Dave, Michael Reardon as Toro Croupier (as Michael Francis), Laura Harring as Livia Saint, William Haze as EMT (as William Hasenzahl), Thomas Jane as Frank Castle (as Tom Jane), Eddie Jemison as Mickey Duka, Marco St. John as Police Chief Morris, Marcus Johns as Will Castle

I was surprised how good this movie was, not stupid as I figured. It's
another one of those based-on-a-comic book hero films that seem to be
popular nowadays (Hellboy, Batman, Sin City, Spiderman, Superman, etc.)

However, this was the not the cartoon-like film I expected. It was more
of a pretty brutal revenge-crime movie. It's a rough movie, pure and
simple.

Believable? Of course not. Some of the action is ludicrous but the most
ridiculous of all - the fight against the huge Russian, is actually the
most fun of the action scenes. The rest is just plain mean as the
hero's entire family gets wiped out by gunman and "The Punisher"
(Thomas Jane) goes after them after almost being killed himself.

A smart aspect of this film was inserting a bit of humor in it, such as
the two nerds down the hallway who befriend "The Punisher."

The sometimes-juvenile but interesting action scenes, the diverse
characters in here and the humor all combine to make this better than
anticipated.

No, it's anything but a thinking man's movie, but it IS entertaining
and harmless if you look at everything tongue-in-cheek.