Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Waging his one-man war on the world of organized crime, ruthless vigilante-hero Frank Castle sets his sights on overeager mob boss, Billy Russoti. After Russoti is left horribly disfigured by Castle, he sets out for vengeance under his new alias: Jigsaw. With the "Punisher Task Force" hot on his trail and the FBI unable to take Jigsaw in, Frank must stand up to the formidable army that Jigsaw has recruited before more of the evil deeds go unpunished.

Despite being one of the more popular Marvel franchises out there, Punisher hasn’t translated that well to the big screen. The material tends to be a bit too cheesy and lacks the foreboding quality that I think the material demands. This just turns into one big over the top violence fest with lots of guns, gore and mayhem. If you’re into that thing great but I was hoping for something with a bit more story arc.

Lionsgate continues to deliver outstanding video presentations for their day and date releases. This one looks outstanding with strong contrast and exceptional depth of image. While not quite as razor sharp as the recently reviewed Transporter 3, it still manages to have great fine object detail, impeccable depth and jaw dropping black levels. Shadow detail is preserved nicely and the color palette has been amped up just a bit giving the image a nice level of style and pop.

The 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is far more controlled than the recent Transporter 3, which had an overly cooked low end. There is still plenty of punch here but I didn’t feel like I was traveling on a C5 the whole time I was watching the film. Lots of activity in the surround soundstage with impressive panning and directional effects during the plethora of action sequences. Dialogue sounds natural in timbre and balance and imaging across all channels is solid.

Extras include some production features that look at making the film, the new Punisher and the new badguy. There is also an audio commentary with the director and the trailer. Like most of the newer Lionsgate offerings, this one has MoLog, which allows you to add text, objects and even audio to the film and share with others. A digital copy is also included for portable devices.

This is a turn your brain off and turn up the volume blood rich action fest. Lionsgate does a great job with the presentation but the movie falls short of the better comic adaptations on the market today. If you’re a fan of the genre a rental will probably suffice.