The Punisher
Dir: Mark Goldblatt
1989
**
The Original Punisher film is a cheesy 80's action film with Dolph Lundgren in the title role. Lundgren is Frank Castle, a cop gone rouge, how can you tell he's bad-ass? He's got stubble on his earlobes, that's how! It's the 80's, cue rock-synth music, a grunting muscleman, Jeroen Krabbé being villainous, Louis Gossett Jr. being cool, comedy side-kick (Barry Otto in a very curious role), Yakuza's in suits, in depth explanations of what Yakuza means, etc etc. It's love and hate really, I love the cheese but hate the adaption. The character deserves better but that said, the comics have only got really good since the film came out.