Films That Can Be Salvaged Part 1: The Punisher (2004)

The Rundown: Released in 2004, The Punisher was a reboot of the anti-hero franchise, originally brought to screens in 1989 featuring Dolph Lundgren as the title character. This time, Thomas Jane takes over as Frank Castle, out to avenge the brutal massacre of his family.

What made it great: This is sort of a video game movie at heart. You have a hierarchy of bad guys that lead up to the big boss-man, Howard Saint (played by a lively John Travolta). There were some cool assassins in Harry Heck and The Russian that seem almost “end boss”-like.

Besides one of the greatest fight scenes ever (against The Russian), there were plenty of other scenes that were memorable and entertaining. The ‘torture’ scene was hilarious and brilliant. Just about every action scene was well done.

What can be fixed: There are a few scenes that can be deleted. First, the whole opening setup with Castle’s undercover sting leading to the death of Saint’s son doesn’t need to be there. It is far too contrived - the son was a last-minute tag-along, his death the result of a few baffling police breakdowns. The film could actually start at the son’s funeral, where Castle’s identity is revealed, he is recognized as being responsible for the death of Saint’s son, which results in the retaliation hit on Castle and his family being ordered.

One more scene can be excised: the way-over-the-top “cars exploding in the shape of a skull” shot at the end was gimmicky and the effects were not very well done. The film doesn’t really need this sort of ‘Crow’ moment.

And lastly, there were was some horrible, completely out-of-place score music in a film that was supposed to be a dark, brooding action film. Mainly, the ‘theme’ music was very silly, like a 50′s superhero theme (think Mighty Mouse). This theme is extremely noticeable after Castle blows up a boat carrying a drug shipment, and he walks into frame to ‘intimidate’ Saint’s other son. The musical cue in this scene was terrible. A few somber notes would have sufficed.

Would these changes improve the film? I think many films would benefit from some tweaks, and The Punisher was just short of greatness - though it is still a mild cult favorite. These edits would remove the lower-end cheeziness, and still preserve a lot of the film’s memorable oddities - like it’s eye-rolling one-liners: “She had to catch a train.”