The Punisher

*1/2 – This movie has a serious case of what I like to call ‘double D syndrome’; Darkness and Depression. While it was one of the most violent, grim and sadistic non-horror movies I have ever seen, it is probably still a little better than the 1989 Dolph Lundgren version. The sequence of events went something like this: death, death, slaughter, death, death, death, stabbing, death, explosion, death, death, boiling water in the face, death, death, arrow through the neck, death, big explosion, fatal burning. With all that violence and mayhem, it surprisingly really had little of what I would consider true ‘action.’ It was more just a series of killings than anything else; kind of like watching home movies made by a serial killer. Interspersed between the scenes of shootings were a number of dull portions that featured Todd Parker sitting forlornly in a chair drinking Wild Turkey. Add to that a performance by John Travolta that was slightly (just slightly) better than his in “Battlefield: Earth” and you’ve got yourself one heck of a crappy movie.