The Punisher

Just a laugh, a thrill, and plenty of sustained weapons fire.’ Thus did Marvel Comics-writer Garth Ennis introduce his muscled psycho of one-track vengeance. Yet even these intellectual ground zero expectations are disappointed in the unsteady comedy of this latest live-action adaptation, whose hootsome script seems to have blown its own brains out amid the non-stop cartoon carnage. Special Agent Frank Castle (Tom Jane) is all set for a nice beach-house retirement, before he inadvertently snuffs out the son of Tampa ‘businessman’ Howard Saint (John Travolta) – sparking a bloodthirsty, distinctly unthrilling, eye-for-eye retribution even those Ancient Greek chappies might consider a tad unrestrained. Ultimately, Frank’s victim -to-vigilante transformation is so morally unexplored it’s emotionally alienating.