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This is the Extended Cut of the film. I’ve just kept the Main Character and Plot sections the same, but changed up the overall review to reflect the Extended Cut.
The Main Characters
--Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) is a Vietnam Vet who now works as an undercover op in the police. His last job ends in one fatality. The son of Howard Saint. Howard has his men kill Frank and his family while on vacation in Puerto Rico, and all of them die, except Frank, and he wants revenge.
--Howard Saint (John Travolta) is a ruthless leader of an illegal drug chain in Florida. He is married to a trophy wife and has two children. When one of them dies in Frank’s last bust, he seeks revenge. He has his whole family killed gangland style. When Frank doesn’t die, Howard becomes the object of his revenge.
The Setting
Down in Florida.
The Plot (2:18:54)
Basically, Frank Castle is involved in one of his undercover police job that results in the death of one of Howard Saint’s sons. Frank is upset over it but it’s his last job and he can now retire. He goes down to Puerto Rico to vacation and attends his family reunion. Howard Saint is upset that his son is dead as well. He wants revenge. Luckily for him, he is the kingpin of a small army and renowned drug dealer. At the urging of his wife, he sends his army down to Puerto Rico to dispose of Frank Castle, and his entire family. They go down and murder his family gang style and think they have killed Frank by dumping him in the water. Frank doesn’t die. He comes back and wants to punish those who have hurt him, bringing down Saint’s entire operation and make him feel the pain he has felt.
Movie Review
I hadn’t watched the movie since reviewing it, but seeing this made the extended scenes pretty obvious. Most of them came in the early parts of the film, when things were being set up, and they were wisely jettisoned in favor of a tighter film. There was one plot element that was cut out, the friend of Castle who sold him out. All these extra scenes were okay, but it doesn’t make it a radically different film in the way that Daredevil does. This enhances the film, but I can’t go out of my way and say it is a must-see to those who enjoyed the original movie or even comic book purists. It is an extended cut of Punisher, but no better (or worse) than the original.
DVD Features
A) Extras
1) Animated Introduction (4:28)
The animated introduction is what the film was going to start with and is an early rough draft. The film was to start in Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War, and shows Frank doing what he does best. The comic book adaptation of the film does in fact start with this opening, too. The film didn’t really need it, and it doesn’t really add to the film in any way, in my humble opinion. The theatrical cut did a great job of showing the birth of Punisher as it was.
2) Tour of Duty: Making the Extended Cut (9:11)
This talks about how the Extended Cut was made, starting with the animated intro scene, created with the art of lead designer Tim Bradstreet. This talks about how the Extended Cut was made, starting with the animated intro scene, created with the art of lead designer Tim Bradstreet. This was okayish.
3) Marvel Comic Book Cover Gallery
You can scroll through seminal Punisher covers from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 00’s. You get the cool cover, as well as a synopsis of the story featured therein.
4) Also From Lionsgate (7:58)
This contains a ton of Lionsgate previews: Saw II Special Edition DVD, Reservoir Dogs 15th Anniversary DVD, The Descent DVD (which does look creepy), See No Evil DVD, starring the WWE’s Kane, and Saw III in theaters.
B) Audio/Video
We get 16x9 widescreen, as well as 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround EX or 6.1 DTS-ES Audio. This was as good as the original was, no complaints here.
C) Liner Notes
It’s a weird case, with a cardboard fold-over of the skull and the case then opens upwards. There is just a four-page open up of Tim Bradstreet art included. The glue holding the actual DVD plastic has worn out and thus could fall out if I’m not careful.
D) Easter Eggs
1) Gag Reel (2:25)
Go to the Special Features and highlight “Animated Introduction.” Press right once to highlight the left eye of the Punisher logo and press enter.
2) Credits
Go to the extra features and highlight “Animated Introduction.” Press right twice to highlight the right eye on the Punisher logo.
Overall Review
We start off with Previews, 6:41 worth. It’s the same as the “Also From Lionsgate” extra so check out what previews they showed (if you care). I kind of touched upon this in the movie review and I have to repeat it here. I don’t think the Extended Cut added anything extra to the original film. There was one major plot point that was added, but it wasn’t really essential to the enjoyment of the film. The extras were average (really only about 15 minutes of extras) and since the extended cut doesn’t really add anything, I can’t go out of my way to recommend this. This is really for the hardcore Punisher fans, only. Luckily, it can be found for cheap enough that it won’t be too much of a hassle to pick up. Can’t go higher than a 5.0, really.
Overall Rating
5.0
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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