Just an insane amount of blood, gore, violence, and brutality make this the best of the three Marvel adaptations of the Punisher. It was the comic on-screen (well, the MAX version at least) and I had a very good time watching Frank Castle, played by Ray Stevenson, just run through anyone who got in his way as if he was destroying them and razing them from existence. Stevenson was the best part of the whole movie, which works, as all too often a film revolving around one central character is not great as the rest of the characters outshine them, but he is the Punisher.

He even breaks his nose back in place in one of the coolest scenes in the movie. A scene that shows his outright awesomeness. Beyond that, the kills just make you laugh. They're outlandish. Loud. Gory. And fun. They're disturbing at the same time as perfectly brutal and outright insane. When Frank hits one guy with a rocket and then throws another guy off a roof, you just have to laugh at how insane this is and how comic it all is. And that's the beauty of this movie.

Throw in some fine performances by the underused Wayne Knight as Microchip (does very well in this film), Dash Mihok as Detective Martin Soap (from the more light-hearted Welcome Back Frank but still works well in this film), and some actually really great villainy from Doug Hutchinson as Looney Bin Jim and Dominic West as Billy Rusotti/Jigsaw, and you've got what should be the first film in a new franchise of complete and sheer ass-kicking.

In this modern age of film, people like to see their heroes with chinks in their armor and they want the viewing public to feel for them in whatever way they can. Frank's origin is completely intact, another thing that makes me happy about this film, but when parallels are drawn between his family's death and an undercover agent's death and his family, you start to see the film slip. When it's riding on sheer brutality, the movie works. When it pulls Julie Benz in as the wife of the murdered agent, you start to see the movie fall apart.

And the fact that there's a little kid that Frank befriends (kinda) because she reminds him of her daughter, you're left a little pissed off about this movie. It's called War Zone for god sake, give me more killing.

Beyond that, some of the other actors in the film are very over-the-top and a little ham-fisted. The younger kid in Jigsaw's crew, the Latin King who helps Frank and Micro, and just some of the other characters in the film that don't fill out very well and are just there as fodder.

One big thing that frustrated me was how quickly Maginty, played by TJ Storm, was taken out. I felt like an all-out fight between the two of them would have been awesome, but instead, he's relegated to two small scenes and an awesome death sequence. That's unfortunate.

All in all, a pure punch to your face and kick in the balls of adrenaline and the movie opens with blood and ends with blood. If you're looking for a movie to just sit back and enjoy and not have to dwell on nuances of acting and other bullshit, then this is your movie. Take a load off and watch Frank Castle dispatch some very bad creeps in very imaginative and crazy ass ways and just enjoy it. Take a load off and laugh as the scum of New York gets punished the only way they can.