Punisher: War Zone even worse than first Punisher

I actually quite liked the first Punisher (I mean the one a couple years ago, I don't know if that was also a remake). Thomas Jane is handsome & convincing, one of my favs Rebecca Romijn graces the screen with her "ordinary girl" persona, & there's just enough torture to keep me happy while still watching. But let's be honest, some of the dialogue in that one was really awful. At least the story more or less hung together. If it's improbable that one man could set up such an elaborate revenge while evading or killing all his enemies, the story did make it pretty easy to suspend disbelief.

New Punisher, on the other hand, barely makes sense. There were so many times when I turned to the Boyfriend (he's new, more on him later) like "WTF???" "No one noticed that?" The police force is basically letting the Punisher (Ray Stevenson) do their dirty work for them. To his credit, the actor actually does a pretty good job with the dreck they gave him. Although it's incredible how he manages to mow everyone down, all the time, no matter what. And the continuity of the story is almost non-existent. My biggest problem with this movie, though, is the absolutely gratuitous gore. I like watching torture & violence, believe me, but this was way too much. We do not need to see the one mobster's super-messed up face every other shot. (& calling himself Jigsaw? Come on. No one can take that seriously after Saw.) I really could have done without every exploding head, not to mention impalings, broken limbs, etc. If you thought Hostel was bad, you'll hate this. This was one long series of lovingly-filmed death throes. I was almost relieved to hear silly dialogue because it was a temporary respite from all the murder.

I did like some of the cleverer fight scenes, but even then it was hard to not think how unreal they were. If you've gotta see this, don't waste $12+ on a ticket. Get it on Netflix & keep your finger on fast forward.