My Honest thoughts about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or TMNT, Hero Turtles if your British!) was important to me back in my childhood. It was one of those 80s cartoons that that to be watched. I was a huge fan and I wasn't the only one. We had figures, VHS videos, the arcade game the lot! Of course there was the cartoon itself. It started as a comic, which I didn't know after a few years later. After much research, it was a really dark grim comic that took it to the max, something I really want to read, but have been unable to locate copies.

We had 4 feature films. The first three all back in the good old days and the latest being CGI 2007 version.

The first movie wasn't the best movie ever but still gave you that nostalgia feeling ever time you watch it, it was certainly dark and the costumes were great and the fight scenes were good back in the 90s.

The Second movie was so bad it was good. The highlight was seeing Vanilla Ice rapping, cheesy I know.

The Third movie was bad that IT was that bad! The worst of the bunch!

The 2007 movie was a good addition, CGI worked really well but the storyline was weak and no major villians we all know were included for this.

There has been talk of a 'reboot'. I've researched this, meaning I googled it. There is going to be another Live Action version much like the first three movies. What is interesting it mentioned it might do a Batman and go back to its Origins. I honestly like that idea. Also I found these images (click the image link) and it looks creepy and scary as if Freddy Krugar did some work but if you think about it, this could be aimed toward the adult market than the kids! I'm really up for the idea!

http://felixip.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-tmnt-2011-images.html

Already theres been a lot of complain and whining. BUT as a fan, I welcome this idea. Compare the costume to the early 90s costumes, they look silly and goofy. This is 2011 and its all CGI and by taking this approach this would work. Look at the Joker in the Dark Knight, everyone bashed the character everywhere before the movie came out, once that was released, Everybody wanted to marry him and every t-shirt had the image everywhere siting alongside the Scarface images.

Hopefully the idea will go ahead. If it does, it should over shadow all the others and hopefully start a fresh trilogy.

To all TMNT fans, what do you all think of this?

Leave comments!

This is the Fanatic one signing out!

Just me reviewing my previous Tweet relatedness!

Hey Guys and Dolls,

The dream to be a down to earth honest movie writer seems to come to an abrupt end! Not sure what happened. Life has been life changing, I am now situated in Nottingham which is really nice and cheaper too. I do miss London but its become so over crowded now that it got me easily stressed each day and I thought dying from stress would not be nice for me! But I'm not counting out doing more reviews, will do something soon but its not going to be frequent like video reviewers we all see on youtube and sites.

As you probably guess, I'm on Twitter quite a lot, more than Facebook now. I'm still with Facebook as I have old friends I haven't seen for years...and I mean over 10 - 15 years! So must stay connected now which is no problem to me!

So looking back on my previous insanity on Twitter...

I spoke quite a lot about Sting going to WWE, a video came around on WWE television, just out of no where, a video with sound effects, faintly sounded music and a date referring to 21/2/11 (which is a day AFTER the Elimination Chamber Event). You can view the youtube video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i52olYh03LM

Here are my thoughts...People need to be careful what they wish for, I believe 99% wish it was Sting and not Undertaker. The way it is now, Sting is still on the TNA roster list though he is a free agent. Unless WWE have been tight lipped with the situation, its worked. However they must be careful how they treat the situation, we come to this day, its 21/2/11, everyone in the crowd has painted black/white or red/black faces, the moment comes and its Undertaker. How do you think the crowd is going to react? Think about this. You don't want to piss a few fans off do you, or worse have some of your top legion of fans defect to TNA just for Sting. Wouldn't look good to you. Anyway lets wait for a little while longer, more clues in the video may surface. I would love to see Sting, he would get inducted to HOF very quickly, if he signs a one year deal then fair enough. But for now I'm going with my follower the Deadman for now!

2010 was a great year for video games, I got God of War 3, Fifa 11, Call of Duty but my game of the year for that year is hands down to Red Dead Redemption, western style games are here to stay! Fingers crossed for a follow up (not talking about the Undead edtion). Will 2011 be great? Well there's Mortal Kombat, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Batman Arkham City and probably the most important game of this year...Duke Nukem Forever. I have never been this hyped for a game since Half Life 2. If it does what it says and releases on May 6th, then this is awesome cause for those been living in a cave. Us Duke Nukem fans have waited for 12 years for this game to get released, this was back in 2001 when a trailer got us hyped. I remember sending the trailer to my brother who was studying in Guildford back then. Heres the link to the old trailer, By the way, the music KICKS serious ASS! I got this on my Ipod!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdllz6QbR88&feature=related

Graphics look a little outdated now but it meant to us Duke fans back then!

AND NOW: check out the newest trailer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5svP9Wu0nk&feature=related

What a great choice of song! Love Prodigy. I seriously think this is going to be awesome, love how they joke about its long release date as well. Hopefully some classic one liners will be in the game! Its gonna be a great day on May 6th! Hopefully I'll get a quick review when its out!

I'll just this one out the way, I heard some positive things about the new Nintendo 3DS, I'm not quite tempted to get one just yet, I need to see it to believe it, but it does need some serious games to get me convinced from Mario Bros and Zelda and such.

As some people might know I'm a huge Amon Amarth fan. Every album has been a masterpiece and great expectation. SO when they streamed their newest song for their upcoming album. I almost pissed myself with excitement. I had to run home after work so I could watch it via wi-fi. Oh my, I can't stop playing this, its a really awesome song to get you in the mood. The song is called "War of the Gods"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVAQQujgSxQ

Love the guitars and drums in this! Of course I've preordered the new album, this time I gone ultimate and got the CD/DVD and figure combo! Again much with Duke, I'll get you a review as soon as its out but I'm dead excited.

My future in music will always be with Metal no matter how much Rap/hip hop take over the world. You can't kill metal fans! So we need future. So I'm paying tribute to UK Thrash Metallers Evile! Since being discovered from Huddersfield, theres no stopping them!! I've seen them twice (once at Sonisphere 2010). I hope for them to feature in bigger arenas one day! There are two albums by them, BUY THEM! You will not be disappointed! There are talks of a 3rd album but nothing been surfaced yet but I'm sure it will kick serious balls to the walls! I'll be seeing them again on February 12th at Nottingham Rock City. I'm now following Ol Drake on twitter, and he's followed me back :-D

Evile are the future and I would love this to happen, Slayer do a tour, they come to the UK, they should be supported by EVILE! OMG: the best concert guaranteed! I would so go to every show support them all the way! Make that Happen!!

I'm going to end this soon but I would like to thank everybody from Facebook, Twitter, text messages whatever. Thank you for being supportive to me last month as I lost a stone in weight. I'm still going with it!

Just remember Valentines Day is coming, whether you like the event or not, you should still be with your loved one if its your partner or family member.

I'll try and make a weekly thing of this!

Thanks for reading!

Odie the Fanatic One!

Alice in Wonderland

ALICE IN WONDERLAND REVIEW
by Odie the Popcorn Fanatic

There's no secret, I love Tim Burton every film I watch are the best of best. Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Pee Wee's Big Adventure are among my favourites. This is really due to some excellent creative and Gothic style visuals. However lately he seems to be taking this path of remaking or re-imagining classic movies, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are not my personal favourites so I was kinda skeptical about his version of Alice in Wonderland. It really shocked me that Disney were distributing this picture as Burton used to work with Disney many years ago as a uncredited animator on 'Fox and the Hound' (I think)
As we all know that Disney made the classic animation which was a surprise box office flop back then but its become a firm favourite with the Disney fanatics.
So going in this film, I went to see this at the Imax and in 3D. The visuals are stunning as you expect but I begin my problem straight away, Alice. I know she's an unknown actress but she was DULL (My opinion!) she had no expression on the face and she just dragged on and on, she's on screen for 80 to 90% but she really bore me a lot so for your main character, not a very good start. Seeing Alice is the main character, you really need to make the character interesting but I really couldn't connect with the character, with 3D glasses on she still was 2D.
What kind of helps with this movie characters so lets start with the ladies favourite actor, Johnny Depp AKA Mad Hatter. Mad Hatter was a fun character so I can expect fancy dress based on this character for the next few months. This character could of stolen the film but the movie focuses on Alice so Burton made a good choice there. I was glad that that they didn't make the Mad Hatter too over the top otherwise the movie would have been too much. Depp does a good job though I'm getting tired that he's become a regular in Burton's movies, like in Willy Wonka, I was hoping that one time Burton regular Michael Keaton would have accepted the part of Willy Wonka but for some reason Johnny Depp got the part so I often wondered on how Keaton would have approached the part.
Other supporting characters were OK but I really really didn't like the Red Queen. Again another regular Helena Botham Carter plays the part. I just feel she didn't feel the part as the bad queen and again like Alice she was really flat and at some points she goes too much over the top as if trying to dominate the movie screen. So I couldn't really connect or enjoy the character as well.
Voice characters were top notch especially Cheshire Cat voiced by the legendary Stephen Fry, I love the guys voice, he was perfect for the Smiling Feline. So I had no problem with this. Alan Rickman was great, the March are was of course mad but I can't remember who did the voice but the Hare was fun and a good pair with Hatter especially at the Tea Party scene. Matt Lucas as Tweedle Dum and Dee were decent but you forget about them very easy as the movie goes along. OK if you haven't seen the movie I might go into spoilers from now.

The one thing I was looking forward to was seeing the Jabberwocky, you didn't see this in the cartoon movie and in this movie, they hyped it up going from 'You gotta slayed the Jabberwocky' then 'She can't kill the Jabberwocky' then 'Unleash the Jabberwocky'. I was looking forward to this so much because it was going to be voiced by my all time favourite Christopher Lee, so I knew he was perfect so we got to see Jabberwocky versus Alice but a few sodding problems they gave. They gave Lee 3 lines of dialogue and the battle scene was short and boring. Such a bad move, unless you seen the Lord of the Ring style movies and the battle scenes were enjoyable but the battle scenes in this movie was only 5 minutes in total. Alice versus Jabberwocky, Hatter vs Knave of Hearts and the other comic relief characters fighting. But my only problem was where was the Queen battle did they decide to go to one side and witness the battle or did they play Poker cause in this battle you DON'T SEE ANY BATTLE WITH THE QUEENS!! What was the hell was that about! This was a huge problem with the whole movie is very heavy dialogue and I honestly don't find it entertaining for any young kids so when you have a battle scene for only 5 minutes is very pitiful. So I can tell you that the battle sequence was badly designed and not well thought. Oh and no one dies in the battle except one character but you'll know which one from the first moment Alice goes to Wonderland first time. I forgot to mention that the Evil Cards looked good especially with a Terminator style armor so I'll give credit for that.

How does it fare up in 3D, well to be honest they didn't take advantage with the whole 3D a lot especially when 90% is just talking so how can you make a movie like that in 3D? There were a few moments but predictable ooh the cup flew straight to me from the march hare. But I haven't seen the movie in 2D so I cannot compare, but 3D doesn't work for this movie, Avatar and Coraline are the only decent 3D movies that worked well for me.

Overall the CGI was great but aside from a few decent actors, it was just your average popcorn movie but I can't recommend this for children, I saw a few kids bored in their seats so next time make it more fun rather than this script that lacks.

For me, this was slightly better than Willy Wonka update but still not Burton's Best.
If you want to see the best Tim Burton movie, go check out Ed Wood, but that's another story.

I'll give it 6 popcorn pieces out of 10.

The Wizard of Oz

What can be said of this movie? One word can describe this: classic.

I remember my mum recorded the movie and when I first saw it, I was so amazed by the movie that the tape wore out thanks to my constant viewing. This colourful epic was based on the novel by L Frank Baum.

The story is pretty basic; a young girl named Dorothy gets sucked up in a hurricane and ends up in the magical world known as Oz. Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and a Lion along her journey to meet the Wizard of Oz so she can get home back to Kansas. The Wicked Witch of the West tries to stop Dorothy reaching her goal after Dorothy ‘accidentally’ killed her sister at the beginning.

The sepia style tone at the beginning of the movie is one of the most recognisable traits especially when Dorothy first opens the door of her house, it suddenly transforms into colour, when I first saw this moment my jaw fell on the floor with amazement. The movie was made in 1939 so whenever I bring up the movie, people often think it was made in the 1950s.

Sure this movie looks like a pantomime with its musical numbers and costumes, but you have to give credit to the costume designers, aside from the four main characters, every munchkin and the residents of the Emerald city were all made by hand. I especially love the Lion costume, if you watch the movie, try playing spot the string. The string is used to move the Lion’s tail through the movie. It was said that MGM wanted to use Leo the Lion for the Lion part and have an actors voice dubbed in! The idea got dropped when Bert Lehr came in for the part. I love every detail in each costume especially for the Tin Man played by Jack Haley, you can see the detail of the rust to show that indeed he had been stuck for years from rust.

Also the sets are top notch. All bright and colourful contrasting with the Wicked Witch’s castle of course which is dark and gloomy, this clearly visually contrasts the good and evil side. One notable set which is dominant is the Emerald City which Green is the main colour even the costumes are all green. The munchkin city doesn’t have a dominant colour other than the yellow brick road which plays a major part of the movie. The castle of the Wicked Witch has a lot of light and dark greys, even the soldiers’ costumes are grey, fortunately they don’t camouflage into the scenery. My favourite set is the forest, all the trees are twisted with faces, leaves scattered everywhere like an autumn night. I remember this scene being scary for me, the Witch sends the monkeys to capture Dorothy and Toto, they rip apart the Scarecrow from limb to limb as if they try to kill him and Scarecrow was my favourite character in my childhood so to see him getting ripped apart was truly a frightening experience.

The musical numbers are so memorable that everyone knows the lyrics and even some portions of the songs are spoofed by a variety of comics. The musical number ‘Over the Rainbow’ was nearly cut from the movie as the company MGM thought the segment with Kansas was too long and being over the head of young children as it was intended. Fortunately it stayed and from there, it’s won so many awards and magazines have considered this to be the greatest song of movie history. It truly deserves it as well. I thought the song ‘If I were King of the Forest’ was the weakest of the song numbers. It didn’t feel right for me. I remember fast forwarding the song when I was a kid as it didn’t have the bounce that the other songs contained.

A movie I hope to show to future generations for years to come, it’s fun, inventive, it’s a special movie that holds so dearly in my heart, it’s a movie for all of us and for all time!

I give this a PERFECT 5/5 stars!


Also quick news,
I'll be recording my first video review soon and hopefully it'll be released and the release date is currently TBA so watch this space!
I have a myspace page which is in working progress at the moment so bear with me while I edit it, if you wanna check it http://www.myspace.com/popcorn.fanatic is the place,

also you can email me for movie requests or just anything really on popcorn.fanatic@gmail.com OR popcorn.fanatic@yahoo.co.uk

Meet the Feebles

This is probably the strangest, weirdest and one of the most crudest movies I've seen.

Just imagine that Jim Henson, the creator of the muppets, went in his office and then did some crack and cocaine and drank a lot, then you get 'Meet the Feebles'.

This strange movie was directed by New Zealand director Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson made low budget movies before gaining fame with Lord of the Rings or King Kong. Along with 'Meet the Feebles' he made 'Bad Taste' and BrainDead' (Dead Alive was the release name in USA) all of them low budget, bloody, gory and sometimes over the top. Meet the Feebles is a black comedy which also has music so its also a musical. and throughout the movie is literally full of Jim Henson-esque puppets. The puppets are placed in the movie in a comic sattire. This movie contains a lot of sub plot summaries so to explain the main plot, it tells the story of the Feebles theatre troupe. They are a group of performers who, that night, are going on live network TV. If they are good enough, they will get picked up for a syndicated network show and everyone will get rich. The themes throughout the movie contain sex, violence, drugs, back stabbing, date rape and death. So much happens in this film that I can't even begin to explain the story any more than that.

Characters include, but are not limited to, a heroin-addicted frog, an over-sexed rabbit, a hippo with low self-esteem and a short fuse..., a cow and insect porn film-making duo, a sleazy fly tabloid reporter...and a lovable and friendly porcupine. The characters are just plain crazy and outrageous. Not all characters in this movie are puppets. Among those that are played by actors in suits are Heidi (hippo), Bletch (walrus), Cederic (wart hog), Sid (elephant), Daisy (cow) and Barry (bulldog). Some characters looked related to Jim Henson's muppets. For example Sid the Elephant reminds me of Gonzo, not because of his nose. Its due to to the fact that he supposed to have slept with Sandy the Chicken and the baby is half chicken and half elephant. In the muppets, Gonzo is always hanging out with some chickens not I thought Gonzo had a thing or two with chickens. I'm not sure if its a parody or a tribute.

There's a lot of disturbing moments in the film. From a warrus having sexual adultery with a cat, a rabbit chucking up, a fly eating a someone's crap...with a spoon! Believe me I was nearly sick. Moments like these, you have to have a real strong stomach to take it all in.

It also pokes fun at the oscar winner 'The Deer Hunter' russian roulette scene. The strange thing with this, Money ran out during production, so the flashback to Vietnam was quietly filmed separately (with a different budget) as 'The Frogs of War' and then later edited into 'Meet the Feebles'.

Although the characters are all animals, There's one human (puppet) character Abi, an Indian snake-charmer who physically appears to be a parody of Gandhi. During the film he gets his head stuck in his rectum and when he pulls it out near the end of the film, a bed of nails crushes him.

It was according to the Internet Movie Database trivia for the film, the production team could not get hold of blank rounds for the M60 machine gun used in the movie and therefore the gun was firing live ammunition. The moment for that happens right at the end of the movie, Heidi the hippo basically dons a Rambo esque machine gun and guns anyone in sight!

Things I've spotted during the film, when the performance is about to begin, the camera pans over the audience, most the audience are cardboard cut outs, you can also spot a cameo appearance from an alien that was used in the earlier film 'Bad Taste'. The alien was performed by Peter Jackson, so the alien and Peter Jackson made cameo Appearances. The Jesus Christ in the Feebles universe appears to be a Kermit the Frog-like frog. This is shown in the form of a crucifix held by Harry when he is praying to God to recover from his sickness. The music numbers are hilarious. One notable song, Sebastion's "Sodomy Song" and dance routine that is totally warped, you try watching a gay fox thrust it's pelvis at the camera without cracking a smile, its that bizarre!

Upon accepting his Best Picture win, Peter Jackson thanked the Academy for not awarding him for Meet The Feebles or Bad Taste. You know what, I would have loved those films to win oscars. Low budget movies shouldn't be overlooked, just because it was filmed with a low budget doesn't mean its going to suck. Give those movies a chance and hopefully people will give them a chance instead of overhyped, over budget blackbuster Hollywood flicks!

Meet the Feebles is a gleefully twisted comedy that is often shocking and strangely endearing at the same time. Many will be offended so this film IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. So approach with extreme caution.

I give the movie 4 stars out of 5

(5 out of 5 for sick level!)

Friday the 13th (2009)

Friday The 13th (2009)

Normally I'm against horror remakes, but seeing as this remake is made by the producers as the remade 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre', I was really looking forward to how they could bring this horror icon onto the screen for today's audiences. There were 10 films including a spin off, it started itself in the woods (a soon to be cliche setting for any horror movie) but eventually found itself going to Manhattan, to Hell, to space and battles with horror icon Freddy Krugar so a remake was necessary so watching this remake was a breath of fresh air to see Jason going to back to his roots and doing what he does best, complete with a machete.

So what did I think of this remake? I feel this did not have the same fear factor or the shock value as the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' movie had provided us. It wasn't that scary as most of the time it was really cliche and guessing where Jason would appear became boring, as much as finding Wally in his adventures.

What it looked like the producers tried to do was incorporate the first 3 movies together into one movie. So at the beginning you see Jason's mother (as Jason doesn't start his reign of terror until part 2). Jason starts with the sack over the head (like in part 2) and finally claim the hockey mask for part 3. It was an interesting move, it did work as there wasn't too much back story with Jason, if they would have put the flashbacks with the 3 parts, no way it would have worked. People would have complained about too much flashbacks. Trust me I see that way too mu

ch of that especially in the 'Saw' Movies.

I found this movie to have one of the longest pre title scences, people laughed, it was good and yet I forgot that they didn't mention the title of the movie as all the credits were rolling at the beggining with the exception of the title.

During that pre title scence, the sleeping bag kill felt like a tribute to the one from Friday the 13th part VII, you know that classic moment, Jason picks up the bag and smashes it agaisnt a tree (with the person still inside). He doesn't do that in the remake so lets just say he does it in a 'Wicker Man' style so that was cool (well sizzling hot not cool)

Speaking of kills, not enough originality for me, just a machete here and there and everywhere. I was hoping for the producers to be a little more creative, but to me they got lazy and couldn't be bothered, so that was a major disappointment. One kill in particular that I admit I liked was the arrow, 'dead' on target as well.

I found the camera and editing a little sloppy. Much like in Batman Begins, the shots go too quick and half the time it was hard to tell what was happening, this happens a lot near the end of the movie. I did however like its atmospheric setting, just the usual camp site and that's it, nothing else nothing more.

Before I speak about horror icon, lets just have a brief moment for our teens. At the start you have your usual rowdy teens, love for beer, sex and exploring. There is one in particular who play a major part of the movie, so I won't spoil it. But the idea with the character was original so I liked that.

The other characters were bland, ordinary and nothing new. They do stupid things, go places they shouldn't go to and do what most teens do in these sort of movies. Get drunk, get stoned and get laid. There was one character in particular, named Trent who acts such a jerk throughout the movie. It kinda made me want to hit him and hurt him so badly and it worked, cause it made want to hate this character so much. There was this random pointless scene with the guys playing ping pong and the loser downing a shot from this guy's sneaker. There was really no point to the scene and didn't progress the story much further.

Ok, lets talk about Jason, of course for this, he's re-modified for this update, he preys on his victims rather than lumbering around this time round so he's basically a near human again and not the frankenstein like person he was before. I didn't like that Jason able to move a lot more faster but again he was human again so I guess I can't complain about it too much but it put me off a bit. It reminded me of the modified zombies in the remake of 'Dawn of the Dead' where the zombies could run. I was hoping for a more stealthy like Jason for this one instead of bumping into him.

Logic remains out of the window, over the hill and far far away. For example, Jason can be standing on the roof of the lake house roof where the teens were staying, then moments later he's chopping up someone like say 50 yards down a driveway.

Also people without a broadband connection can enjoy the topless water skiing scene!

Although I haven't gone into much detail with the plot, saying one thing can pretty much spoil the whole movie. The ending was lame and I mean lame in a big way. the build up didn't work and it was so ultra cliche that once again the creative team got so lazy and couldn't be bothered and just rushed the ending.

It was an ok movie, no where as shocking or terrifying as the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' movie. But it was great to see Jason doing what he does best. My guess that 'Nightmare on Elm Street' is next for a reboot/remake.

My rating 2 (and a half) out of 5 stars!

Punisher War Zone

Punisher War Zone

Based on Marvel comics,

This is an action film that shouldn't be taken seriously, trust me what you need to leave at home is reality and logic, because there is none of that here! The action is also a no-brainer. People think this is a direct sequel to the 2004 movie, but nope this is a reboot of the comic based on the title of the movie.

I always find that Marvel never treat The Punisher like their own character,  they focus their main attention on Spiderman, Hulk or X-Men. The movie wasn't hyped as I first hoped. when I first saw the trailer everyone was going nuts for the movie as it featured music by metal band Ramallah. I was so excited as I never thought they never make another Punisher movie. I waited for 4th Febuary 2009 for the movie to arrive.

I had a very hard trying to find a cinema that was screening this movie. This is due to quiet advertising and a comic not popular with its critics. I mean, what super powers does the Punisher possess? He has none, he was a war veteran, this guy becomes the Punisher when his family are gunned down by a mob who get revenge on Frank Castle for preventing a crime something to do with gun trading, I remember this to be used in the 2004 movie with Thomas Jane in the starring role so my knowledge of the comic series is pretty useless so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, I finally found a cinema that was showing War Zone, first thing I've noticed that Thomas Jane is not Frank Castle in this movie, he is replaced by Ray Stevenson, from the acclaimed 'Rome' made by BBC. My first impression of Stevenson was, he looks the part, he acted ok for a role that has little dialogue. He did a good job but I wondered if Thomas Jane would carried on with the role, how the character would have been.

The whole movie is much more darker, moodier and certainly more violent than previous punisher films, but not as violent as Rambo 4, the whole last 11 minutes in Rambo says it all! Punisher War Zone had one problem in making the violence true to life; anyone that got shot just fell down, in Rambo, whoever Rambo shot, an arm, a leg or even a head would fly off. Punisher had heads chopped off but they didn't fly off so that was a flaw in the violence level. Sticking with its violent nature, there are loads of pistol headshots and a lot of neck cracking twists which get a bit repetitive after a while!

Normally for a movie thats based on the comic, there would be something about how someone became this super... (well antihero for this movie) But not in this movie, it kicks straight to the action, however there are segments of flashback during the movie so new fans are safe here! The action kicks off in a party hosted by mob boss Gaitano Cesar, now you should notice that Frank Castle hates crime lords and mobs and do you think he's gonna drop in, well the lights go out and you can see the trademark skull and a flare shoots and there the Punisher stands tall on the table surrounded by the boss and guests, so when is the action gonna happen? Well after a few seconds, Cesar gets beheaded, a woman's neck gets snapped! Punisher kicks someone in the face and throws knives at various people around the table, for some reason the lights mysteriously turn back on, the Punisher commences to guns and there heads and body shots kick in.

There is a segment where people have moaned and bitched about where The Punisher goes upside down and hangs from a chandelier and spins and shoots (with unlimited ammo) with two pistols. I can understand why people hated this bit but what you have to remember is its an action movie and of course silly things will happen and as I mentioned, when you watch an action movie, you need to ditch the logic and reality and enjoy the carnage.

One segment where someone attempts to do a WWE chair shot to the Punisher particularly sticks in my head, what does that person get, a chair leg in the eye thanks to the kick from Punisher. There was a moment afterwards that made me cringe but think at the same time, but Frank Castle gets a broken nose and the way to fix it was with a pencil! Literally he shoved a pencil up this nostril and 3 cracks, its perfectly normal. Is that even possible? Medical people required here!!

We then focus our attention to Billy Russoti played by Dominic West. He escapes to his recycling plant hideout by Detective Saffiotti who along with Detective Martin Soap were staking out the party. Castle infiltrates Russoti's hideout and murders Nicky Donatelli. Castle ends up fighting Russoti and the result, being thrown into a glass-crushing machine. Castle, who has taken cover behind the body of Donatelli, realizes that the man he killed was an undercover FBI agent and thinks about retiring from his Punisher ways. After much plastic surgery and most of his face muscles being out of use, Russoti ends up being heavily disfigured. Thus becoming the movie villain, Jigsaw, he was a cool villian but his makeup remininded me of Chucky from Child's Play, so sometimes it becomes laughable. At this moment of the film, I normally forget about who Ray Stevenson is as he reminds me of Steven Seagal, also something that shouldn't had bothered me but it did in a big way, did the Punisher used to have a ponytail cause back shots of the antihero always thought of that, I'm not sure. There was one supporting character who I couldn't believe, but Wayne Knight is in the movie!! He plays Frank Castle's ammory sidekick Microchip, I like this actor but I don't think action movies are suited for him so his character wasn't all that to be honest, bit bland and boring but he does play a vital role to the movie I must say. Most of the other supporting characters were pretty lame, the problem I had with this movie was there was some many characters to watch that it got confusing as the supporting characters looked the same and had the cliched New York accent which sometimes I found amusing.

Jigsaw goes to collect his brother Looney Bin Jim, when I first saw him I thought he was going to be awesome with his quiet movement however when he acts crazy, it was funny because it was over the top and at the same time to me it didn't work.

The CGI in the movie was poor, I'm not a fan of CGI, cause its the lazy way for filmmakers and here is a good example.There are two moments which bothered me a lot, there was this gang trio who jump on the building getting away from cops and at one point, one does a back flip only to be ended up being blown up by a rocket launcher, the body parts just fly in random directions and it looked poor. Another example was near the end of the movie (but not the very end!) was just a random moment where Frank Castle kicks a door and some random fat man sitting there and his head gets shot and it looked cool but to be honest afterwards, it looked like something you could make in a computer program on your PC.

I always found the cops in the movie to be the dumbest of all the movies I've seen. Theres a moment where 2 cops go to check in Donatelli's house. Jigsaw and Looney Bin Jim and the gang hold Donatelli's family hostage while they tear the house apart looking for the money that Donatelli was in charge of. The cops knock on the door, Looney Bin answers, now at the point, wouldn't you be suspicious of a guy answering the door with scratches on the head and allowing them in the house. They are easily killed thanks to a baseball bat and a samurai sword through the stomach!

Around at this point there was a moment I couldn't help myself but to laugh at, basically 2 of the gang members are guarding the family, Budianski, who had been intending to capture the Punisher through the movie, goes in the house after the cops (who got killed earlier!) to check in and only to be captured himself, so Punisher goes in and kills 1 member and the cop captures the 2nd and hold him hostage while the Punisher claims the family, as Budianski starts to interview the member until a shotgun blast takes half his face courtesy of the Punisher!

Also I have to mention, the soundtrack of the movie is awesome, being a heavy metal fan myself, I was so hyped when a segment of Slipknot played when the gang are preparing for war against the Punisher.

I think the plot gets a little thin near the end. I don't think the script was written very well, not really much one liners you can remember from the movie. The ending is ok but predictable as you expect from action movies.

Overall it's not an oscar winning movie for sure, it wasn't a bad movie either it has its flaws. But remember what can you expect from an action movie, with production being rushed and a budget that wasn't incredible.

If your a action, comic book fan, its worth a look.

3/5 stars my rating