The Punisher (1989) - Comic to Movie #7

"Here is justice. Here is punishment. Here...in me."

Director

Mark Goldblatt 

Cast

Dolph Lundgren - Frank Castle/ The Punisher

Louis Gossett, Jr., - Jake Berkowitz

Jeroen Krabbe - Gianni Franco

Kim Miyori -Lady Tanaka

Nancy Everhard - Sam Leary

Barry Otto - Shake

A good friend of mine asked me recently if I ever watched The Punisher from 1989. 

I dug deep into the darkest, moldiest, neglected corners of my memory to dig up any recollection of knowing about a "1989 Punisher movie." Had I heard of it before? I think so. I don't know, really. 

I think I remember hearing about it, or seeing something about it at some point, but I also think I may be conjuring up false memories. I swore I've seen the poster before, but again...I really don't recall when or where I saw it, if I ever saw it at all. The chrome-style title "The Punisher" on the poster looks kind of familiar.

So, a little Googling helped shine some light of clarity into all these foggy, unreliable memories.  

The Punisher was released theatrically world-wide except in the U.S. and a few other countries. It was scheduled to be released in the States, but the film company, New World, distributing the movie was slammed with money issues. And The Punisher didn't quite receive the release it was scheduled to in the states as a result. 

It went straight to video in 1991, was shown at an L.A. Comic Convention the year before that, and had a few special screenings here and there in the years following. 

The Punisher is a Marvel Comics character who's real name is Frank Castle.

He's a vigilante whose tactics in "punishing" criminals is murder, violence, extortion and torture by whatever means necessary to "punish the guilty. He's a real Machiavellian. 

In the comics, his rage towards crime and those guilty of it stem from witnessing the murder of his wife and children by mobsters as they were witnesses to a crime. 

To me, he's a darker, grittier, and more ruthless version of Batman. He doesn't need a mask. He just needs his anger from the darkest corners of his soul, along with some fighting skills, fearlessness, and the ability to be illusive. The Punisher is recognized by a large emblem of a skull he bears on his shirt. 

Dolph Londgren (Rocky IV, Masters of the Universe) stars as ex-cop Frank Castle. His origin story in the movie is faithful to the source material. 

Dolph Lundgren as Frank Castle/ The Punisher

The movie starts after this fact, though through a couple quick flashbacks, the audience is shown the death of his family.

Castle hides in the sewer to avoid detection while the city above has been trying to determine the identity of this mysterious "punisher" for years.

After blowing up the home of a wealthy mafia crime lord while still inside, an act witnessed by police and the media, officer Jake Berkowitz (Louis Gossett, Jr.) sees Castle inside the home just moments before it explodes.

Law enforcement conclude that Castle is legally dead, but Berkowitz doesn't think so. Yet, somehow, they still can't figure out Castle is the Punisher? I guess they lack substantial proof.

Meanwhile, in his solitude, Castle constantly reflects on the death of his family. He plays it out over and over in his mind. It fuels his anger to punish. And because of his "punishments" towards the mafia, their power has weakened over time.

One mafia family leader, Gianni Franco (Jeroen Krabbe - The Fugitive) decides to come out of retirement and bring other mafia families together in order to bolster their strength. 

Franco's plans take an unexpected turn as Lady Tanaka (Kim Miyori - Babylon 5), head of Asia's crime network, the Yakuza, takes over the unification of the crime families. 

And to make sure the partnering families are all on board with her scheme, she has their children kidnapped and threatens to sell them into a slave trade if the crime lords don't go along with her plans. 

Meanwhile, Castle gathers all his intelligence through a drunken former Shakespearian actor named Shake (Barry Otto). 

Shake talks the Punisher into saving the kidnapped children despite the fact they're the offspring of mafia criminals. 

This ultimately puts Castle up against one of the largest and most powerful criminal organizations in the world.

The serious tone of the movie mixed with ridiculous stereotypes (Italian mafioso saying nothing short of dumb Italian catchphrases with fake New York/Italian accents - "forgettabout it", "hey, I ordered pizza") and just general cartoonish acting mixed in is distracting. It's like producers hired Super Mario to write all the mafia dialogue.

Louis Gossett, Jr.

Louis Gossett, Jr., plays the tired trope of the no-nonsense, introvert cop with a chip of his shoulder. 

He has a history with Castle going years back, and carries his own pain seeing his old fellow officer so far gone. 

Gossett is a fantastic actor and puts a lot of emotion into this role. But the whole "no nonsense" attitude is something seen over and over again. 

Some parts of the movie don't make much sense. For instance, a young investigator named Sam Leary (Nancy Everhard), who's fresh out of the police academy having been top of her class, wants to partner with Berkowitz as she's convinced Castle is still alive and is the illusive Punisher. 

Berkowitz, who is reluctant at first because he doesn't work with partners, agrees since he thinks the same thing. 

In a weird line of reasoning, Leary thinks Castle stole the kids, which makes absolutely no sense! None. But she thinks he did and claims his doing so "makes sense" because he lost his own children. 

It's the stupidest line in the movie.

A former cop turned vigilante, who suffered the torment of losing his two children in a car bomb would suddenly decide to steal children from their parents (albeit criminal parents) is not an act that makes sense. And she was top of her police training class? Sure, the Punisher is ruthless, but he goes after the guilty, not the children of the guilty. And this M.O. is already established earlier in the movie. 

In one scene after the police have Castle in their custody, Berkowitz verbally and physically lashes out at him because Castle has killed 125 criminals since taking on his Punisher persona. His lack of empathy seems off to me.

The dark and depraved story line - threatening to sell children into a slave trade - while one broken and deadly vigilante goes against a major crime organization is an extremely compelling story.  

However, the explosions (there's a whole lot of them) along with the consistent gun fire blowing everything away over and over again grows annoying to me. 

The movie lacks polish and perfection. It feels like it's a dress rehearsal rather than a finished production. The bad acting, save for Gossett, adds to this factor. And the pyrotechnics used as a wow factor turns boring and loud. It just goes on and on. 

Though the Punisher bleeds and bruises, he indestructible. Even Batman got hit with a bullet every once in a while. 

Barry Otto and Dolph Lundgren.

In one scene, the Punisher is sprayed with gunfire and point blank range, and still manages to walk away unscathed. 

If the writing and acting had more effort, more care, and less explosions to win the audience's favor, this may have been a better movie.  

The audience just gets enough back story, albeit in small enough doses, to understand what motivates Castle. 

Lundgren's performance, sadly, expresses the false idea that a shattered character means showing no emotion. It should be quite the opposite. Sadness and grief should be brought out. 

Being a serious "bad-ass" while blowing everything and everyone away is no substitute for extreme sadness and loss. It's poor acting.

And on top of it all, the Punisher doesn't dawn his iconic skull logo on his chest. That's like making a Superman movie and not having Superman bear his "S" shield. Logos help create the identity of the hero. No skull? That's just weak. We only see his skull emblem as the Punisher leaves knives with the skull at the end of the handle as a calling card.  

The Punisher doesn't lack in action, intensity, and story. It just forgets that too much of a good thing isn't so good. The movie had potential. They just needed something more lustrous. and looking like a finished product.

Don't Fast Forward This One: Is there anything good about 2016's Ghostbusters?

I was at a Horror Convention in St. Joseph, Mo., last summer and met a group of Ghostbusters fans who were all decked in their cosplay Ghostbusters uniforms. 

They wore some impressive looking proton pack replicas and other pseudo-scientific ghost catching equipment. One guy even had a fake cigarette hanging from his lip like Ray Stanz (Dan Aykroyd) did in the hotel scene from the 1984 movie.

While talking to these fans, I asked a question some geeks are afraid to answer.

"So, what did you think of the 2016 movie?"

I could tell by the way they looked at each other that they just didn't want to venture into these unnecessarily "dangerous" waters. It was the question not to be asked.

If they liked it, then some will deem them not-so-true fans of the franchise. 

If they hated it, then someone will label them sexist. There's just no winning.

So, I broke the ice and said "I mean, it wasn't great but it has some good things going for it." 

And some seemed to sincerely agree. The rest of them reluctantly did the same. 

It's no revelation that the movie which is often referred to as the "female Ghostbusters" wasn't great.

And this lack of greatness started with the initial advertising. It went through online bickering between cast, director Paul Feig, and fans with name-calling via Twitter coming from both sides. 

Feig called a lot of Ghostbuster fans "trash" and "trolls" among other things for expressing their opinions and disappointment towards his version of Ghostbusters. This was both before and after the movie's release.

Talk about counter-productivity. Trying to appeal to a fanbase while bashing that same fanbase will surely result in some severe criticism. 
I think it's a safe assumption that after years of talks about a third movie, audiences generally didn't want to see a remake. Still, remakes are as old as Hollywood itself. They're anything but a new concept. 

The movie was just so poorly introduced and promoted. The first trailer led fans to believe the remake was actually a part of the original films. That trailer referenced "four scientists" who "saved New York...30 years ago."  It even had a clip of the famous fire house which served as the Ghostbusters headquarters. The attention of Ghostbusters fans perked up, only to lead to disappointment heard around the internet. 

Rumors of a third sequel floated around since Ghostbusters II came out in 1989. And this wasn't going to be it. A remake! The disappointment is justifiable. You can't tease fans like that, and then belittle them for not appreciating it.   

So, hate towards 2016's Ghostbusters continues to linger.

Putting all that aside, is the movie really bad? Well, yeah. It's not great. But when I saw it during the summer of that year, I had fun watching it. Just like other movies directed by Paul Feig...well, Bridesmaids is the only other movie of his I recall seeing, his Ghostbusters was an alright popcorn movie. I got my matinee price's worth of laughs. I think it does have some great qualities. 

To begin with, the casting is well done. 

I appreciate the fact that, like the original, the actors (Kristin Wiig, Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy - she wasn't necessarily an SNL cast member, but she has been on the show - and especially Kate McKinnon) playing the new Ghostbusters were cast members on Saturday Night Live. 

McKinnon helped sell the movie for me. Her comedy and timing, in my opinion, is hilarious. She's fantastic on SNL, and she was entertaining in Ghostbusters. 

All together, it was a rather solid cast who played well off each other. 

Another aspect I love is the pseudo-science. 

In the move, McKinnon plays the Egon Spengler-esque (Egon being the brains behind the Ghostbusters in the 1984 movie, played by the late Harold Ramis) character, Jillian Holtzmann, whose scientific expertise leads to some faux scientifical gadgetry designed specifically to captures ghosts. 

In the original movie, the Ghostbusters's gadgets were limited to a ghost trap, some proton packs, and a storage unit. Their proton packs were basically sticks they pointed and shot. That was really about it. It was an awesome special effects show, don't get me wrong. Still, the 2016 Ghostbusters offered more than pointing sticks. 

Despite a story I consider sloppy and in need to reworking, I still think most of the jokes played out well. 

One particular scene that still makes me laugh is when the Ghostbusters encounter their first ghost at the Aldridge Mansion. The story behind the mansion is that Sir Aldridge locked his oldest daughter in the cellar to avoid embarrassment after she murdered the home's staff. Her ghost haunts the mansion, which is the Ghostbusters first paranormal investigation.

When she manifests herself to them, both Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) and Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) are trying to maintain their composure as the malicious looking specter stares them down. Next to them, Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) just says "hi" with a smile on her face as she munches on a can of Pringles, treating the experience like she's in it for the entertainment. McKinnon is just a natural comedian, and I particularly love her in this movie. 

So, while 2016's Ghostbusters remake is still the subject of hate and criticism, and much of it widely 

deserved for its poor storyline, it still has something movie fans can take away from it. It's just a shame the movie wasn't produced and written better. Perhaps if things had gotten off on a better foot, and some revisions had been made, well...it may have been better received. 

Ghostbusters has a fun factor, and it accomplishes what it set out to do. Entertain. At least it got that right.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) - Comic to Movie #6

My legs hurt. My arms hurt. My spots hurt. Even my bandana hurts.

Director
Stuart Gillard

Cast
Elias Koteas - Casey Jones/ Whit
Paige Turco - April O'Neil
Stuart Wilson - Walker
Sab Shimono - Lord Norinaga
Vivian Wu - Mitsu
Robbie Rist - Michaelangelo voice
Brian Tochi - Leonardo voice
Tim Kelleher - Raphael voice
Corey Feldman - Donatello voice

Never have I ever seen the infamous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. It took a global pandemic to get me to sit down and watch this. Right off the shell, this is not an obscure movie. That goes without saying.
TMNT III wasn't on my list of comic book based movies to review. It wasn't on any of my lists of movies to review. So, why am I reviewing this third installment?
My local libraries are my prime avenues to obtaining many obscure titles, including obscure movie adaptations of comic books. But with the lock-down in place, borrowing titles hasn't been an option.
Some movies on my list to review are actually serials from the 1940s and 50s. Though they're available on YouTube, they have a run time over five hours long. I just need a day to get through at least one of them.
I was going to put off my "Comic to Movie" string of reviews with something else I plan to do, but I decided I didn't want to postpone anything. There's enough of that going around.
My review of TMNT III is more for my own sake, to be honest. Though I've always loved the first film from 1990 - an underrated comic movie in my opinion - it doesn't fit with the general theme of these lesser known, not-so-appreciated comic book movie reviews. It's too well known, and so much has already been said about it.
With circumstances being what they are, the heck with all that for now.
The subject matter in part one made quite an impression on me when I saw it in the theater, and several more times on home video, back in 1990. I was in second grade that year.
The first film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, has a great story line that I think is overlooked by general audiences merely because the movie is about teenage ninja mutant turtles. They were created with the intention of ridiculousness.
The themes of family, friendship, forgiveness, and integrity sets this apart from other comic movies that merely rely on the franchise they're based on for money. 
It respects its young audiences, appealing to their maturity rather than assuming their just kids so, the movie doesn't need to try very hard. Quite the opposite.
On top of all that, the puppetry from Jim Henson's Workshop is fantastic and fun to watch.
The second movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze certainly makes up in the goofiness that's in short supply in the first.
It's much more garnered towards young fans, with fight scenes that are more comical when compared to part one. And it doesn't take plot points as seriously as the first. How did Shredder survive the first movie? And why is his presence in the second movie so sloppy? He was intimidating in the first movie. He was his own cartoon character in the second.
I remember the anticipation when it was announced there was going to be a part two. Rumors went around that Bebop and Rocksteady were going to be in the sequel. But obviously that isn't the case. What kids got were a mutated wolf and snapping turtle which became new characters called Tokka and Rahzar. Despite that, kids back in the day still referred to them (myself included) as Bebop and Rocksteady.
We had to wait approximately 25 years to see those guys on the big screen thanks to director Michael Bay. That much was great about 2016's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.

It was laughable, too, even back in 1991 that Vanilla Ice has a featured song in part two. No kid I knew listened to him. And if they did, they kept that guilty pleasure strictly to themselves.
When part three came out in 1993, I just wasn't interested in seeing it. I never heard anything good about it. And just never bothered to see for myself...until now.
Rather than starting off on or under the streets of New York City, this movie begins in 17th century Japan as samurai warriors chase a man on horseback.
Once they have him cornered, an unknown woman watches them from some bushes. They end up kidnapping this guy.
The movie transitions to modern day New York City, where the turtles are still living in the subway they moved into in part two.
Corey Feldman returns as the voice of Donatello, which he played in the first movie. And Elias Koteas comes back as Casey Jones, whom he played in the first movie as well.
April O'Neil, played this time by Paige Turco, pops in to visit the turtles as she's just returning from a flea market.
She brings back an Asian style scepter among other gifts for the turtles. Oblivious as to what it really is, Donatello leads in a little research.
Meanwhile, back in ancient Japan, the kidnapped man turns out to be a prince named Kenshin (Eidan Hanzei). The kidnappers return him to his father, Norinaga (Sab Shimono), and the father and son get into a little family quarrel. Dad is upset his son has dishonored the family name. Son is irked his dad is all gung ho 😄 about going to war.
See what I did there? I said "gung ho!" Get it? No, you probably don't. O.k... Sab Shimono played "Saito" in the 1986 comedy Gung Ho with Michael Keaton. I guess I'll have to review that movie later. I thought the reference was clever.
Anyways, this domestic bickering is interrupted by a stuck up English trader named Walker (Stuart Wilson) who has come to supply Norinaga with weapons and manpower.
After their argument, Kenshin goes to sulk in his self pity when he comes across the same scepter April finds centuries later.
He reads the inscription engraved on the side. "Open wide the gates of time."
And suddenly, he trades places in time with April.
One thing leads to another, and the turtles trade places with four unsuspecting samurais from ancient Japan so they can go rescue her.

Donatello figures out they only have 60 hours to find her, and get back to modern New York City. During the rest of the movie, they don't appear too concerned or rushed about making sure they locate their friend and get back within 60 hours.
Once they do find and rescue April, now they have to find the scepter. Time is truly of the essence, but I didn't get the impression the turtles cared too much.
Still, they find it in an easy "oh, there it is" moment.
All the while, the girl from the beginning of the movie, Mitsu (Vivian Wu) watches the turtles closely as he first discovers them by a river. A little while later, their identity as turtles doesn't remain any kind of secret throughout the movie.
April comes across a prisoner named Whit, also played by Elias Koteas. To April, he looks just like Casey Jones. It seems like a bigger plot point will come from this. But I think I missed it. This character's purpose seems forced. I'm willing to bet it was the only way to give Koteas more screen time.
I'm happy they brought Casey Jones back from part one. But like Koteas's role as Whit, Jones really serves no purpose in the movie other than to attract an audience. "Looks who else is back, kids!" Otherwise, he's just...there.
I appreciate the movie going someplace the other movies didn't. It attempted to be different and engaging by placing the turtles in a brand new and unfamiliar scenario. Kudos for originality and offering something new to fans of the franchise. I appreciate that.
But it's just over all a tiresome movie. It's even haphazard at times.
The puppetry is a joke. I swear in a few scenes with the turtles, I could hear mechanical noises and clicks when the turtle masks would move to talk.
And the movements look way to mechanical unlike the fluidity in the masks seen in part one.
The story line was entertaining and intriguing at first, but I found myself just wanting the end to hurry up and arrive. By the last 40 minutes of this movie, I had to struggle to stay invested in what was happening.
My overall feeling about TMNT 3 is that it's generally underwhelming.
The turtles get a silly laugh here and there. It tries to throw out some catch phrases in the hopes at least one will stick with audiences. I don't remember if any actually did. I don't recall any.
Nothing about the movie, other than the setting in ancient Japan, stands out.

Sab Shimono in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.

Maybe if movie producers gave audiences what they really wanted to see with the Ninja Turtles, then perhaps the third movie, and even the second, would be more worthwhile and profitable.
Audiences wanted the characters they were familiar with. No one wanted a Vanilla Ice cameo, two mutants that could have so easily been Bebop and Rocksteady, and a Casey Jones return that ended up being too superfluous.
After 23 years, I can now say I've seen all three 1990s turtle movies. But, is it something to brag about?