The Punisher
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: April 16, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
33
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
15
Negative:
16
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The Punisher isn't Frank Castle; it's Jonathan Hensleigh. And the punishee is anyone sitting in the audience. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
An overemphatic revenge fantasy devoid of even a trace of excitement or wit. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It features an insane amount of violence and a number of visual references to the comic, but it lacks the original's humor and spirit. Read full review
38
PremiereAaron Hillis
From an audience perspective, the title’s fairly apt as well. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Sadly, The Punisher is about little more than bullets hitting bone, and how good it might feel to be on the right end of a gun. Read full review
30
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Its lack of subtlety is clearly a point of pride, and Mr. Hensleigh's flat-footed, hard-punching style has a blunt ferocity that makes "Kill Bill" look like "In the Bedroom." Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
If you can get past the goofy writing, there's lots of noisy action in The Punisher, but little of it is particularly exhilarating. In fact, it's more of an endurance test. If you can sit through it, you should consider yourself duly punished. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The movie is as grim and grave as the comic book. But it lacks atmosphere. It's often illogical and drubs you numb with its single dimension: noisy retribution. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
In a case study of how to screw up a simple, powerful revenge story, director Jonathan Hensleigh punishes audiences with an unbearably sluggish action movie that requires the word "action" to be placed in quotes. Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
As bad as the movie is, when it tries to be funny -- a hired killer who sings to his victims, a fat man named Bumpo, and an interminable fight scene choreographed to “La donna è mobile” -- it somehow manages to get several degrees worse. Read full review
20
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
The Punisher would be almost offensive were it not so inconsequential. There's just something terribly off-putting about a movie in which every gruesome death is a punch line, where a villain's homosexuality is used to lure him to his death and dozens of innocents are gunned down just to launch a film franchise. Read full review
20
SlateDavid Edelstein
A sickeningly manipulative, by-the-numbers revenge movie. Read full review
16
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The Punisher is a moronically inept and tedious piece of death-wish trash. Read full review
16
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
It actually makes the 1989 version (starring Dolph Lundgren) look pretty good by comparison. Oh, yes. It's that ghastly. Read full review
0
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Don't hold your breath waiting for The Punisher to be original, not for one second of its torturous two hours. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
The Punisher is such a bad film that it becomes inadvertently entertaining; it’s enough to make you pine for the original version of the black-clad Marvel Comics’ badass, played to awful imperfection in 1989 by Dolph Lundgren. Read full review
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