This one I watch some time ago and had it on the shamber but actually forgot to post about it, this is a bit confusing but special one, they say its not a movie, that this is a TV special. After watching it and seen whats coming up on the new Spider Man movie "Brand New Day", its like they had Punisher on stand by, recently Frank saw some action on Dare Devil but very little, it really connects though because he seems exremle lost and in a very very dark place and its exactly how this "tv special" starts. This one does not pull punches from the jump, Frank pacing his Little Sicily apartment shirtless with blood dripping down his hands, jumping onto a bar to grind out forty one agonizing pull ups before he fails and falls to the floor, they guy just cant kill himself to get it over with so he does have a death wish. He pops painkillers like candy, takes a swig of bourbon and throws up in a bucket he set out for this exact reason, while the Danzig song Mother distorts into unhinged noise that matches how messed up his head is. I honestly dont get how this got approved for the same platform that streams Mickey Mouse cartoons, its just like a bug on Disney because Dare Devil Born Again its the same story, how they screw up things but then come up with this other brilliant ideas out of nowhere. This forty four minute special bridges Daredevil Born Again Season One and the upcoming Spider Man Brand New Day movie, but it starts off slow, dropping us back into the same trauma loop watched for almost ten years, exhausting to see him stuck in origin mode again. Jon Bernthal acts his heart out, all agony in his eyes staring at a wall of crossed out faces from the Gnucci family, and the atmosphere feels heavy, but I just wanted him in the suit taking out bad guys already.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36042156/
- Platform: {{PLATFORM}}
The action is dope though, and the second half turns into a glorious rampage once Ma Gnucci puts a bounty on Frank, warning him that at six forty seven every killer in the neighborhood is coming for him. The assassins hit his building while he is inside, and we get him smashing through his own door with his legs on fire, tackling an assassin in a stupid gas mask while Louis Armstrong sings La Vie En Rose in the background. Bernthal tears through the building after that, stabbing guys, shooting them, turning their own weapons against them. The moment that made me freeze up is when Frank grabs a flimsy blue ballpoint pen and starts stabbing this massive tattooed dude with it over and over. Even better, it is the same pen Dre from the donut shop was looking for earlier, its that savage gore vibe, you got to love it, that is exactly what Frank Castle should be doing, and watching him scream like some primal caveman tearing through goons makes you want to smash something. The combat feels like The Raid or John Wick, nice to see a Marvel project actually commit to the blood instead of cutting away to some safe angle. The choreography is top tier, every punch feels heavy, Frank is just a walking tank who refuses to die and if they make one of these again they better keep this exact stunt team, because this twenty minute short, special, what ever they call it, is exactly what The Punisher is all about but I feel they not doing a full on new series about him because at some point they either got to pull ont he drama or tame it down, cant go full dopamine John the entire time.
Compared to the heights of Daredevil Born Again Season One, this whole thing feels undercooked, especially the villains and the pacing. Judith Light plays Ma Gnucci, showing up in a wheelchair to confront Frank about how they are exactly the same since they both lost their families to violence, and we get flashbacks of Frank dismantling her empire, going full savage mode and the last kill was just in front of her, there is something about The Punisher character that he kills people like they are not people at all, reminds me a lot to Tropa De Elite and their BOPE Squad. There is that horrific kill where he strikes her son Bobby across the neck with an axe while the guy is with his girlfriend, blood spraying everywhere. The show wants Ma Gnucci to be this intimidating force but she is not, but she feels untouchable that I have to give them, the whole thing plays like a weak imitation of the Kingpin because she looks and feel untouchable until all her goons are dead while Kingpin is another story, you got to put him down. There is a moment where Frank gets thrown off the roof escaping the assassins, and the CGI on his falling body is plain bad, like something out of an old video game, killing the tension of the whole escape. This whole scene of a guy inside a building, trapped by hundred of assasins is nothing new, nothing that we have not seen before, so cramming that gang war into one short does not do it justice, thats why I mention this one is weird and at least they should have come up with say four episodes. The story is simple, but the pacing is all over the place with too much time on Ma Gnucci monologuing about her pain instead of the two sides outsmarting each other, and the New York streets feel empty with no Daredevil or Spider Man showing up for a massive neighborhood riot, making the whole thing about Frank. I wanted this to be a standalone win, but it ends up feeling like a deleted episode from another series.
The biggest problem is they are still milking that same tired shit where Frank battles his inner demons about whether he even wants to be the vigilante anymore, and it eats up way too much of this forty four minutes. Almost the entire first half is spent watching him cry over his trauma instead of being the calculated tactician we know from the comics. He is back to hallucinating the ghosts of his past, slicing a red letter X into his own chest tattoo to match the marks on his hit list wall, then heading to the cemetery to visit the graves of his wife Maria and daughter Lisa, where he leaves the key to his locked weapons bag right there, basically giving up on the whole mission. It makes him look like a complete edge lord trying way too hard to be tough and tragic, and I am exhausted watching him been so needy, almost like asking for affection or someone to feel bad about what happen to him, in perespective look at Sicario movies, Aljandro went through the same thing and he was a bad ass mf. They spend all this time on him fighting his own apathy, watching thugs beat people up on the street without lifting a finger to stop them, like the writers could not figure out a new angle for where his head is at. I get that losing his family is his whole driving force but we have seen this exact breakdown so many times now that it has lost its impact.
The only thing that really made me cheer for Frank in the end was Johnny, this homeless veteran living on the streets with his dog Cammo, because that entire story feels like the one place where the special finally remembers what makes the Punisher work beyond all the blood. Mickey stealing Johnny's hat was already enough to make me hate the guy, but throwing poor Cammo in front of a garbage truck crossed a line, so watching Frank kill him at the end was one of the most satisfying payoffs I have seen in a long time, and honestly I think that little story does more for Frank than the entire Ma Gnucci plot. Returning the hat to Johnny, saving Dre and Charli, and later taking Charli's paper flower to Lisa's grave all point to the same thing: Frank is finally looking outside his own pain again. That is why I still believe this special was basically a shakedown before Brand New Day, because I never really felt like Frank won anything here. He just came out the other side with a fresh haircut, a trimmed beard, the skull painted back on his chest, and maybe a reason to keep going. I am giving this a solid 7/10 most beecause of the action, the kills are phenomenal and Jon Bernthal owns this role well but I bet manh of us just cant watch him stab criminals with office supplies for another ten years, next time give us the full suit from minute one, get him on the streets all tactical against a real villain that put him to the test. Marvel needs to stop acting like Frank's origin and his grief are the only stories left to tell with this character. We know he is broken, we know he misses his family, so at some point you just have to let him become the monster criminals whisper about in the dark. This is a decent way to spend forty five minutes on a week night, but it does not redefine the Punisher or show us anything we have not seen him go through a dozen times before. I just hope that when he finally crosses paths with the rest of the heroes, he brings this same level of violence and leaves at least half of the crying and long monologues at home.
#thepunisher, #onelastkill, #jonbernthal, #frankcastle, #disneyplus, #marveltelevision, #marvelstudios, #mcu, #daredevilbornagain, #spidermanbrandnewday, #manucci, #garthennis, #welcomebackfrank, #actionmovies, #gore, #johnwick, #theraid, #televisionreview, #tvspecial, #comicbooks, #superheroes, #vigilante, #ptsd, #newyorkcity, #streaming
Rating: 70/100
