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Throwback Thursday: Do the Punisher movies still hold up and did they ever?

By Mark Lynch

HOLLYWOOD - APRIL 12: Actors John Travolta, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Thomas Jane and Laura Harring attend the Los Angeles premiere of the Lion's Gate film "The Punisher" at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome April 12, 2004 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD - APRIL 12: Actors John Travolta, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Thomas Jane and Laura Harring attend the Los Angeles premiere of the Lion's Gate film "The Punisher" at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome April 12, 2004 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) /
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HOLLYWOOD – APRIL 12: Producer Avi Arad, producer Gale Anne Hurd and actor Kevin Nash attend the Los Angeles premiere of the Lion’s Gate film “The Punisher” at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome April 12, 2004 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD – APRIL 12: Producer Avi Arad, producer Gale Anne Hurd and actor Kevin Nash attend the Los Angeles premiere of the Lion’s Gate film “The Punisher” at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome April 12, 2004 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) /

The Punisher films have come and gone over the years, but were any of them actually good?

The Punisher is one of the more popular comic book characters. It may help that his trademark skull is easily recognized. Beyond that, his ultra-serious tone, commitment to his war on crime, and creative violence have continued to get projects about him created. In 2017, Netflix released the Punisher’s first TV series. Jon Bernthal portrayed Frank Castle the way he was in Marvel comics. But the show wasn’t just action scenes and a gritty tone. Punisher is more than that. There were times when he had to get over his anger and murderous ways to be gentle and caring. A lot of the time it came off awkwardly, but it worked. But long before Frank Castle was on a TV series, he was the star of three movies.

It’s amazing that there were three films made about the Punisher. What’s funny about it is each film was different than the previous one. The only thing that remained the same was that the Punisher was the lead character. One of them didn’t follow the normal tragedy of Frank Castle. It may have actually been a worse catastrophe. Recently, while rummaging through DVDs, I came across one of the Punisher movies. This was fate, and why we’ll see if the first three Punisher projects still hold up.

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