Who is the best Punisher.
 

Dolph Lundgren 1989

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Thomas Jane 2004

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Ray Stevenson 2008

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Tom Jane and a move.

Jane, but the movie could have been for faithful to the Enis books. The recent reboot was tasteless and I didn't know the first movie was a Punisher movie til way later.

Thomas Jane easily. It's not saying too much though, since the other two versions were so bad.

It should also be noted that I think Thomas Jane is The Don in general, and I don't neccesarily think the Punisher movie he was in was bad. It wasn't very good either, but I sort of enjoyed it. Definitely better than the others.

Why isn't Thomas Jane cast in better roles? I have a cult enjoyment of him as an actor. Sort of like I do with Kurt Russell.
He could be used so much better. I'd rather see Thomas Jane as a character like Daredevil than Punisher

Ray Stevenson. Probably because I liked this movie much better than the Jane one.

And the 1989 Punisher was a great action movie, just didn't have much of a Punisher feel to it.

I was actually playing the Punisher beat em up on my friend's arcade cabinet tonight. Kicking lots of ass with Punisher and Nick Fury.
I always forget how great that game is. The weapons in it are amazing.

War Zone was such a ridiculous cartoon though. Like those super gritty low budget early 90s super hero movies.

It wasn't like those in a good way either though. I just watched the trailers again and they try to make War Zone look like a grindhouse type thing but the actual film wasn't that. Maybe if it actually was more like Planet Terror and Machete it would have been fun.
Not that Punisher is really supposed to be like that, but I'll take fun over awful any day regardless of how faithful it is to the books. The serious approach has failed.

The whole 500 Castle family members getting slaughtered during a family gathering in the Thomas Jane movie made me facepalm.

The Tom Jane movie as a whole was better, but Stevenson captured the cold emotionless demeanor of the Punisher perfectly. Say what you will about how war zone was shot, but it had the best Punisher, imo.

I honestly can't choose between Jane and Stevenson. I think they both did a great job, especially at different times in the Punishers life. Tom Jane looked great as Frank Castle the family man, who'd lost his family and became a vigilante.

Stevenson I believe was based a few years later, and had a great look of a vigilante who's been waging a one-man war against crime whilst avoiding the police for too long. He had that tired, rough and gritty look about him.

Honestly can't decide between those two.

Loony Bin Jim

Thomas Jane by miles. Stevenson's was ok, but it the whole thing just seemed slightly ridiculous.

I think Stevenson was better.
I think Jane has the advantage because he was in a better movie..period. Like Fignuts said, he captured the demeanor of the Punisher better than Jane IMO.

Yeah, War Zone was so awful I didn't bother finishing it. Lundgren was good, but not great. Jane I bought, more or less, as a strong Frank Castle early on.

I didn't see War Zone but I thought Thomas Jane was good. I kind of liked his Punisher. I'm not sure why. It kind of came across as a combination of Maximum Carnage and Death Wish.

I thought everyone hated Thomas Jane as Punisher?

This is surprising.

Double post

I think Stevinson had the 'look' down, it's just the movie he was saddled with was awful.
Jane didn't quite have that hard edge that Stevinson had until the last quarter of the movie, up until then I bought him as Castle, but not exactly as the Punisher.

Overall I'd have to go with the 2004 version as the best.

I quite enjoyed War Zone. But I always enjoy mindless action and gore.

Jane was better as "Castle" and had a better film overall. He was less violent as The Punisher but at the same time his film spent most of the time building up him to become The Punsiher.

Ray Stevenson was better as "The Punisher" but everyone else lacked as characters except maybe for Jigsaw. Since there was no need to retell the "Castle" story in depth, his film was able to be more action and really showed off The Punisher as a vicious character to the villains. Ended up hurting more for other characters since they didn't get as developed as in Jane's film.