Looney Bin Jim is going to get his applesauce back, even if that means biting through his asylum attendant’s stomach and ripping out intestines with his teeth.
Licking his bloody, shredded knuckles like a cat and threatening victims with phrases such as, “The tongue stretches further than most people think,” Doug Hutchinson’s Looney Bin Jim is one-half of the psychotic duo terrorizing New York City and the Punisher in the dark, gruesome and sometimes silly “Punisher: War Zone.”
The action flick is the third installment in a series based on Marvel Comics’ Punisher character. The latest stab at vigilante Frank Castle’s self-imposed slaughtering spree comes closest to how comic book fans like their Frank.
Herculean and brooding as Frank, aka the Punisher, Ray Stevenson of HBO’s “Rome” plays the perfect anti-hero.
He knows his Bible verses and saves women and children but will find the most painful way to kill. Think chair leg in the eye or pushing a foe into a metal bin of churning broken glass.
The latter is what Frank does to mob boss Billy Russoti, who Dominic West plays as an extended Robert De Niro “You talking to me?” impression until he emerges with a face of patchwork skin held together with thick black stitching to take on his Jigsaw persona.
Jigsaw rivals Frank for most creative kill when he breaks the top of a wine glass to thrust the stem through another villain’s throat so that his Adam’s apple is separated from his rest of his neck.
Surprisingly, it’s not the dialogue that makes the movie limp along at times, or the handful of illogical steps. It’s the bloated setup to arrange the final massacre and repetitive editing during what should be a pivotal conversation.
But wade through the waste and “War Zone” will reward you with enough butchered bodies and shots from Frank’s point of view that will pleasure gore-loving, video game-obsessed adolescents.
“Punisher’s” sound team deserves an Oscar for conveying the horror of violence through hundreds of bone cracks and punctured, gushing arteries.
‘Punisher: War Zone’
Stars: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Doug Hutchison
Rated: R for pervasive strong brutal violence, language and some drug use.
