Punisher: War Zone

‘Oh God, now I’ve got brains spattered all over me,’ exclaims The Punisher’s slippery inside man, Detective Soap. You may feel the same at the end of this messy, sadistic reboot of the Marvel comic-book series. ‘Rome’ stalwart Ray Stevenson brings great conviction to the role of vigilante Frank Castle, previously essayed by Dolph Lundgren and Thomas Jane. But even he can’t save a recycled plot in which vain gangster Billy the Beaut (‘The Wire’ alumnus Dominic West) is sliced up by a bottle-crushing machine.

The movie’s McGuffin is a bio-weapon destined for ‘the ragheads in Queens’, but the threat to National Security takes a back seat to director Lexi Alexander’s gleeful depiction of the flesh-slicing, kidney-ripping, head-exploding violence meted out by The Punisher and his two nemeses: the now hideously mutilated ‘Jigsaw’ (West) and his brother Loony Bin Jim. Despite myriad production problems, ‘Green Street’ director Alexander says this is the movie she set out to make, which is both oddly admirable and slightly worrying.