After completing his final mission, going deep undercover to catch Eastern European arms dealers, G-man Frank Castle (Jane) retires; trading in a life of danger in favour of his young family. Unfortunately, during that final mission, underworld powerbroker Howard Saint's (Travolta) son stood in the line of one too many bullets. The Saint family decide that Castle's entire extended family should pay for this, and have them slaughtered in front of his eyes. With nothing left for him, Frank Castle is no more, he is now The Punisher; a man living for nothing but revenge.

While not as high profile as many other recent comic book movies, largely due to its mature content, The Punisher is by far one of the best. The Punisher is reminiscent of the action classics of the 80s, Commando, Cobra, Raw Deal et al. Hell, it lifts the ending of Raw Deal almost to the point that it could be considered theft! While not original, what it does, it does very well. There are no deep hidden meanings or social commentary to be taken from The Punisher, just top notch B-movie action. If only the Hollywood machine made them like this more often!