The Punisher: Dirty Laundry (2012)

the audience applauded

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Absolutely Fantastic

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Did anyone else even realise this existed? It flew thoroughly under my radar.Now I'm one of the few people who really enjoyed The Punisher (2004) though Thomas Jane was hardly the best choice of Frank Castle he did a solid job and the movie was really watchable despite Travolta's best efforts.This 10 minute short is literally Castle doing laundry and taking a couple of minutes out to talk to wheelchair bound shopkeep Ron Perlman before beating up a bunch of thugs with a bottle of whiskey.I don't understand how or why Jane & Perlman agreed to do with 8yrs after the original movie but it is somewhat overwhelming and doesn't fit with The Punisher character.It's almost like he is apprehensive about even helping! I suppose this is a harmless enough watch for fans but brings nothing new to the franchise and won't help with getting The Punisher into the real Marvel universe.The Good: Thomas Jane The Bad: I don't know why it even exists Frank Castles behaviour is out of character Perlman is wasted Things I Learnt From This Short: Jack Daniels bottles are made of adamantium

There are many stereotypes and clichés in this 10-minute short film. A gang of thugs violently attacks women and children and a lone hero takes care of them, even if all he actually wanted to take care of was his laundry. Thomas Jane returns in this little movie as Frank Castle, the Punisher. Ron Perlman is in it as well and he is always a nice addition. He appears in the middle section, the first part of the film is about getting to know the characters, the last part are the fighting sequences then. I really hope we get "Hellboy 3" at some point. Anyway, Jane's character beats up all the bad guys, but the real punishment comes from somebody else at the end. Decent little short and I read that there might be a television series coming out soon, but it does not say if Jane is also starring in it. This short film here is a decent watch, nothing outstanding, but 10 minutes worth spending. Director and writer here are not very famous, but all in all they do a good job too. Also, I have not seen the feature film, but you don't need to to understand and appreciate this short movie. Recommended.

A 40-something man(and is that...? No, it couldn't be, right...?) goes out to the laundromat in a bad neighbourhood, and notices the other allusion of the title - a gang, terrorizing the residents. At first, he goes about his business. Who wouldn't? Can't fix all the world's problems by yourself, right? As the tension mounts(consistently over the course of the well-paced 10 minute running time), however, he may find that he can't ignore what's going on in the street.The YouTube(yes, this is available for free, legal viewing, so get to it) title originally didn't reveal who this is about, so while the IMDb entry's currently does, I will not give away what graphic novel icon this is about. It does, however, do them complete justice, something that, arguably, wasn't quite achieved by the silver screen attempts. The bleak tone and gritty realism are uncompromising, and fit perfectly. Yes, this is made for and by fans - if you aren't already familiar with the source material, you might not fully appreciate this, and really, when something has decades of printed stories, either you condense and disappoint, or assume that the audience already knows. And yes, if you go into this not knowing yet who it's about, it will, indeed, gradually become clear to you, as with the more recent effort by the same team, Truth In Journalism.Acting is spot-on. The gold-toothed bad guy, the leader, could easily be hammy, in his nuance-free evil(this is not a complaint), and yet he feels like he belongs in our world - near the end, this does go beyond that, but otherwise, the whole thing is firmly anchored there. We could see this happening. While there is not a lot going on character-wise, what there is, is established, developed and played just right. The score, borrowed from The Dark Knight, is used to great effect. FX are solid, and the reliance on practical ones serves the short well. It increases credibility further.There is a lot of bloody, graphic, disturbing and violent content in this. I recommend this to any fan of comic books. 8/10

Watching The Punisher (2004) starring Thomas Jane was a fun ride. I thought a lot of the action sequences were well staged as were the acting and the music well written. My only quarrel with the film was that plot dragged slightly and how the moments of sadness in the weirdest places. Most of them dealt with Travolta's character. For example, when Howard Saint (Travolta) confronts a longtime friend about betraying him, as a villain, he should be livid, not emotionally distraught. The sadness that Jane displays is frequent too but it's forgivable since the reboot had to establish the fact that his family was gone. Thankfully, there's nothing like that in this ten-minute film. Eight years later, we find Thomas Jane back as Frank Castle just trying to do some laundry when he stumbles onto innocent blood being spilt. Need I say more? We all know what happens next; pure punishment. The difference between this film and the feature length remake that Jane starred in 2004 was the tone of the movie. The first dealt more with Castle's grief about the death of his family (which is understandable to a point). Here, Castle has accepted the fact that his family is gone and now could care less who he's hurting. And that's also the attitude of Ron Perlman's character whose just a store clerk. For the few lines he gave, it was something you wouldn't normally hear from a store clerk. All good acting though.I'm still not giving this short film a full ten stars because this wasn't a full feature length movie. There's obviously not enough to explore in ten minutes. Plus the fact that the blood was fake as well but what do you expect for a ten-minute film. The hand-to-hand combat is great to watch as is the improvised weapon Jane uses to break up a gang. The music, although I have no idea who scored it, sounded good and the ending was quite satisfying. Will this bring Jane back as Frank Castle? Right now, that's in the air but if it does end up coming to fruition, having it done this way would be a much better way to go.