Law abiding citizen = Marvel Comic's the Punisher?? a few spoilers

[RolandJP]

Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is an upstanding family man whose wife and daughter are brutally murdered during a home invasion. When the killers are caught, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), a hotshot young Philadelphia prosecutor, is assigned to the case. Over his objections, Nick is forced by his boss to offer one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his accomplice. Fast forward ten years. The man who got away with murder is found dead and Clyde Shelton coolly admits his guilt. Then he issues a warning to Nick: Either fix the flawed justice system that failed his family, or key players in the trial will die. Soon Shelton follows through on his threats, orchestrating from his jail cell a string of spectacularly diabolical assassinations that can be neither predicted nor prevented.


Not exactly a mob hit in the park, but its so close. How could this movie hit the mark..but the previous 2 Punisher movies fail at the crux of the Frank Castle story?

[West Mantooth]

Uh, try Denzel Washington in Man on Fire or any Charles Bronson flick from the 80s. All of them are basically Punisher flicks.

[Sijo]

The basic premise is intriguing, but it falls apart at the "orchestrating everything from behind bars" unless he has mob or government connections. And then he was not such an innocent, was he?

[Monty_Cristo]

The basic premise is intriguing, but it falls apart at the "orchestrating everything from behind bars" unless he has mob or government connections. And then he was not such an innocent, was he?

but that's the twist. he doesn't have to be an innocent. Jamie Foxx's character is the protagonist.

[StoneGold]

Uh, try Denzel Washington in Man on Fire or any Charles Bronson flick from the 80s. All of them are basically Punisher flicks.

All of which would have been after the Punisher.



Now if only Frank hadn't blatantly ripped off of The Executioner and Death Wish. Which was 1974, not 80s.

[Pól Rua]

All of which would have been after the Punisher.
Now if only Frank hadn't blatantly ripped off of The Executioner and Death Wish. Which was 1974, not 80s.

Pretty much. Seriously, The Punisher's an utterly derivative concept in the first place. Claiming that anyone's ripping off the Punisher is like saying someone's stealing material from Dane Cook.

[Monty_Cristo]

Pretty much. Seriously, The Punisher's an utterly derivative concept in the first place. Claiming that anyone's ripping off the Punisher is like saying someone's stealing material from Dane Cook.

true but his skull insignia is more memorable than anything in the aforementioned movies.

[Pól Rua]

true but his skull insignia is more memorable than anything in the aforementioned movies.

Uh... the Executioner was a series of novels... not a movie.
And maybe that's because most people these days can't remember anything that happened more than two or three years ago.

And that's a hell of an endorsement.

It may be a load of mindless derivative rubbish, but damn, that's a nice shirt.

[StoneGold]

Uh... the Executioner was a series of novels... not a movie.
And maybe that's because most people these days can't remember anything that happened more than two or three years ago.

And that's a hell of an endorsement.

It may be a load of mindless derivative rubbish, but damn, that's a nice shirt.

It really is, though.


Really though, I don't think anyone can call claim to the "revenging your family." For that matter, other than the fact that both Bolan and Castle are Vietnam vets taking revenge for the deaths of their families, the similarities kind of end there. The Bolan origin is this convoluted mess where his father borrows money from the mob, which forces his sister into prostitution, his father kills his sister and himself, so he blames the mob and starts going kill crazy. The Punisher origin is far more straightforward and sympathetic, closer to Death Wish, but without the creepiness of having your daughter raped by Jeff Goldblum.

But it's all just Hamlet, but without all the pussified indecision. And I'm sure Shakespeare ripped it off from somewhere too. Just having trouble thinking of a specific vengeance myth where the family getting killed is the impetus.

[Monty_Cristo]

Uh... the Executioner was a series of novels... not a movie.
And maybe that's because most people these days can't remember anything that happened more than two or three years ago.

And that's a hell of an endorsement.

It may be a load of mindless derivative rubbish, but damn, that's a nice shirt.

yes. packaging matters.

[Pól Rua]

But it's all just Hamlet, but without all the pussified indecision. And I'm sure Shakespeare ripped it off from somewhere too. Just having trouble thinking of a specific vengeance myth where the family getting killed is the impetus.

He certainly did.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/amleth.html