The same year that Micheal Keaton donned the cowl and became the iconic Batman for a generation, Dolph Lundgren brought Marvel’s dark antihero, Frank Castle, to life in the low-budget adaptation of The Punisher.

If I say ugh will that be enough?

Lundgren has never been known for his thespian abilities, and in a role that, if played properly could have a real emotional resonance even as it makes you question the morals and ethics of society, he’s really out of his depth.

Filled with glaring narrative, continuity, and other errors (Frank Castle’s pistol is outfitted with a suppressor, which works sometimes and other times amplifies the sound) this film has not aged well at all.

The Punisher has been stalking the streets of Australia, sorry New York City, for five years killing the guilty in the form of countless criminals as an act of revenge for the death of his family. In this version of the tale, he was a cop, and he’s left behind his partner, Jake Berkowitz (Louis Gossett Jr.) who knows Frank is the Punisher and is trying to track him down and bring him to justice.

With all the killing that Frank has done, he’s crippled a number of criminal families in the city, making them prime targets to be taken over by the Yakuza led by Lady Tanaka (Kim Miyori). She and her minions are ruthless and when the mafia families, headed by Gianni Franco (Jeroen Krabbe), decline their proposed deal Tanaka arranges for the children of the families to be kidnapped.

Will the innocents be killed as the Yakuza moves into this Australian version of New York?

After much pushing, and theoretically moral wrestling, Frank, who has been living and operating from the underground tunnels and sewers of the city (which look a lot cleaner than you would imagine them to be) teams up with the untrustworthy Berkowitz to free the children, even as Berkowitz and his new partner, Sam (Nancy Everhard) are closing in on him.

With action sequences that pale when compared to films released the same year, and opening credits that are questionable, the whole film feels like a giant misstep. While I agree that if you’re going to bring The Punisher to the big, or any, screen it has to be big, violent, and rated R, that doesn’t mean you can’t set aside the moral and ethical questions that Castle needs to wrestle with over his actions – how much vengeance is enough? What makes him above the law?

These things are mentioned in the film but are never given their due. Instead, they try and have Lundgren, who is very imposing, deliver one-liners that just don’t work because he didn’t have the chops to pull them off.

The Punisher has to be in great shape sure, but he also has to be brought to life by an actor who can add some depth to the character. This film tries to be a solid action flick, but there are so many things that just don’t work from a production angle that it just ends up being a bit of a mess.

Maybe the next attempt will be better. Next week I’ll take a look at the 2004 version.