The Punisher Dirty Laundry

"Do you know the difference between revenge and justice?"

Brutal, bloody and brilliant sums up this little short with Thomas Jane reprising his role as the not so friendly Frank Castle aka The Punisher. This was a completely independent "fan made" short, without any rights being held.... so it might not be online for long especially as if you listen closely you may recognise a little bit of Hans Zimmer's TDKR score. Either way Thomas Jane always made a good Punisher and to see him enthusiastic about the character gives fans hope that he could officially reprise the role in the future. Whilst I'm not a big fan of Punisher comics there is a a reason he works on film a little better. Comic books are a serial medium and over a long period of time you need to see a character develop and grow, The Punisher struggles to do this as his ethos is so very simple and he can only kill more or kill a little less, story lines which may take up a few years but no real growth. This however is of little importance to a film, I think writing a second full Punisher feature would be hard as you would have dealt with his origin arc but the possibility is there and as this short shows a little justice is nice to see.

Jane said about the short ""I wanted to make a fan film for a character I've always loved and believed in - a love letter to Frank Castle & his fans. It was an incredible experience with everyone on the project throwing in their time just for the fun of it. It's been a blast to be a part of from start to finish -- we hope the friends of Frank enjoy watching it as much as we did making it."
The short itself is cool as fuck! The beginning realism and purely disgusting characters make you will Punisher forward to do something, particularly the womans screams whilst Frank is doing his laundry. Whilst the escalating violence, awesomely cut between tumbling laundry and a toy grabber to raise tension, turns to a child Frank still needs a slightly hammy push by a disable war vet Ron Pearlman. Ok so Pearlman goes a little far but he makes a few points that appeal to my gang hating nerd side... they are indeed animals and you do want to "do something". The drinking metaphor of 6 months sober obviously relates to killing but the beautiful things Frank does with a bottle of Jim make up for its cheese. The masking on the camera makes the fight look really sweet and the large helping of blood is perfect for Frank's brutal nature, bones hanging out of legs, harsh for sure but you can't help but smile.

The only thing I question about the short (apart from copy write infringement) is whether he should have killed the last guy himself or not. I get that he let her get her revenge and that he doing the killing may be more like "justice" because its fair or something like that but I think that one of Frank's main traits is that he knows killing is wrong. The short itself shows this or he wouldn't have "gone sober" and wouldn't need such a big push but I don't think punisher would want to drag someone else into his world of murder. Or maybe he did, or just thought it was more fair. The "new" logo was hyped about but its pretty much the old logo, however the use of a shirt at the end to ensure  viewers that it is Punisher was a nice way of making the short without actually using the Punisher. If Marvel get on his back about it he can say that its just a guy who drops a shirt... its much more likely it will be WB getting pissy because of the use of Zimmer's music.

Watch it while you can! This could get taken down, I hope it doesn't and I hope marvel go "ahh that Thomas Jane is all right, lets make a movie!" but I'm not holding my breath.
8/10