The Punisher

Starring: Thomas Jane, John Travolta, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
UK Certificate: 18

Following hard on the heels of Spider-Man and The X-Men, this is another movie based on a Marvel comics' character. There the similarities end though, as The Punisher is a million miles away from benevolent mutants or teenage arachnid wannabes. In fact, he's a stone cold killer.

The story goes like this: when the mob wipes out his family, former military man Frank Castle decides to get some serious payback. He abandons his old identity to become The Punisher - a man with no time for crime but an awful lot for black leather, hi-tech weaponry and murder.
If this all sounds a bit familiar, it's probably becase you've stumbled across the early '90s straight-to-video version, starring Dolph Lundgren. Wipe that horror from your minds though - this glossy, high-tech, high-violence action flick is a different proposition altogether.