The Punisher (1989)

Stanger's Oscar was quite good - but Ben's assessment made me cackle all the same. Give Ryno kisses.

https://youtu.be/_JbQJkpjemg?si=kvP4TG7YF03UtHlq

Stanger's comments about not liking close up magicians because you have to give them so much is exactly how I feel about hibachi

This is the first episode where I listened to it again almost immediately. It was very fun and the long detour talk about the Marvel Cards was pretty great.

I got to believe dolph would say something about the punisher recovering from a gun shot wound in a sewer. He is smart like asia carera he knows not to do that.

Has anyone else checked out the Mack Bolan books, whom the Punisher is based on? “Mack Bolan, the protagonist of Don Pendleton's "The Executioner" pulp novel series, was the primary direct inspiration for the creation of Marvel's The Punisher. Gerry Conway has directly cited The Executioner as the inspiration for the Punisher.” https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-legends-revealed-567/ https://mack-bolan.fandom.com/wiki/Mack_Bolan

Bro that was a fire discussion of Teddy Ruxpin. I realized he represents the relationship between AI and my corny friends from high school (and recent professional colleagues.) I called one of them out today because he keeps sending me pro-AI YouTube clips and other bullshit. “The fact that you are still dick riding AI is so sad to me. Despite all the evidence that it is fool’s gold. You got played by a Teddy Ruxpin. Childish.” Thanks, Action Boyz!

Of course we have War Journal and Warzone, but did anyone read or own Punisher Armory? It was like a four-part series that was just art of his weapons and equipment with his voice monologuing over the top of it. The final issue we get a reveal of his "favorite gun" and it's a child's old west revolver cap gun that was his son's favorite toy

Australian pizzas back then would be sliced exactly the same as America, but on the whole probably smaller. Around that time it wasn't uncommon for pizza chains to have a "New York style" or "American style" promo which just meant a much bigger diameter pizza. Also some places did rectangular pizzas, like the old pizza hut 'bigfoot' but those were generally more Italian owned places where there was more diversity in pizza theory

Gabrus, you gotta take another look at the Thomas Jane punisher

Speaking of 3D products from way back when: the National Geographic hologram cover blew my mind

I'm just here because one time the New York hardcore band Biohazard sampled this movie in their awesome song Punishment

“Only when he pulls out” was so funny

The Dolph impression is right up there with Bronson one for me when it comes to Action Boyz all timers.

Cruise ship casinos typically have worse odds than land-based casinos. Land-based casinos in Vegas or Atlantic City usually return about 92-97% on slot machines. Cruise ship slots are often programmed to pay back only 80-90%.

Kenji Yamaki, who played Sato or the henchmen who got thrown on the spikey stand, was a very decorated Kyokushin karate practitioner. He is one of the few Kyokushin guys to complete the 100 man kumite. Dolph was not a Taekwondo olympian, but a black belt in Kyokushin karate. There is footage of him fighting a bout, but he doesn't really look very good in it. Also, the dip in film quality is because those were unrestored shots that were put back in for an unrated cut that came with the blu ray. Haven't listened to the commentary with the director, but I'll do that and maybe be able to explain why that doctor had red high heels.

I gotta re-watch War Zone. It was so fun, it really got the Ennis-era Punisher over-the-top insanity down perfectly

Dunno if I’ve ever seen a movie more obviously shot in Australia. Made me weirdly patriotic.

This was a weird way to learn that my name is one letter off from being a Microchip alias. Hearing Ben say it while I was driving almost caused a problem.

Wife’s boyfriend of Sam

What are all the things that rhyme with punisher? For the sonnet

Love this movie! Thanks boyz! Also an ex of mine and I used to call whatever towel we laid down on the bed during her period the "murdertowel" 😉

Goldblatt edited jumping jack flash which also starred jeroen krabbe- the sauna

You be good boyz, Action Boyz. Brilliant Podcast

new world actually owned marvel at the time when this movie was made

I have an original (?) poster for this movie hanging in my living room. I got it on E-Bay about 20-25 years ago, it’s a weird size (27”x41”, not the usual 40”), and it’s for the home video release, but I’m not sure there was ever an English-language theatrical poster for it to begin with. It’s pretty fuckin’ rad. I also have a pretty great blu-ray of the movie that Umbrella Entertainment put out several years ago.

My stepdad (another old guy named Dave) was a comic collector, and he and my mom met just as I was starting to get serious about it, so we got along pretty well. He passed away two and a half years ago, and since I knew more about that stuff, my mom had me go through his collection to see what was there. He had some really good runs of some things from the 70s through the early 90s, but it didn’t seem like he had any big money books…until I stumbled across an Amazing Spider-Man #129 that was in awesome shape that was just in there with some other Punisher appearances. I think I VAGUELY remember him getting it in 1994 or so when it wasn’t crazy expensive, but definitely more than what I could’ve spent when I was 16. We eventually got it graded, and it came back as an 8.0, which is pretty great for a book that was 50 years old JUST bagged and not even boarded.

Gabrus and Rodgers, you were great at the Irvine Improv. Thank you for making the trip.

Thank you Stanger. I didn’t know Dolph was a “slight genu valgus” compadre.

It starts with his ass and it ends with hizzasssh, RIP Lou Holtzzass

What's the next movie I need something to watch

I cram myself into a wetsuit everyday just to listen to the action boyz podcast

Seeing 3 hrs when I open the podcast app makes Monday a little easier

"Stallone's ring guy" 😆😆😆

Gerry Conway, co-creator of the Punisher died a week ago. This episode had already been announced, and probably already recorded, so it counts. (In fairness, he had been ailing a long time. Much beloved person in comics.)

Which Marvel movie ends with the main character putting a gun up to his head and asking a child to pull the trigger? Was it Dr Strange 3 or this?

Stanger appears like a jump scare

I’m Punisher reading for Feivel 🤣

Is this streaming anywhere? I feel like I’m striking out looking in all the usual places.

An American action movie shot in Australia starring a Dane and German who are using their own accents? Now this is a proper Hollywood b-movie. There was also enough Ninja action to make this a Ninjavember entry, which is nice. And props to the makeup artist, Dolph had the sweaty face and pasty complexion of a man who lived in a sewer.

I just found all my comics and trading cards from the same time - I'm 44. I only had a few dozen of each. And I priced them out this year and the best one was like $2 value. 🤣 But I did get Punisher on DVD from Goodwill last year. Feeling seen on this episode.

Warzone is such a fantastic loose remake of Batman 89. Only negative is that it’s got the look of a Saw movie. In that it all appears to be shot in a Canadian warehouse district.

The Punisher video game from the 2000’s was good and crazy violent and overlooked

The Punisher Warzone director is a bit of a curious case. As Gabrus said, Lexi Alexander is very outspoken on Palestine and likely got blacklisted for that, at least for movies, but curiously in 2010 she also made a super Christian, low budget movie called "Lifted" that's about a Ghost Dad rapping with his son and helping him win a singing competition. The dad from the movie was a soldier who got killed in Afghanistan, shot by a terrorist, a terrorist who, as a cameo, is played by the director herself. Now of course my first thought was that this probably was just some paycheck for her but then I see that she also wrote the whole thing. I'm truly just so curious how that movie came to be as, according to google, she's also an Atheist/Agnostic so really not a person who'd you expect to make one of these low budget Christian movies. Edit: just to be clear this isn't meant as some sort of call out or anything like that, I was just so surprised when I came across that movie and just couldn't believe it was directed by her, as it's so different from anything else she made.

the fact that Stanger gets burned out from reacting to close-up magic too enthusiastically is a testament to his kindness

The 2099 comics were very bad, but Doom 2099 was really fun.

Losing the punisher skull to alt-right GI Bros has been a terrible loss

From the casting to the locations you can practically feel the all-Americanness oozing from the screen! New York truly is a character in this movie, mate!!

I love that Microchip calls Dolph "Mr. P."

Yup the bonus cards were holographic…but it was just holographic version of cosmic SpiderMan, Silver Surfer, Dr Doom, Wolverine and some team card

Dolph on Gorf

The Hildebrandt Brothers Masterpieces were so damn rad. But I really liked the series they did after the Hildebrandt run where they brought in different artists for every card. Really cool Nightcrawler in that set.

I've got $20 that says "Golf Lundgren" is a future Will Hines character on CBB

Grew up as an 80s kid in the Bay Area and the Night Stalker/Richard Ramirez thing SCARED THE FUCKING SHIT out of me. His police sketch on the nightly news was enough send me spinning out into nightmare filled sleep. Went through his Wikipedia entry just know and it was far more horrific than I ever knew. Also, what’s with these psychopaths who fall and love and marry rapists/serial killers in prison? Insane.

I like the way you incorporated the martial arts into your (3) hour podcast tonight.

The show Kevin rules! Just finished it last night, made me laugh out loud several times. So fun to hear Ben do so many fun voices. Hopefully next season has a Gwildor!

I was once trying to get all of Dolph's movies on DVD, so I already own 2 copies of this... he's just too prolific to keep up with it is hard to keep up now.

Spider-Man is cool in NYC but most Marvel characters feel silly in the real world. Even Iron Man. It’s cool that your one suit fires missiles but you live in America - maybe let the military handle this one Tony.

The part with Dolph’s RC semi truck killed me!

"What the fuck do you call 400+ podcast episodes about action movies?" "Work in progress."

This is another milestone episode for the Action Boyz. Finally! This is the second—and possibly last—Marvel movie the Boyz will cover. The first one was “Blade.”

Now, when people comment about the Punisher skulls on my car and all of my clothes, I can say it’s because I love this episode so damn much.

Dolph is so handsome. He looks great as a brunette.

Three hours!?!? The Action Boyz are truly back!

Fingers crossed for a Shadow Wolves Punisher Warzone viewing. Another treat, thanks boyz.