Before I start talking about the Film and DVD let me just say I am an avid collector of Marvel comics .The Punisher. series. In short I am a huge fan of the original story line . key word there .original.. Now I know that Hollywood seems to have this idea that the audience won.t like comic book storylines for some reason, so not only do they change it they also change the mood it portrays, this now brings me to the film. Frank Castle an FBI agent played by Thomas Jane is blamed for the murder of a Kingpin.s (Howard Saint played by John Travolta) son in an undercover operation that went wrong. Saint seeks revenge by calling for the assassination of Castles family as well as Castle himself. Castle survives and seeks punishment for his family.s death. What results is a quite entertaining movie with plenty of action, shooting, explosions and combat. The acting is quite wooden at times from Jane and awkward when a bit of romance is tossed in. What disappointed me though was the lack of staying true to the mood which was so brilliantly portrayed in the comic books, what I mean by this is Castle was angry, furious, wanting to kill himself . not wanting to go on with life as everything he held dear to him was no longer in his life (if you.ve seen Man on Fire, Denzel does a brilliant job of showing these emotions). Thomas Jane and the director didn.t seem to be able to bring this to the screen, they seemed content to add corny bits and seemed afraid to touch on real depression and vengeance which would be felt by a father and husband in that situation. And why did they change Frank Castle.s character from being a War veteran to an ex-FBI agent?!? In my opinion .Man on Fire. is everything this movie should have been. Anyway onto the DVD ..

VIDEO
Presented in its original aspect ratio measuring 2.35:1, the Anamorphic Widescreen transfer for this movie is quite dark, with many scenes taking place at night, this issue could be a problem for those monitors that have a problem displaying proper black levels. All in all though, the transfer is nicely done with minimal grain spotted due to the dark nature of the film.

AUDIO
The DVD comes with the following Audio tracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 and Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1. The English discrete 5.1 EX option is quite impressive, especially if you have your room set up for it. As .The Punisher. is an action flick, the use of the surround speakers is great. Bass kicks in when it.s suppose to and dialogue is presented clear and easy to understand. This is a great track, especially for the explosions and gun fire.

EXTRAS
Anyone who is a fan of Special features and knows nothing about the Punisher will be pleased with what has been added to this DVD.

Just for informations sake fans of the comic book may not be as pleased with the extras. For some reason the Region 1 DVD offers 2 more featurettes leaning more towards the Punishers Origins. I for one was not pleased to see this taken out of the Aussie DVD Release. It seems they have sacrificed these for more Audio options.