screening

Thanks to Nuffnang, I managed to catch Punisher: War Zone 10 days before everyone else. It was a screening held at Cineleisure last night (just now?) and I’ve got to say, this has gotta to be the best screening ever.

The pre-program was held at Outpost and we all met up there before going for the movie. The drinks were all half-price and there were PS2 Punisher games and board games available.

I met Hitomi there who posed me an extremely difficult question that challenged my gray matter to the point of incapacitation. :p

There were two people in costume acting as bouncers of sorts…a very nice touch, which was not just cosmetic – more about that later.

Contests were also held – two mannequins were the targets and we were given a toy gun to shoot darts at the targets to win schwag, which includes Punisher 2 T-shirts and duffle bags. I joined the second round and snagged me a poster of Punisher: War Zone. It was a whole lot of fun.

…that’s not the end of it though. As we filed into the cinema and the trailers started, the two guys in flak jackets suddenly entered the cinema with flashlights shouting that Frank Castle is in the premises.

There was a whole lot of commotion and they ended up arresting The Punisher (before he made a timely escape) in front of the theater. It was a staged and choreographed event but they managed to pull it off so well (and it was unexpected) which made it interesting.

Then someone announced that a bomb has been planted under one of our seats, which set us scrambling to see if the explosive device is indeed under our designated seats. It turns out that Debra who was sitting at the seat adjacent to mine was the lucky one.

There was a bomb-squad style “cut the wires to disarm the bomb” stunt and Debra got to keep the ignition device. This has gotta be the best PR stunt pulled ever.

Anyway, back to the movie, it was great! If you loved the first Punisher (or Marvel comics stuff, vigilante movies, or films that involves violence and gore) you’ll love this iteration. There were a couple of great quotes in there, my favorite being straight from the good book – “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” from Matthew 7:2.

Overall, it was an entertaining popcorn movie and I won’t have any spoilers here since it’s not going to be released for another 10 days but the best scene is Jigsaw recruiting all the Asian, Latino and African American street gangs for his cause.

The only flaw in the movie is the excessive censorship applied. There were liberal cutting of scenes – the Good Parts (TM) involving gore and violence were all subjected to the judicious scissors of the good people at the film censorship board. It was quite noticeable and a bit of a letdown but I give this movie two thumbs up (primarily coz I loved the first and I like vigilante movies like Boondock Saints).

This is Zoe, my guest. Say Happy Birthday coz she just turned 16. 🙂

I even won a Punisher: War Zone combat knife for my slogan. It was “If I’m the Punisher, I’ll punish….Obama coz he’s not what he seems. It’s the greatest disaster of all time. Great PR, great marketing tactics, but he’s actually the Antichrist in disguise. The end is nigh!“ and I explicitly stated that I wanted the adventure knife coz I was getting mugged all the time. 😉

Unfortunately, this “adventure knife” would be relegated to cutting my fingernails and filing it down so it doesn’t hurt when I have an itch to scratch. 😉

I think it’ll be mighty useful for that. 🙂