War Zone

I see they picked Ray Stevenson to be the Punisher in the War Zone movie. This is probably old news to everyone. People who visit Hollywood news websites have probably known this for at least 120 years, but it's news to me because I don't haunt such websites and typically don't know what movies are coming out, or who's in them, until the trailers hit satellite TV.

Ray Stevenson is a good choice. He has the right stature and physical presence to be the Punisher, and he's about the right age and has the right ruggedness. And if one can judge from the work Stevenson did in the HBO series Rome, I think he'll have no problem with the physical aspects of the acting job. (Might I say that Rome was a splendid bit of TV and that Ray Stevenson's Titus Pullo was the bedrock of the series. The contrast between Pullo's good-natured affability and raw brutality was stark and, I think, very Roman in nature. The scene where Pullo and Cicero have their fateful meeting in the garden is a perfect example.) I always argued that the ideal man to play the Punisher would be a bulked-up Robert DeNiro from roughly the vintage of Ronin, and that's sort of what Ray Stevenson is.

The main question is whether Stevenson can pull off a suitably flat American accent, and I don't see why not. This is the one area where I thought Thomas Jane did a particularly good job. I thought he was far too young and handsome to be the Punisher in the last movie, but the voice was right on the mark. I got so used to the Thomas Jane voiceover in the Punisher video game that I actually can't imagine any other voice for the Punisher.

Did You Know? That the Roman name "Cicero" mentioned above means "chickpea"? Think about that the next time anyone describes "chickpea" as a great orator and able administrator and unmasker of the Cataline conspiracy.