The Punisher (2004)
Action, Crime, Drama • 2h 4m
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Cast: Thomas Jane, John Travolta, Will Patton, Roy Scheider, Laura Harring, Ben Foster, Samantha Mathis, James Carpinello, A. Russell Andrews, Eddie Jemison, John Pinette, Rebecca Romijn, Mark Collie, Marcus Johns, Omar Avila, Russell Durham Comegys, Antoni Corone, Rick Elmhurst, Carleth Keys, Michael Reardon, William Haze, Marco St. John, Bonnie Johnson, Veryl Jones, Jim Meskimen, Jack Swanson, Alan Lilly, Terry Loughlin, Marc Macaulay, Kevin Nash, Tom Nowicki, Sonny Surowiec, Steve Raulerson, Robin O'Dell, Eduardo Yáñez, Hank Stone, Nick Loren, Tom Akos, John Baker, David Broitman, Jeff Chase, Georgia Chris, Darla Delgado, Charleene Closshey, Michael Thomas Dunn, Douglas Embry, Hatcher Flaschen, Chris Gibson, Michael A. Quill, Matt Weber, Heather Trzyna, Jimmy Star, Kassie Spielman, Gustavo Pérez, Sebastian Cage, Angelina Riposta, Matt Totty
Theatrical: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
Extended: Sony Germany Extended Cut Blu-ray
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
Overview
When undercover FBI agent Frank Castle's wife and son are slaughtered, he becomes 'the Punisher' -- a ruthless vigilante willing to go to any length to avenge his family.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Frank Capra
Director: John Carpenter
Sony 4K Blu-ray or Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode)
Sony 4K Blu-ray and France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode) are similar
Director: Michael Arias
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
GKIDS 4K Blu-ray is a sharpened upscale. Caps
GKIDS 4K Blu-ray has a true lossless English dub and correct volume levels for the Japanese audio
Director: David Fincher
4K Blu-ray has exclusive “unrated” audio with a small change to one line under the request of David Fincher (removed the poor dub over of frickin’ in the line “Screw it, let’s gut the f**kin’ nerd.”).
Director: Martin Scorsese
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook
Sources: blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook fixes duplicate shot seen on the previous Columbia Classics release and has better encoding
Original mono mix: 1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1991 Columbia LaserDisc
The 4K Blu-ray mono is only minimally worse (see blah-ray).
5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Director: Michael Apted
Video format: HD Streaming
Director: Richard Linklater
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Criterion Blu-ray uses the same transfer as Sony but the encoding is slightly worse than Sony and barely noticeable see caps
Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray in viewing looks very similar to both the Criterion and Sony caps, but no side by side comparison available
Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray is part of a 3-film box set like the Criterion
More Action on Blu-ray
Director: Tony Scott
The 70mm 6-track mix has a higher bitrate on the Paramount 1998 DVD, but is more limited than on the THX LaserDisc The Paramount 1998 DVD also has open matte versions in fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 instead of the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1, but the 2.00:1 widescreen presentation is non-anamorphic. The THX LaserDisc is available in both fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 variants.
Director: John Ford
Sources: ibb.co (opens in a new tab)
Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: Michael B. Jordan
Caveat: No IMAX expanded aspect ratio
Director: James Gunn
Commentary is only on Streaming
Director: Anthony Mann
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Olive Blu-ray
Barebones Olive BD of a Paramount HD master. Visually it's solid overall with some moments of great clarity, primarily in the big outdoor and aviation sequences. Otherwise it shows its age.
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
review: Disk Kino
better encoding, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow
Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono
Director: Michael Mann
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