The Punisher (2004)

Based on a Marvel comic, a version was made as recently as 1989 starring the uncharismatic Dolph Lundgren, so I wonder whose idea it was to remake it with the equally unstarry Thomas Jane.  He plays a FBI-man who wants to retire, but on his last "sting" the son of Mr. Big Gangster, played by John Travolta, was killed; Travolta and his wife decide that the only suitable revenge is to kill Jane and his whole family -- not just wife and child, but parents, nieces, nephews, and just about anyone else at the family reunion.  Well of course in the first half hour they manage to kill everyone except Jane, and we then have a ninety-minute bloodbath to follow.  As mindless violence goes there wasn't too much to differentiate the movie from similar ones, but it was watchable enough; I did like one bit where "The Russian" was sent to deal with Jane (he was probably twice his size) and managed to duff him up good and proper before he too was vanquished.  The biggest worry is that the last scene sets this up a franchise to spawn innumerable sequels; one can but hope for the best and that good sense will prevail.