• Title: The Punisher bespoke edition 
• Format: 3 x Blu-ray
• Country: UK / Region ABC
• Certificate: 18
• Contents: The Punisher (1989), The Punisher (2004), and Punisher: War Zone.
• Features running time:  5hrs 13mins approx + bonus material 

In recent weeks, I’ve published blog posts about two ‘bespoke’ Marvel Blu-ray sets which I have put together. Those sets were Daredevil and the Fantastic Four.

For those who missed the posts, I essentially hunted down some second-hand Blu-rays of the ‘00s DDand FF movies, along with some extended cuts on DVD, put them together in new multi-disc cases, and created my own boxsets for these titles.

Today, I’m showcasing my next project: A three-disc boxset of The Punisher movies. This set includes the two Punisher films from the ‘00s, The Punisher and Punisher: War Zone, as well as the oft-forgotten 1989 version of The Punisher.

As a quick reminder, to date there have been three live-action Punisher movies. The first is a low-budget affair released at the tail-end of the ‘80s, while the next two debuted in fairly quick succession during the 2000s, when Marvel was experiencing a period of box-office success thanks to films such as Blade (1998), X-Men (2000), and Spider-Man (2002).

The first film – titled The Punisher – stars Dolph Lundgren as Frank Castle/Punisher, and is essentially a generic action movie. Despite its name, the film is largely a Punisher movie in name alone, but if ‘80s action is what you’re after it ticks many of the right boxes.

The next film from 2004 (which is also titled The Punisher), stars Thomas Jane in the lead role of Frank Castle, alongside a cast which includes John Travolta, Roy Scheider, and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. This film is more comic book accurate than its predecessor and is arguably the strongest of the three Punisher pictures.

Meanwhile, the third film is Punisher: War Zone, a fairly bonkers and brutal actioner starring the late Ray Stevenson. The movie was critically panned upon release, but does have a cult following today.

Now, it’s fair to say none of the Punisher movies are particularly amazing, but each has its own charm. My personal favourite is the Lundgren picture, but I have a bit of nostalgia for the other two, as I generally like the 00s/pre-MCU era of Marvel movies.

So, similar to what I did with the ‘00s Fantastic Four films and Daredevil, I wanted to collect together this trio of Punisher movies in one space-saving set. The idea was to create my own bespoke boxset, to sit comfortably alongside my other Marvel films, without taking up too much space on my shelf.

Why go to the effort of piecing together my own set? Because there is currently no commercially available boxset of the three Punisher films and due to licensing and ownership etc, there probably never will be.

I began by sourcing all three movies. As none are currently in print I headed down the pre-owned route and managed to find all three Blu-rays at CEX. 

However, unlike the FF or Daredevil movies which are common and therefore tend to be quite cheap when bought second hand (only costing a couple of pounds etc), The Punisher films are a little more expensive. To buy pre-owned copies, Punisher: War Zone was £5, the 2004 version of The Punisher was £6, and Punisher ‘89 was a whopping £10!

Punisher ‘89 costing £10 bumped up the overall cost of making this bespoke boxset to more than I would like, but I simply couldn’t source the Blu-ray any cheaper. In fact, it was more expensive on eBay, and I’ve never seen a copy in any charity shops or discount stores.

Either way, once I had all three movies in my possession, I headed back onto eBay and purchased a new, three-disc case to house all of the films. I then removed all of the discs from their former homes (i.e. the dusty, used, tatty cases from CEX) and popped them into the fresh new one.

In terms of the cover art, I took the cover from the 1989 Dolph Lundgren movie and used this as the main cover for my new set. I then placed the Punisher: War Zone cover art on the reverse, so it would be visible from inside the box. 

In total, to put this set together (including the cost of the new, three-disc Blu-ray case) I spent around £25 – which is a considerable jump from the £15 I spent on the Daredevil set and the £8 I spent on putting together the Fantastic Four set. However, I knew (and accepted) this set would cost more, largely because of the Lundgren film, so there was no way around it.

Anyway, for those interested in what is included in my Punisher boxset, here is a list of all the content and special features:

The Punisher ‘89

• 1 x copy of The Punisher in HD 

The Punisher ‘04

• 1 x copy of The Punisher in HD
• Director’s commentary 
• Photo gallery
• Deleted scenes 
• Music video – Step Up by Drowning Pool 

Punisher: War Zone

• 1 x copy of Punisher: War Zone in HD 
• Director and cinematographer commentary
• Training for the Punisher
• The making of Punisher: War Zone
• Creating the look of the Punisher
• Meet Jigsaw
• Weapons of the Punisher

Total cost: £25

—

Thank you for taking the time to read this post on HOME VIDEO HAVEN. For more posts, please check out the recommended reads below.