For reasons unknown, Hollywood can't seem to get a film adaptation of the Marvel Comics superhero The Punisher right. Punisher: War Zone is their third attempt at creating a viable franchise out of the comic series, and you know what they say about third time's a charm? That doesn't apply with War Zone. While it was sort of different than the 1989 Dolph Lundgren Punisher and the 2004 Thomas Jane Punisher, the 2008 Ray Stevenson Punisher didn't really do anything for me in terms of substance, but did manage to produce quite an entertaining ride.

Ex-military man turned vigilante Frank Castle (Stevenson) is The Punisher, a man whose purpose in life is to hunt down criminals, particularly members of the mob, and blow them away. But when Castle accidentally kills an undercover FBI agent with a family (leaving Julie Benz a single parent), he rethinks his way of life and decides to quit -- only after he kills one last mob guy, the hideously deformed Jigsaw and his crazy brother Loony Bin Jim. Cue up the cheesy dialogue, the over-the-top acting, and enough gratuitous action violence to make any fan of the 1980s proud.

On one level, War Zone is an awful movie. The dialogue, at times, is horrendous, the storyline is convoluted, and most scenes feel thrown together. I'd place most of the blame on the script, as there was a lot going on ... but nothing substantial enough to keep you interested or to make you care. However, the script isn't the only problem. What I found even more distracting and just plain weird was the contrast of tones, as if director Lexi Alexander couldn't decided whether this was supposed to be a serious action movie or a silly slap-stick comic book movie, or whether War Zone was set in a fantasy comic book world or the real world. Just imagine if you mixed Batman & Robin with The Dark Knight. That's the look and feel of War Zone and the results are quite disastrous.

But as horrible as this movie is, I have to admit it entertained the hell out of me, as the level of action and violence is top-notch, akin to the glory days of action violence from the 1980s. The action is so ridiculous, and Castle is so ruthless in his ways of taking out the bad guys, that this is a fine example of what a hardcore action movie should be: lots of violence, little substance. It doesn't hold back on the red sauce, and some of the kills are not only brutally graphic but downright ... funny. When Castle takes off a guy's face with a shotgun at point blank range, I can almost guarantee you'll laugh out loud, either by surprise or by the absurdity of it all.

The special features on the DVD are your standard of the making-of variety, looking at the military training Stevenson took to be The Punisher, the variety of guns featured in the film, the makeup effects behind Jigsaw, and how they created the film's color palette (each shot is made up of three colors and three colors only, like the comic). The commentary by director Alexander and cinematographer Steve Gainer was quite entertaining, mostly because they both talk about what an amazing movie War Zone is, and how it's the best comic book adaption of The Punisher ever. They both love this movie, and since they created it, I suppose they should.

The War Zone DVD is a classic example of how the special features can improve your view of the movie. After going through the special features, it became quite clear as to what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish with War Zone: action and violence. That's it. The focus was on making the action sequences awesome, throwing enough action in the movie so there was never a dull moment, and making the film exactly like the comics in terms of lighting, tone, and over-the-topness. The film lacked story and dialog because they didn't really give a crap about that stuff -- they cared about how many guns Castle used in a particular shootout, and whether he handled himself like a true gun-toting professional or not. So it wasn't supposed to have decent dialogue or characters to care about? It was all about the violence? OK, cool. Then they definitely succeeded.

One small side note: I watched the two-disc special edition, thinking there would be two discs of features to check out. But that wasn't the case. The two-disc special edition is basically the single disc edition with one minor difference: the second disc is a digital copy of the film so you can save it to your PC/Mac. For some, that might be awesome, but for others ... don't waste your cash on the two-disc version when the only extra feature is the digital copy. In a way, I felt duped into thinking this was actually a two-disc edition, like the old days of DVD when 2 discs meant there was an entire disc full of special features to check out. Why not just say DVD Plus Digital Copy? But I digress.

Punisher: War Zone was both fun and stupid, ridiculous and over-the-top, and horrible yet totally awesome. In theaters, it probably would have been painful to watch, but on DVD and in the comfort of your own home, it actually comes off as quite entertaining. It's still a bad movie, but it's an entertaining bad movie, with just the right amount of '80s action violence to miss the days when Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris were tearing up the big screen. I wouldn't recommend going out and buying the DVD (especially not the two-disc special edition), but if you're at all curious (and you dug the previous two Punisher movies) you should definitely rent War Zone for an evening of mindless entertainment. If you go in knowing that it's gonna be bad, you might actually enjoy it.

Ammon Gilbert covers horror and action films weekly for Film.com.

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