‘Dirty Laundry': The Awesome Punisher Fan-Film By Thomas Jane [Video]

Despite the movie's considerable flaws, I really, really enjoyed Thomas Jane in his role as Frank Castle in the 2004 Punisher movie. In fact, I'd be lying if I said it was anything other than his laconic voice-overs in the accompanying video game that motivated me to read every single Punisher comic I could get my hands on and led me to becoming such a big fan of the character.

Now, Jane has returned to the Punisher with Dirty Laundry, a 10-minute fan-film that also features Hellboy star Ron Perlman. Check it out after the jump, but keep in mind that it is Profoundly Not Safe For Work, unless your work is cool with videos where dudes get murdered with gigantic sprays of blood and shout cusses at each other.

Jane's motives behind Dirty Laundry are as simple as any other fan-film, although admittedly, most other fan-film producers can't call up the star of Blade II for an appearance. He's a self-avowed fan of the Punisher, who reportedly turned down the starring role in the 2008 sequel because he didn't think the script was good enough to do justice to the character of Frank Castle. Clearly, Lexi Alexander's version (with also-quite-good star Ray Stevenson) should've had more scenes where someone got in a fist-fight with Kevin Nash.

With that in mind, it's interesting that he'd decide to go with this set-up for his unofficial sequel. What really struck me about it is that unlike his comic book counterpart, who will launch himself into space to execute a criminal (see: Mike Baron, Hugh Haynes and Jimmy Palmiotti's Punisher: G-Force graphic novel), Jane's Castle is initially reluctant to get involved in his vigilante murders. Well, for about seven minutes, anyway.

Of course, in the context of Jane's history with the character, that makes a little more sense. The version of the character that he played was primarily concerned with revenge against John Travolta for the death of Roy Scheider (and who hasn't been there?), rather than a larger war on crime. This movie, then, represents a bridge between the Punisher of that movie and the one we know from the comics. It's interesting.

Also, it's a pretty strong recommendation for Jack Daniel's Old-Fashioned Tennesee Whiskey. Those bottles can take a beating!