The Punisher (1989)
Credit: Live Entertainment
It's interesting to think that we've seen almost as many different Punishers on screen as we have Batmans (Batmen?).
In fact, Frank Castle was the second Marvel character to star in a cinematic release - following the depressing spectre of Howard the Duck. The 2004 and 2008 film versions of Punisher had some plus points, but a lot more minuses. And the first attempt to put him on screen was actually way back in 1989, starring none other than Dolph Lundgren.
Lundgren was coming off a career-making role in Rocky IV and is actually a really good Frank, but he's badly let down by the film around him. The $11 million budget was nothing for an action film - Dead Poet's Society, featuring all the action a class of schoolchildren can provide and released the same year, had a budget over $16 million. The inexperienced director Mark Goldblatt's only previous film was Dead Heat, a film about zombie police officers.
Aside from the name and murdered family backstory, the film has no link to the comics. The villains are run-of-the-mill mobsters, Yakuza and some hilariously stereotypical Mafiosi. There is no hint of the skull shirt either - although it does appear in the comic adaptation of the movie. But Lundgren is arguably the best Punisher to have hit the big screen, so the movie will go down as a missed opportunity.