TV: The Punisher: One Last Kill Gets All The Hurt Out (Spoiler Review) **/4

Months before Frank Castle makes his MCU movie debut, DISNEY and MARVEL decided to release in broad terms, a very action-packed and visceral 51-minute character recap that brings up to speed anyone not familiar with the previous self-titled Punisher Netflix series or his appearances in the Daredevil shows.

The television special introduces us to a Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) living in an apartment complex in Little Sicily, New York, dealing with the nightmares of his past from wars abroad and at home when the ramifications of some of those past actions come roaring back in the form of Ma Gnucci (Judith Light) to threaten his current world and make Frank face that his life still has a purpose.

Reinaldo Marcus Green directs this special coming off the heels of some biographical dramas like King Richard and Bob Marley: One Love, and a recent crime drama miniseries, We Own This City, which he worked on previously with Bernthal, seems like the perfect fit to encapsulate the violent anti-hero Punisher and his war on criminals.

FILM: Mortal Kombat II Delivers a Franchise Fatality! (Spoiler Review) - **.5/4

Five years after the first re-entry into the Mortal Kombat cinematic universe, NEW LINE CINEMA and WARNER BROS. bring us back to the world of tournament fighting for the fate of the planet in MORTAL KOMBAT II.

This sequel continues where the previous film left off, with our heroes: Liu Kang (Ludy Lin), Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Cole Young (Lewis Tan), and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) joining the storm god, Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) in his temple, dealing with the loss of one of their own, Kung Lao (Max Haung), and the need to find the next chosen champion for Earth, Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), just as the tournament is finally beginning. Meanwhile, Shang Tsung (Chin Han) and the antagonists of Outworld are back with some new and powerful fighters: the ferocious emperor Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) and the fearless princess Kitana (Adeline Rudolph).

Director Simon McQuoid returns for this second installment, keeping continuity for this fledgling cinematic franchise by building off the good and bad parts of the first film to create a refined vision relying more on aspects of the game and its more popular characters.