Written by: PBF
Law Abiding Citizen is cool. I did not expect to enjoy it that much, but I rather did. It’s not necessarily the type of movie I would seek out. Someone suggested that I watch, and so I did.
I will first post this: *****SPOILER ALERT***** I do this because this movie has a certain progression and some events that would be a surprise to you might be ruined by this review. I don’t know that for sure, so I post that alert just in case. Read on if you like, but if you do and get pissed, it is now your own fault.
Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is the victim of a home invasion in which he watches his wife and daughter die. The men are arrested and are prosecuted by ADA Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), who has a 96% conviction rate. Not convinced that he would win by prosecuting based on evidence and Shelton’s testimony, Rice arranges for one of the men to testify against the other, in exchange for a 10 year sentence, while they seek the death penalty for the other. Shelton is quite bothered by this as he wants both of them punished fairly (as he sees it), but as you may have suspected, Rice wants to protect his conviction rate. So that is how things pan out. The man that gets the death penalty is not actually the one that committed the murders. That one got the 10 years. He eventually gets out, and thus begins Shelton’s reign of terror on everyone involved with the case, starting with his family’s murderer. I should also mention that Rice, also happens to have a wife and daughter.
Let me first say, that Gerard Butler was pretty good. I guess I was expecting some flashy action flick, and therefore sub-par acting, but I was wrong. This is more of a suspense thriller, and Butler did a great job. Everyone else in the cast, Foxx included, were fine, but nothing really outstanding. I would even argue that I did not really connect with anyone in the film other than Butler. I also found myself a little bothered by the pace of the film as I thought it was kind of choppy. I don’t think I completely bought the ending of the film either. But I overall thought this movie was good. I thought the idea was clever, and I liked the notion of us kind of rooting for a good guy that turned bad, and then getting pissed at him. The ride that we are taken on is fun (albeit morbidly) and keeps you interested the whole time, wondering what may happen next. And even if you think you may know what will happen, there’s no guarantee that you will know how it happens. I will say that this is not a movie to watch for it’s aesthetic value. It is pure entertainment, but well done in that regard.
This film probably could have been done better, but it is solid enough to just sit down and enjoy with a lot of movie snacks and a couple of people.
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