Directed by:
F. Gary GrayScreenplay:
Kurt WimmerCinematography:
Jonathan SelaComposer:
Brian TylerCast:
Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Viola Davis, Leslie Bibb, Regina Hall, Bruce McGill, Colm Meaney, Michael Irby, Gregory Itzin, Josh Stewart, Richard Portnow (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is an upstanding family man whose wife and daughter are brutally murdered during a home invasion. When the killers are caught, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), a hotshot Philadelphia prosecutor, is assigned to the case. Nick offers one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his accomplice. Fast forward ten years. The man who got away with murder is found dead and Clyde Shelton coolly admits his guilt. Then he issues a warning to Nick: Either fix the flawed justice system that failed his family, or key players in the trial will die. Soon Shelton follows through on his threats, orchestrating from his jail cell a string of spectacularly diabolical assassinations that can be neither predicted nor prevented. Philadelphia is gripped with fear as Shelton’s high-profile targets are slain one after another and the authorities are powerless to halt his reign of terror. Only Nick can stop the killing, and to do so he must outwit this brilliant sociopath in a harrowing contest of wills in which even the smallest misstep means death. With his own family now in Shelton’s crosshairs, Nick finds himself in a desperate race against time facing a deadly adversary who seems always to be one step ahead. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (12)
Yes, once again I will go against the current...:-) Law Abiding Citizen may have routine direction, an unremarkable antagonist, and an unsympathetic hero, whose value system and careerism could make weaker characters feel disgusted, but all of that is still enough for a decent three stars. But then we have the screenplay, which is unrealistic, megalomaniacal, not addressing many crucial moments, but above all, silly in its overall construction. The difference between a quality thriller and Law Abiding Citizen is the same as the difference between Zinnemann's The Day of the Jackal and its 1997 American remake. Put some high-tech gadgets in there, a few shocking twists, and an appropriate dose of brutality, and the result will surely come. In practice, the viewer is faced with situations where a terrorist places a bomb that he can detonate with a mobile phone, and instead of actually detonating it and delighting in the destruction of his victims, he walks home, so that his opponent manages to deliver the bag with the explosive, which, for a change, he knows can be detonated at any time or randomly explode, to the terrorist's bedroom and maliciously enjoyed watching the terrorist carry out his own sentence... Overall impression: 25%.
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An above average and thoughtful film led by the talented Gerard Butler. I was glowing and gobbling it up the entire time. I was a bit more disappointed with the ending. It's happened a few times before that a brilliant film has been brought down by a pointlessly simple ending. This is a prime example. Otherwise, Butler is great again! He handles every genre with aplomb. 4.5 stars.
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Grrr disappointing. The film has a terribly fast pace, by the second minute Butler has a baseball bat in his face and some initial getting-to-know-you takes place via a knife in his stomach, after all why not, but then you find the film deals this half-heartedness and brevity terribly often. You can't begin to empathize with Butler that fast based on one scene where he and his daughter exchange two sentences and his wife calls something to him, because in the next one they take them out "there's just another woman and child in the film". Thus your attention is drawn to just wondering what a pissed off Butler is going to do and how he's going to do it, and thus a film that imho relies on making the viewer feel outrage at a poorly set up legal system becomes a cold viewing experience not unlike, say, installments of the Saw series ("I wonder how he's going to take this one down"), which doesn't work out much either because Butler is full of crap like "...this gonna be biblical." and "...then everybody will die" and then the excited viewer is disappointed when he doesn't do that much. It's a shame to talk about the logic of some of the scenes and the completely out of nowhere ending. All in all, a star for the scene with the phone, a star for the steak bone scene, and a star for Butler.
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Imagine a drunk fan watching a football match and forgetting who he is cheering for. At least that’s how Gray's film seemed to me. It tries to look very serious, but as a result ends up with proven truths and clichés. A well-creased punk who drinks coca-cola while dreaming of absolute anarchy. But if I think away from the really poor imitation of playing with the motif of system corruption, then this is quite a suitable thriller. Neither Butler nor Fox give us anything more than we are used to seeing, Gray is gracefully satisfactory, and Law Abiding Citizen rides more on a wave of positive impressions. If only the film sometimes didn't pretend to be a smarty-pants and didn't act like a glued monkey...
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Wimmer's screenplay isn't particularly great, but it’s central idea is really good. Moreover, the excellent Gerard Butler immediately got not only to me, but also to my sister, and we were on his side throughout the whole movie. Personally I understood why he was doing it. Hell, I'd do the same thing. Unfortunately, the closer we get to the conclusion, the more the creators make him a negative character so that they could slip into an established template. Not that this suddenly makes the whole movie bad, it just takes a certain aura away from Butler. Something is stolen from the film that could have made it an unforgettable spectacle. It's not what you know, Clyde. It's what you can prove in court.
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