Law Abiding Citizen

Law Abiding Citizen

Law Abiding Citizen is a deeply flawed movie that has some moments of brilliance. With another pass with the script, this revenge movie could have gone from so-so to downright awesome. The writing is by far the weakest part of this film and holds it back.

After the DA makes a deal with one of the murderers of his family, Gerard Butler’s character takes into his own hands to give out his own form of justice. That also includes the DA office.

Jamie Foxx is exceedingly convincing as a straight-laced district attorney. Make no mistake, Foxx is the star of this movie. He doesn’t always handle the goofy dialogue as well as he should. Gerard Butler, early on, has a sturdy performance as a heartbroken family man looking for justice. And, he keeps up his frantic energy for the second half of the film, but some of his dialogue is poor, very poor.

One of the biggest flaws I have with the movie is the way the writer telegraphs each murder a few minutes before they happen on screen. Throughout the entire movie, a character will have a profound moment where they second-guess their lives and the actions they took in the case. Then, “BLAM” they die in a horrible death. It defeats the purpose of the shocking deaths when the damn writers have to spell it out for you.

The other problem is that some things are physically impossible for them to happen in the story. Characters will show up in places when they don’t have the right amount of time to show up there to begin with. And, one assassination is completely impossible, and I couldn’t figure out how Gerard Butler’s character could do it either.

And, that’s the issue I have with the film. The movie wants to show us these brutal death scenes without giving us any background into how Butler’s character does it.

Overall, Law Abiding Citizen falls short because of its lazy writing, and not because of its amazing cast. If you can sit through the plot and logic issues, there are some things to enjoy here and there. It’s an okay movie.

Grade: C

Note: Colm Meaney has a fairly large role in the movie. It’s good to see Chief O'Brien again.

While watching the movie, I kept wondering if this was Maggie Grace (from Lost). It's not her. It is Leslie Bibb
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Gerard Butler realizes his is not in Sparta anymore…