Great Acting but a Ludicrous Script

Rating: 4/10 (20 January 2012)

I'm voting this down, but I still pretty much enjoyed it. Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, and everyone else in this movie do superbly well with an engaging action thriller. I was engrossed enough in the first 20 minutes to want to see the whole thing through.
This movie is about revenge, society's concepts of justice and punishment, and the follies of unexamined ambition. It develops these themes from the start and with a good pace throughout the film. The two main leads and their supporting characters are pretty thoroughly believable and deserve much praise for their work.
And the second phase of the film is almost entirely unbelievable. As the action escalates, we are treated to plot action that defies even common sense to hammer home the pervading themes. For specific examples, I'm sure the message boards on this site can elaborate very competently. I was thinking "oh c'mon...really?" with every scene. It was that horrible.
My hope is that whichever producers hacked this up will not be given such latitude in film again. But sadly, schlock sells.
If it weren't for the wonderful strength of the performances, and certain nice detail touches during the first phase of the movie, I'd be rating this as a complete failure. Instead, it's a movie with lots of potential and heart that went way way off the rails into stupid Hollywood nonsense.