An unforgettable action thriller where the villain is the one to root for!

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2019)

This is one of those rare action thrillers where you cheer more for the villain than the hero. Law Abiding Citizen is an unforgettable, hard-hitting tale of injustice, corruption and retribution with a solid execution that makes it impactful with every viewing.
Gerard Butler's character can be considered a villain due to his violent acts, but then you can't call Jamie Foxx's character a hero either. Our "villain" has gone through something so terrible that you want his enemies dead and whenever he does something like that, you enjoy that. You don't want the "hero" to win.
How many movies have you felt that before in?
Performance wise, Foxx is decent but it's Butler's outstanding performance that made me think this is somewhere a true story. I could see in his eyes the pain caused to his character by the corrupt system.
The film's full of intelligent twists and white knuckle action sequences. There's plenty of blood, guns and explosions to keep any action fan engaged. The film jumps to the conflict right at the beginning and this is one of the best things about it.
It also happens to be a genius balance between plot and characters, i.e, it's both character and plot driven at the same time which is a rarity in many movies. It's one of the finest and most underrated action thrillers made till date. I'd suggest you to check out the director's cut which is far more violent and has some extra footage.
Law Abiding Citizen gets the viewer emotionally invested for the most part, although the ending is bound to generate mixed opinions.