Super entertaining revenge thriller, with a twist

Rating: 8/10 (28 March 2015)

I enjoyed this one a lot despite the ridiculous ending. Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler both do a decent job, Foxx plays it cool as the driven prosecutor/dad and Butler, well I was definitely rooting for the bad guy with his character... up to a point, then he just goes from anti-hero to psycho/serial killer, very violent and kinda scary actually as he is unstoppable. A clever plot in that respect.
"Release me by 6am." "Or what?" "I kill everyone" -Hard to have much compassion for "that" guy.
The story follows Butler as Clyde Shelton, a family man who takes justice into his own hands after his wife and daughter are brutally murdered in a home invasion and his hotshot prosecutor fails to deliver justice. When a plea bargain sets one of the killers free, he wages a deadly vigilante campaign targeting not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.
I liked figuring this one out. Initially not much makes sense and I was surprised by the 10 year time leap as we try to understand why Butler lets himself get arrested (naked) and how he is able to do what he's doing from behind bars. How is he his own accomplice? (this made a whole lot more sense once it was revealed that he had been a former spy/assassin).
Sure its all a bit absurd at times, more violent than I expected too but an original thriller that tries to make a social statement; the system is corrupt. 3/17/15