A Solid Thrilller

Rating: 8/10 (22 February 2010)

All the internet chattering aside, LAW ABIDING CITIZEN is just what it sets out to be - a thriller that keeps the viewer involved in the mind games of a passionate man right up to the end (uh, well almost - except for the needlessly sugary revolting Hallmarky last few frames meant to clean up the mess the movie suggests...) Kurt Wimmer wrote this 'taking justice into our own hands' story with a good deal of imagination and gadgetry and F. Gary Gary keeps the momentum of the story going along at a breakneck pace. Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) opens his home door to face two thugs who beat and kill his wife and daughter and injure him substantially. Shelton seeks a good lawyer and finds himself in the hands of smarty guy Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) who sets the film in motion by accepting a plea bargain on behalf of the killers - one will be sent to prison with the death penalty and the other just gets a little time. Shelton is distraught at this abuse of the justice game. Jump forward 10 years and the one killer has a botched heinous execution while the other, now free, is is laughtered hideously - both by Shelton. There is a plan in Shelton's head to destroy everyone who allowed justice to misfire and the rest of the film is how the genius mind of Shelton (jailed after his slaughter of the killer) manages to wipe out everyone involved in the court system that instigated the terror.
Butler and Foxx make a good sparring pair and there are some excellent cameos by Colm Meany, Viola Davis, Bruce McGill et al. Yes, this is a violent film, and not for the squeamish, but it does make us look at the judicial system with different eyes. If only the director hadn't glopped on the sloppy goodie-two-shoes happy-wappy scene that ends the film and feels like a purging cathartic....
Grady Harp