Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

Law Abiding Citizen
2009
Thriller
Gerard Butler, Jaime Foxx

I like things where people take the law into their own hands, like The Punisher or the Death Wish movies. So it is no real surprise that I was very excited to see Law Abiding Citizen. In it Gerard Butler's character's family is killed and even though the guys who did it are caught, Jaimee Foxx and the rest of the District Attorney Office gives a plea deal to one of the guys (he is out in 3 years). This pisses Butler off so much he decides to not only go after the criminals responsible but instead turn his rage towards the entire justice system itself for making deals with murderers. Even after he is caught and locked in prison the killings somehow continue to occure and escalate. It is revealed that Butler used to work for the military and is really a tactical genius. Soon the question is not only who he might kill next, but how exactly he is doing it. I also liked that he turned from a vigilante killing "bad" people to a total murderous psychopath killing only to serve his own purpose, it made the audience root for him in the beginning then have to re-analyze how they felt about what he was doing later in the movie.The two big names in this are Gerard Butler and Jaime Foxx, and without them I don't think it would have been as good. This movie's topic isn't Oscar material, but they still turn in top level performances. Their characters are at odds the whole time, but you can tell they respect in some way where the other is coming from. But when you have to strong characters like that going head to head one of them eventually has to flinch.

The first 2/3 of the movie are pretty sweet. It is great to watch the battle of wits between the two main characters. You constantly have to adjust who you are "rooting" for. When the killings take place they happen in such unexpected ways and places you are never really sure when they might go down. The escalated attacks build a great cycle of tension and release. The action scense last anywhere from 1 second to several minutes but each one is shot well and gets your heart beating a little faster.

The movie takes a downturn in the last third, but keeps being entertaining on certain levels. The last third of the movie is discussed below, but it contains plot spoilers for those who have seen the movie already...

*Spoilers*
I don't normally like to give away plot spoilers on here, but I feel the need to discuss the movie and the ending (and since its been out awhile), I will talk about some things that might spoil the plot below.


How Butler's character continues to carry out murders while being in solitary confinement is interesting until you actually find out how he is doing it, by sneaking out of prison for each attack. Because it is really one of the dumbest things I have seen in a movie in recent years. It is just so stupid and idiotic. If a genius was somehow carrying out attacks from inside prison I feel like they would probably monitor him 24/7, or at the very least look at him every few hours, but apparently the warden of the prison felt like helping out the plot of the movie by making an opening for this stupid twist. During the movie they wonder if he has an accomplice on the outside helping him, I don't know if that would have been the best possible idea, but I think an accomplice would have made things better, and more importantly believable. Not to mention he is the most famous man in the city, the whole city is on lockdown because of him, yet nobody notices him when he walks into city hall.

Other people had a problem with the end, but I didn't. He didn't even seem to mind dying, he knew it was going to happen eventually, he wanted people like him to be dealt with harshly. All he wanted to do was make people in the justice system think about some of the things they do when prosecuting criminals, and he accomplished that. His goal was never to kill a bunch of people then get away, because he could have done that.

*End of Spoilers*


I definately recommend checking out Law Abiding Citizen. It is a fun ride with two good performances by the leads. There is a pretty stupid twist towards the end, but it doesn't ruin the enjoyment I had with the rest of the movie. More than a the vigilante movie I was expecting it is more a character study of two men who have more in common than they think, and it looks to see how far those characters will go to stand up for the principles they hold dear.

3 out of 5 Stars
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