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Overall Rating : 6/10
Directed By : F. Gary Gray
Jamie Foxx (Ray)
Gerard Butler (300)
Colm Meaney (Layer Cake)
Bruce McGill (Elizabethtown)
Supplied By : Anchor Bay Entertainment
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : February. 15, 2010
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| PLOT Clyde Shelton is an upstanding family man whose wife and daughter are brutally murdered during a home invasion. When the killers are caught, Nick Rice, a hotshot young Philadelphia prosecutor, is assigned to the case. Over his objections, Nick is forced by his boss to offer one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his accomplice. Fast forward ten years. The man who got away with murder is found dead and Clyde Shelton admits his guilt. Then he issues a warning to Nick: Either fix the flawed justice system, or key players in the trial will die. Soon Shelton follows through on his threats, orchestrating from his jail cell a string of spectacularly diabolical assassinations that can be neither predicted nor prevented. Only Nick can stop the killing and finds himself in a desperate race against time facing a deadly adversary who seems always to be one step ahead. | ||||
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| THE REVIEW In LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, Engineer and family-man Clyde Shelton, watches helplessly as two intruders, rape and kill his wife, before also killing his young daughter as well. Fast forward into the future, when the two offenders are all on trial. With the prosecution claiming that the evidence left on the scene is not good enough, District Attorney Nick Rice makes a deal with one of the suspects to implicate the other. The result, sets the man by the name of Darby free, while, partner Ames receives death by lethal injection. Feeling cheated by the justice system, Clyde takes matters into his own hand, first mucking up Ames' execution, and then hunting down Darby. These actions of course find Darby behind bars himself, but as Nick Rice would soon find out, Clyde's vengeance is for from over. He soon begins to make lavish demands and threats against Nick and his colleagues, and while some of the demands are met, others are not up to the liking of Shelton, who promises death one by one. When he makes good on the promise, it all becomes a mystery as to how he is capable of such an act, while being locked up. Does he have an accomplice perhaps? or does he have a few tricks up his sleeve that others are just not aware of? There is at least one point in our lives where each of us find ourselves wanting to get revenge because of one reason or another i'm sure, but imagine going through what the character of Clyde Shelton faces in the thriller, LAW ABIDING CITIZEN. LAW ABIDING CITIZEN presents to us, a good old fashion story of revenge, one that because of a shoddy justice system, I could very well see happening, although maybe not, in the extreme fashion displayed here. Wronged by the justice system whom set free one of the men whom killed his wife and daughter, a family man does what any father would do, he gets his revenge. But of course the actions then land him behind bars. At this point, the film's plot sets in motion a game of cat and mouse between Clyde Shelton and District Attorney Nick Rice. Feeling that Rice and his team owe him because they took the plea bargain deal, Clyde comes armed with luxurious demands, one's that if he does not have fulfilled will cause much damage, he promises. With failure, it's almost immediately that things begin to happen, and with some kind of seemingly unseen power, members of those responsible for the lopsided case start to fall. LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, in the short form is a film in which we see the seemingly good guy turn into a cold and calculated serial killer, but for good reason. LAW ABIDING CITIZEN is a smart thriller in a sense, and it's not a "whodunit?", as we already no that information, but the film gets us to beg another question, and that is, "how are they doing it?" Clyde, feeling wronged by the U.S. justice system, essentially has them by the strings, as he pits him into his well calculated mind games. When members of Rice's team begin to die in clever and well-planned ways, it's clear that Shelton is behind them, because he tell us - but the question is, how. If Clyde Shelton is already locked up, then who is aiding him in his deeds? For at least the first half of the film, the suspense and wonder remains intact, making this one a fairly entertaining journey of mystery. But like all good things, LAW ABIDING CITIZEN truly is far from perfect as the plot begins to crumble away during it's last acts. As it turns out, as much as we'd like to believe, Clyde is not a God with God-like abilities, but he is a man of high intellectual smarts and skills. This is all fine and good, but the ways in which some things in this film are explained leave things left to be desired, not to mention that some of it is silly and highly implausible. Honestly, towards the end, it seems as if the film loses some steam and that the truth is stretched just a little to make things work out. It's over the top, but the kind that you can chalk off as being foolish over the top entertainment. Jamie Foxx's DA Nick Rice. steers the movie along as a man of determination, whereas Butler is the opposite, as he is determined to derail Nick and his team. Both Foxx and Butler are well paired in there roles. In other supporting roles, we find Colm Meaney as Rice's partner, Leslie Bibb as the DA's assistant, and the often funny-woman, Regina King, in a subdued role in the role of wife to Foxx's character. All provide a small piece to the film, but in summary, it is Foxx and Butler who both are the film's driving forces. LAW ABIDING CITIZEN in the end is a semi-clever mystery thriller that begins by relying on story and character, but eventually it declines into a film of imaginative action and implausibility - but still, for whatever reason, you can't help but to watch. |
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| GORE
METER 3/10 I have a feeling that this unrated director's cut played a hand in providing most of the film's gore. Here we have blood splatter and things of such, but the most goriest thing has to be a dissected body, that is captured with absolute realism. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 In the soundtrack there is some classic rock tunes, but most of the score is done with light string orchestration. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM While I didn't particularly enjoy LAW ABIDING CITIZEN as much as I expected to, I still found it to be a pretty solid thriller for the most part. It's a story about revenge overall, but at it's core lies the importance of one's family. If you go into this one with an open mind, not expecting to be blown away by it's content, then you should find this one fairly entertaining, Special Features include Disc One: - Theatrical Cut of Law Abiding Citizen - Audio Commentary Featuring Producers Lucas Foster & Alan Siegel - Disc Two: - Unrated Director's Cut of Law Abiding Citizen(Blu-Ray Only) - The Justice of Law Abiding Citizen - Law In Black And White - Behind The Scenes - Preliminary Arguments - Visual Effects of Law Abiding Citizen - The Verdict - Winning Trailer Mash-Up - Theatrical Trailer This DVD will be released February 16, 2010 | ||||
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