INSTANT NETPICKS: 'Law Abiding Citizen' simple, violent fun
Movies earn the title of “little-known” in a variety of ways. 2009’s “Law Abiding Citizen” got there through a perfect storm of apathy.
It had lead actors that historically do not have the star power to draw big numbers. Co-leads Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx have been struggling to find a smash role since “300” in 2006 and “Ray” in 2003, respectively.
Even worse, it was released in the cinematic wasteland of October.
Although not some hidden gem that was buried and never given its dues, “Law Abiding Citizen” is a well-paced, entertaining 100-minute diversion.
Directed by F. Gary Gray (“Friday,” “The Italian Job”) off a script by Kurt Wimmer (“Equilibrium”), this is a revenge film where the victim is not just a criminal, but the entire justice system.
Butler stars as Clyde, a mysterious man who, in the first fifteen minutes of the movie, sees his wife and daughter raped and murdered, and the primary perpetrator getting off light after turning on his partner and striking a plea deal.
Clyde then decides the whole system is broken, as declared in many just-barely-in-an-American-accent diatribes by the Scottish Butler, and his character development ends here.
Clyde then goes on a rampage of destruction, killing the criminals that wronged him, as well as the lawyers and officials that helped them avoid justice. His ingenious methods of murder boggle the police and thrill the audience, as he manages to continue his killing spree after even being locked up in prison.
Jamie Foxx plays an ambitious lawyer in the District Attorney’s office who is trying to put a stop to Clyde’s crime spree, after having been Clyde’s attorney during the trial of his family’s murderers.
Foxx plays stoic and confident well, but when he is supposed to be shocked and terrified, as in most of the action scenes, he looks like somebody told him a horrible secret about his mother and a farm animal.
It is very obvious from the beginning this movie is basically a revenge procedural. Clyde’s family is dead within two minutes, and the rest of the movie focuses either on cops and the DA office trying to stop Clyde, or blowing up after falling into Clyde’s traps.
With the aim of the film clear, the pacing is rather tight, providing ebbs and tides in the action in just the right places.
The script sputters more than it shines, though.
All the ranting about the “broken” justice system is heavy-handed and overdone, and the revelation of how Clyde is killing people from jail is something a competent investigator would have figured out within 10 minutes of screentime from when he is first imprisoned.
However, people watching a film like “Law Abiding Citizen” are probably getting just what they expected; a visceral thriller that plays out like “Saw” meets “Death Wish.”
Basically a well-casted exploitation film, it is fun if inconsequential.
Foxx and Gray will be teaming back up, joined by Bruce Willis, for 2013 game-based crime flick “Kane & Lynch,” and if it is more of this “Direct-to-video on the big screen”-style fun, it could be worth a watch.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
