Revenge movies are awesome. "Man on Fire"? Check. "Gladiator"? You know it. "Kill Bill"? The definition of awesome. "Law Abiding Citizen" is a revenge film at its core, but it has a sort of twist: maybe this guy is taking it TOO far.
Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) seems to have a nice life and a nice family. Until the night to would-be thieves break into his home, murder his wife and daughter and leave him for dead. When one of the criminals (the actual murderer) is given a lighter sentence to testify against his partner, who is put on death row, Clyde is not happy. He might be even more upset at the criminal justice system, which he feels has failed him, and prosecutor Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), who seems more concerned with his conviction rate than actual justice. Nick just happens to have a wife and young daughter as well.
Fastforward 10 years. The criminal on death row has his number called and is set to die. He still denies he committed the murders, and once injected with the drugs, undergoes a horrible, painful-looking death. Talk of violation of his 4th amendment right is tossed around, and the cops immediately suspect his partner in crime, now released from prison, may have had something to do with it. They try to go find him, but he's already been apprehended by someone more vicious than the police: a law abiding citizen, who has some gruesome plans for him.
This begins a crusade against those who have wronged Clyde. The best part is that a lot of what he does is from prison. Pretty cool stuff, but there might come a point when he goes to far....but that's up to you to decide.
Overall, this was a pretty entertaining movie. The twist wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it didn't kill the movie. Some things did bother me, like the fact that Nick, a prosecutor, runs around like he's a cop when he has no business investigating the case in such a way. Whoever researched for this movie how the criminal justice system works did a pretty piss-poor job, but honestly, it doesn't take a whole lot away from it. This isn't an Oscar winner, people, but it will keep you entertained for two hours.
6 out of 10 stars.
Here's the trailer:
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