Law Abiding Citizen

Grrr disappointing. The film has a terribly fast pace, by the second minute Butler has a baseball bat in his face and some initial getting-to-know-you takes place via a knife in his stomach, after all why not, but then you find the film deals this half-heartedness and brevity terribly often. You can't begin to empathize with Butler that fast based on one scene where he and his daughter exchange two sentences and his wife calls something to him, because in the next one they take them out "there's just another woman and child in the film". Thus your attention is drawn to just wondering what a pissed off Butler is going to do and how he's going to do it, and thus a film that imho relies on making the viewer feel outrage at a poorly set up legal system becomes a cold viewing experience not unlike, say, installments of the Saw series ("I wonder how he's going to take this one down"), which doesn't work out much either because Butler is full of crap like "...this gonna be biblical." and "...then everybody will die" and then the excited viewer is disappointed when he doesn't do that much. It's a shame to talk about the logic of some of the scenes and the completely out of nowhere ending. All in all, a star for the scene with the phone, a star for the steak bone scene, and a star for Butler. (20/11/2009)

Wimmer's screenplay isn't particularly great, but it’s central idea is really good. Moreover, the excellent Gerard Butler immediately got not only to me, but also to my sister, and we were on his side throughout the whole movie. Personally I understood why he was doing it. Hell, I'd do the same thing. Unfortunately, the closer we get to the conclusion, the more the creators make him a negative character so that they could slip into an established template. Not that this suddenly makes the whole movie bad, it just takes a certain aura away from Butler. Something is stolen from the film that could have made it an unforgettable spectacle. It's not what you know, Clyde. It's what you can prove in court. (16/01/2010)

The fusion of classic "revenge movies" with modern hi-tech toys promised all sorts of things, only to fall short of the promise itself. This is due to Gray’s routinization, which doesn't exceed the scope of the trailer in terms of action. Additionally, Wimmer's thought castration tries to combine themes of revenge (on whom and why?), the indictment of the judicial system, and family drama so clumsily and desperately that I now suspect the editor of sabotage, resulting in half an hour of footage disappearing into the void. The film has no gradation, no logical progression, and no tension to speak of. There are just a couple of crashing cars, a gloomy Butler (a good thing), a slimy Foxx (the last good thing), and the status of the year's greatest missed opportunity. (09/12/2009)

I hereby notify all upstanding citizens that Foxx is about as endearing here as any regular politician and Butler didn’t even attempt to endow his character with the charisma needed to command due respect. And if that weren’t enough, while writing this weak broth made from the first part of Saw, they looked up the term “shocking twist" but mixed up the definition with that for “load of hogwash". (23/01/2010)

Law Abiding Citizen had great potential and at the beginning I thought that it would exploit it brilliantly. Unfortunately, however, it soon turns out that it’s nothing but a decent thriller that tries to look smart (and manages it to a certain extent). The screenwriter gave up all attempts to explain certain things, choosing a deux ex machina principle instead. And the claim, that a smart film doesn’t need to explain everything to a smart viewer because they should be well able to figure things out themselves, doesn’t apply. Solid fun, but better not speculate too much about it. (05/12/2009)