[Movie 288 / Day 307]
Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is an ordinary family man. One evening, he’s at home with his wife and daughter, tinkering with his latest invention, when there’s a knock at the door. He trots off down the hallway and opens the front door to be greeted by a baseball bat to the face. He’s knocked to the floor, beaten, tied up and stabbed and has to watch as the intruders kill his wife and child. The killers are caught but, partly in order to protect his high conviction rate, hotshot prosecutor Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) cuts a deal with one of the murderers, offering him a light sentence to ensuring his accomplice is sent to death row. Obviously, Clyde isn’t too happy, but there’s nothing he can do.
Ten years later, Clyde has made a lot of money from his inventions. He’s also, rather unbelievably, spent some time doing shady black ops stuff and honing his skills as a stone-cold killer. On the day his family’s murderer is due to be killed at the hands of the state, Clyde kicks off his plan of retribution by replacing the lethal injection chemicals with something a bit more painful. He then goes and grabs the one that got away and gives him the good news using various metal-working tools.
When the police come knocking on his door, Clyde is calmly waiting for them to take him away. Soon, Nick is questioning him and Clyde makes a deal with him in exchange for information. Eventually, Clyde’s full intent becomes clear – Nick must either fix the flawed justice system that let a killer get away with murder, or Clyde will start killing everybody connected with the case.
A cat-and-mouse thriller, LAW ABIDING CITIZEN is really enjoyable, right up until the ludicrous ending. The direction – by F. Gary Gray (FRIDAY, THE ITALIAN JOB) – is taut and the action flows smoothly towards the inevitable as Clyde directs his killing spree from within prison and Nick attempts to piece together the puzzle. Yes, some of the plot twists are blindingly obvious. No, it’s not completely believable that a seemingly well grounded man like Clive would go so completely off the rails, becoming ultra violent in the process. But sometimes it makes a nice change to just grab a bag of popcorn, sit down, switch your head off and enjoy a solid action thriller. Sometimes, you don’t want to have to follow a heavy or involving plot – LAW ABIDING CITIZEN provides an instant hit to the fun gland. Except for that ending, which really jars – if your main antagonist is supposed to be a genius sociopath, please don’t let his demise be through a stupid mistake. The kind of mistake that he just would not make, as hammered into us throughout the rest of the film.
Having said all that, it still well worth a watch. Just don’t expect an award-winning movie.
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN is released on 27th November.
My Rating: 
[ IMDB rating: 7.4 / 10 | IMDB link | Running time: 109 mins ]
Cromby3
November 5th, 2009
The film sounds good in a ‘leave your brain at the door’ sort of way.
But why is it always the husband/father that goes on a vengeful killing spree when his wife and/or child have been cruelly slain?
Isn’t it about time that an aggrieved wife/mother painstakingly plots a gruesome revenge?
I think so.
philiboy
November 6th, 2009
This sounds right up my alley – I’m a lover of implausible endings, especially if preceeded by lots of action and chase scenes, interspersed with a little revenge. Count me in.
silverbird
November 6th, 2009
Sounds like it’s worth a watch and so many films at the moment seem to have ludicrous endings that it won’t matter too much!
Thanks for the review!