5 Responses to “Law Abiding Citizen”

• By H. Schneider on Mar 14, 2010

  Remember Death Wish? Charles Bronson as vigilante, killing baddies on a revenge trip after some guys killed his family? Did you like that? You will get an encore here. Did you think it was reactionary garbage? Just wait till you see this one!

  Charles Bronson is now called Gerald Butler. Starting position the same. Who would begrudge the man the revenge against the sadist rapist and killer and his side kick? Entirely legitimate emotions, especially after the prosecution makes a deal with the more evil guy and lets him get off with 5 years, plus death for the more harmless guy. Doesn’t this legal system stink? Ja, well. Who would deny that. And this is where the film derails.

  10 years after the murder of his wife and child, Charles Gerald Bronson Butler resurfaces and goes several levels higher in his revenge needs than good old Bronson in the 70s ever dared to think.
  
  Killing is not enough, we need extreme sadism and we need superman phantasies of the worst kind. Butler’s character develops traits of super evil cartoon baddies. The movie moves into terror propaganda feelings. We know that the man is evil, but we are made to sympathize with him. The defenders of the system are weaklings that we can’t like. After all it is their fault that the world is not a better place.
  
  I would not hesitate to call this film propaganda for terrorism!

  P.S. there is a new and altogether more charming addition to the genre in the new English film ‘Harry Brown’ with Michael Caine as a new version of the Charles Bronson character (in a combination with Clint Eastwood’s pensioner in Gran Torino). The film could carry the subtitle “The Pensioner Vigilante’. Harry is also not remotely a comedian, but he stays rather human compared with Butler’s monster. Oh, and if you in the US thought you have some social problems with some of your settlements and gangs, I recommend to watch Harry Brown to make you happy you don’t live in England.
  Rating: 1 / 5
• By FilmMaker1 on Mar 14, 2010

  I really liked the movie and was looking forward to purchasing the Special Edition/Unrated DVD just to find out that the only unrated version is on BLU RAY!!?? Are you Kidding?!! I am a film maker and I PAY for special edition DVD’s to support those involved in making the movies. If the format I use (because I am tired of being bullied into the newest technology & dvd’s last until I die) is no longer selling UNRATED/SPECIAL EDITIONS, then I might as well DL them for Free or find a friend who has it and rip his! Yes, This is the ONLY negative review I have ever given and am very upset. It is the studio’s loss then! If anyone finds an UNRATED/Special Edition DVD, then please let me know as I will most likely be in the market for one. I’m off to search torrents!

  Laters
  Rating: 1 / 5
• By Lemas Mitchell on Mar 14, 2010

  Short Attention Span Summary (WARNING! PLOT SPOILERS):

  1. The movie opens with a Nice Father enjoying his wife and child. There is a knock at the door, and The Father is knocked down and subdued by Two Bad Men. His wife is raped in front of him and his daughter is killed.

  2. Jaime Foxx is the lawyer that makes a deal with the men who killed The Father’s family. Apparently, there are some Unspecified Technical Reasons that DNA evidence can’t be used against the two killers, and one of them gets a slap on the wrist and the other gets a death sentence.

  3. 10 years later, the person who was to be executed is executed– but for some reason the execution is very painful. (We later find out that someone has tampered with the execution medicines.)

  4. The man who got off with a lighter sentence is then set up to flee his house when police are coming to arrest him for some reason. He has a guardian angel that tells him where to go– but it turns out to be a setup.

  5. Re-enter The Father, except that now he is The Assassin. So, he drugs the man (paralyzes) and takes him to a warehouse where he saws him into about 24 pieces, and castrates him afterward (making for 25 pieces, total).

  6. The Assassin deliberately get himself arrested. From prison, he manages to kill quite a few people, including: The judge who gave the lenient sentences to one of the Bad Men, The DA who negotiated the deal. (It is at this point that we find out that he is a Highly Trained Assassin.) Eventually, the city is locked down.

  7. The ultimate plan was to blow up city hall, but the Assistant DA finds out and moves the bomb back into his cell. The bomb blows up and kills the Highly Trained Assassin.

  All in all:

  This was an excellent film. To me, it would be worth seeing at a film (non-matinee price) or even buying off the New Release shelf. There was an excellent plot here, and that plot was enough to keep you interested but not slip into unbelievability. There was also lots of action, but that supplemented the plot (as opposed to films that are full of action in order to try to mask a weak plot). The film raised “thought questions” about the Justice System that also make for good discussion later on. There was also some very good, subtle casting. When the main character was The Father, he was believable in that role. But with a change of makeup and clothes, he also worked very well in the role of Highly Trained Assassin.
  Rating: 5 / 5
• By Michael B. Reichling on Mar 14, 2010

  Had the DVD in my shopping cart and then noticed that the Director’s Cut will ONLY be available in Blu-Ray!!! Have removed the DVD from my cart. If this is someone’s bright idea of forcing people to convert to Blu-Ray, well it ain’t gonna work with me.
  Rating: 1 / 5
• By RMurray847 on Mar 14, 2010

  I’m sure we’ve all experienced many movies where we said to ourselves, “Well, I’ll just turn my brain off, sit back and enjoy the thrills (or chills, or silliness).” Heck, a great thing about a lot of movies is being ABLE to do that and just have a childlike good time. There are many mentally undemanding movies that delight: THE HANGOVER is the most recent example that springs immediately to my mind. It stretches credibility, yet is generally so well cast and constructed, and so genial in its carrying on that only a real Scrooge wouldn’t crack a smile. I would also say that CRANK 2, a truly jaw-droppingly unrealistic movie actually works in its quite twisted way because it clearly knows that it has gone way to far in terms of physical believability or even good taste. (SHOOT `EM UP is an even better example.) These kinds of films are sometimes guilty pleasures…but they often are the movies that come down from the video shelf over and over again. I’ve watched SUPERBAD a few more times than CITIZEN KANE. Is it a better movie? Hardly! Is it more entertaining? Yep! And it has heart, too.

  Then there is LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, a movie that wants to be serious, intelligent, “adult” action thriller with a moral message. In reality, it is a piece of trash that needed to embrace its real self. Thus, it mostly fails as either kind of movie.

  The film opens with us meeting handsome but homespun Gerard Butler as he shares tender moments with his young daughter and lovely wife. He is an inventor or engineer of some sort, but mostly seems to be a nice guy that you’d expect is nice to his neighbors, goes to church, wears sweaters and is devoted to his family. A GOOD guy. Yet in mere moments, he suffers a home invasion that leaves him without a family. His family is killed before his eyes in a manner that is so uncomfortable to watch that we frankly never quite shake the squalor. I realize there’s nothing “entertaining” about a family being killed, but direct F. Gary Gray goes a bit too far. He doesn’t just generate righteous outrage in us, but an uncomfortable feeling of “this movie has gone too far for a piece of fluff.”

  The bad guys are caught, and prosecutor Jamie Foxx steps in. A driven man with an eye on his next promotion (has there ever been a movie ADA that isn’t ambitious and driven to replace his boss?), Foxx eventually plea bargains with the bad guys, much to the unbelieving anger of Butler (understandably).

  Years pass, and one of the bad guys gets out of jail. He is almost immediately kidnapped, tortured and killed by Butler (again, in a manner that borders on films more like SAW and HOSTEL). And Butler is almost immediately caught an imprisoned. But now he’s not such a teddy bear. He’s a ruthless killer of his own, who apparently has figured out a way to carry out a rather complex revenge scheme, even while in prison. Foxx must figure out what’s going on before Butler has killed his entire team, because he blames the system as much as he blames the killers.

  The film contains lots of scenes of verbal cat-and-mouse between Butler and Foxx, and the two do bring a lot of charisma to their scenes together. But the script isn’t particularly intelligent (although the way the film is directed…and filmed, with lots of gray tones), clearly the creators thought it was smart and taut.

  But the killings become more and more elaborate and rococo. Butler resembles little more than a more handsome and healthy SAW killer…able to spin elaborate murders that are also neat little moral lessons.

  We’re clearly meant to agonize over what Butler is doing. The system certainly wronged him…coupling that wrong with what he endured, along with a brilliant engineer’s mind, and you apparently have the recipe for a diabolical (but righteous) serial killer. Foxx mostly glowers and looks angry, and other than a few bursts in his encounters with Butler, his performance is one-note and not very interesting. NOTHING of his natural charm comes through…he’s created a workaholic tighta** who is also a humorless party-pooper. So it’s actually easier to root for Butler than for him (although Butler’s performance is one-note as well…he at least has some manic, if unspecific, energy).

  But while 85% of the movie is a fairly uninspired thriller with a few explosions and some gruesome killings…we ARE left to wonder: how is Butler doing all this from jail? Does he have help from the outside? And then, wonder of wonders, the truth is revealed and the movie goes from being just barely okay to jaw-droppingly laughable. It’s a “surprise” twist that should win awards of audacity (and also for implausibility). I had to laugh outloud, then I stopped to assure myself the movie was REALLY doing what I thought it was, and when I ascertained that it indeed WAS…I laughed some more.

  How anyone made the final few scenes with a straight face is beyond me. Had the movie been made with a tone that was more “nudge-nudge” than deadly serious, it might have come across as just another crazy twist in a wacky revenge fantasia. Instead, it was the final nail in the coffin of self-seriousness that this film should be buried in.

  I can find very little to reason for you to endure this film. I’ve done it for you, and you should thank me for the warning!!
  Rating: 1 / 5

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