Law Abiding Citizen

Our first review!

I just watched Law Abiding Citizen which stars Jamie Foxx, and Gerard Butler. It just came out today and the preview was interesting enough that I decided to go see it.

The movie starts off with Clyde Shelton and his family being senselessly attacked in their home. Within the first few minutes, the stage is set for the whole movie. They really waste no time.

Flash-forward ten years. Clyde Shelton has murdered the two criminals and is brought to jail. Somehow from within jail he is orchestrating very complicated attacks on everyone who was involved in the trial that let the murderer of his wife and child go free.

The movie has some pretty good twists and turns as we find out how Clyde Shelton is orchestrating all of these attacks from his jail cell. The only issue is that the resolution is actually pretty stupid, but I won't spoil it here.

This is definitely a movie that can't be taken too seriously. It would go well with pizza and beer. There are many scenes that had the audience laughing, but at the same time there were many gruesome scenes that showed us just how insane Clyde Shelton is. I also had trouble understanding why Jamie Foxx's character was running all over the place like a detective when he was playing a lawyer.

The ending is also a bit of a cop out in my opinion, but I won't spoil that either.

Overall, the plot feels like a combination of Saw and Falling Down. There are a lot of blood and guts for a movie of this genre. The main characters in both Law Abiding Citizen and Falling Down are pretty similar. Both have lost their wife and daughter in someway. Both feel like the country or the system has failed them in someway. Neither one really feels like the bad guy. The main difference would be that Clyde Shelton seems to be pushing the insanity a little further.

If you aren't into blood, guts, or revenge you needn't bother seeing Law Abiding Citizen. Otherwise, it makes for worthwhile violent trip to the theater.