Law Abiding Citizen movie review from modmove

LAPDANCE LARRY

SEVENTIES SIMON

PHOTOGRAPHY

COMIC ART

INTERVIEWS

Sub-menu 1.2.1.1

FESTIVALS

EXHIBITIONS

Law Abiding Citizen
Following the brutal slaughter of his wife and daughter at the hands of a home invader and the subsequent slap on the wrist meted out to the perpetrator by the courts, Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) naturally does what any grieving father would do and becomes a psychopathic serial killer bent on the brutal murder of all involved in the injustice, including his own Lawyer, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx). And who can blame him? He's surrounded by the most useless and incompetent conglomeration of lawyers, judges and police the silver screen has ever seen. And just when we're thinking that some mild mannered engineer committing all manner of psychopathic atrocities is completely ridiculous, luckily Rice's boss 'pulls some strings' and uncovers a secret agent (let's call him ‘Agent McGuffin’, shall we?) who drops the clanger of all clangers in our laps explaining that Shelton's prior vocation was some sort of super secret techno assassin spy or something. Oh, well that explains it.

The tragedy of this film is that at its core is an interesting and worthwhile concept: that the judicial system is pro-criminal, that it delivers sentencing which is disproportionate to the crime and that lawyers are concerned more with winning cases than serving justice. We see examples of this in our own community almost on a daily basis so we have no problem empathising with this premise. But it's all so appallingly implemented.

The film has many flaws but its critical one is its lack of a 'good guy' with which we can identify. It's not Shelton, his retribution is so contemptible and such a disproportionate response that any empathy garnered for him at the beginning of the film swiftly evaporates as he transforms swiftly from victim to predator; we actually feel sorry for the guy who slays his family when we see what Shelton does to him. Which leaves Rice, the self-serving lawyer who is so incompetent that Shelton must point out to him the flaws in his own confession and who will ultimately defeat his nemesis by stooping to his level. (I don't think that's too big a spoiler in a film such as this.) The movie's peddling of its two, or three or four… wrongs-make-a-right philosophy serves only to deepen the contempt.

Also plagued by logical inconsistencies and a complete dearth of common sense, the ironically-titled Law Abiding Citizen has little to recommend it.
Stuart Jamieson
www.lawabidingcitizenfilm.com


also featured
NEW COMPETITIONS! The Grey Competition Thanks to Icon Film Distribution, we have ten double in-season tickets to give away to The Grey! Read more >> Shame How do you connect with the disconnected? Read more >> Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a characteristically British film. Read more >> The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The best thing about this American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that this is Fincher's version of Dragon Tattoo. Read more >> Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol After cutting his teeth on Pixar's The Incredibles, Brad Bird applies his ample talent and requisite enthusiasm for spy thrillers to live action in this, the latest installment in the foundering Mission: Impossible franchise. Read more >> Boxing Day Bash The annual Boxing Day movie feast presents Hollywood approaching the season’s end like it was a big fairy tale wedding with something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Read more >> Puss in Boots When a franchise runs out of steam there is always the spin-off. Read more >> Attack the Block The alien invasion genre has been hit particularly hard of late with the likes of Cloverfield, District 13, Battle: Los Angeles and Aliens vs Cowboys, each one more mediocre than the last and culminating in the downright awful Skyline. So kudos to director, Joe Cornish, for at least trying something a little different. Read more >> Immortals As eye candy, Immortals ticks all the right boxes. Read more >> In Time In Time is a competent action/thriller in the Hollywood mould but coming from director, Andrew Niccol, who also wrote and directed Gattaca and wrote The Truman Show, it is disappointingly light. Read more >> Moneyball First the conundrum, I love baseball movies but don’t especially like the game itself and would never even entertain the thought of actually watching an entire game. Read more >>


Stay up to date with modmove news
about modmove
What to know how we got started? Read more >>
read the modmove blog
Check out all the random stuff that didn't make it to the website! Read more >>
contact Us
If you have any queries or if you would like more information about modmove, we would love to hear from you! Read more >>
join our mailing list
subscribe to the mailing list and receive the modmove newsletter. Full Name Email Address Enter Word Verification in box below
search
search modmove for previous news and reviews.