Actors make good movies and they make bad movies. With any luck, the good outweigh the bad and their careers continue. Gerard Butler return to form after the terrible GAMER, this time as an ordinary citizen with exceptional abilities in LAW ABIDING CITIZEN.
Butler stars as Clyde Shelton, a man living in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and daughter whose home is broken into. Attacked and wounded, he is forced to watch as two men kill his family and leave him for dead. But he survives and does what he can to see these two men brought to justice.
But justice can be blind. Not enough evidence ties the two men to the crime and one turns against the other in a plea bargain. Assistant DA Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) has a stellar conviction record and wants this one to keep that intact, propelling his career forward. He makes the deal that results in the death penalty for one and a short term for the other, much to the disappointment of Shelton who wants both to suffer.
Ten years pass and as the first killer is about to die by lethal injection things go wrong. Rather than the humane system put in place, different chemicals are injected causing him to suffer as he dies while Rice, witness to the execution, watches.
The second killer finds his release from prison not what he expected. Captured by Shelton and taken to a remote hiding place, he is systematically dismembered while alive by Shelton who has left clues to these proceedings for the police to find. Arrested, he is taken to jail and soon to be put on trial. But Shelton has other plans.
Requesting an audience with Rice, he sets up his own plea deal. Let him go free and no one will be hurt. But as long as he stays in prison, those he holds responsible for letting a guilty man go free will pay the price and justice, in his mind, will be served. Seeing as how he is behind bars, Rice finds his threat hard to take seriously. Until people involved in the original case begin to be murdered.
And here is where the true twist in the film begins. How is Shelton orchestrating the murders from a prison cell where he has no contact with the outside world? Who can his accomplice be in carrying out his vendetta against a legal system that short changed him when it came to justice in the deaths of his wife and daughter?
The cat and mouse game between Shelton and Rice makes for fascinating viewing as pieces of the puzzle are dropped in place while the body count rises. People are taken out by numerous means while Rice survives, held in place to be the last victim. And when a meeting with a member of the clandestine sector (think CIA) lets Rice know that Shelton was the go to guy when it came to methods of killing people, Rice races against time to find out the answers before he and his family are killed.
Like all good mysteries, the clues are placed for all to see but its how you interpret them and solve them as a viewer that makes this movie a delight. By the end of the film, you realize you were given these clues throughout, given the chance to solve the puzzle on your own. If you got them right.
Foxx does his usual great job as the beleaguered DA who wants to find justice for all but has gotten caught up in a system that is imperfect where criminals go free or do less time to result in convictions. Butler does a great job as a man determined to expose the system for what it is and find his own justice along the way.
The movie takes a hard look at the justice system as we witness the battle between these two characters. And both are sympathetic in their own way. Foxx because he was forced to accept less in order to hold his record and Butler, who may be killing people, but as a man forced to watch his family killed before his own eyes only to see the killer walk away. A portion of you wants to root for his side but at the same time you realize his version of justice is a tad turned upside down.
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