pretty good film until the last 20 minutes, then it was pretty awful.

C

Writers wrote themselves into a corner and completely screwed themselves with the ending.

But everything up until then was FANTASTIC!

***/****

even jamie foxx's acting? because that was pretty brutal.

I enjoyed the whole movie, outside of the ending.

Law Abiding Citizen takes a look into one man's revenge after he feels he has been cheated and not given enough justice for the gruesome deaths of his wife and daughter. He now decides to take matter into his own hands. This man, Clyde Shelton (played by Gerard Butler) is very chilling and a strong mastermind whose methods and ways of carrying them out are very gruesome and chilling. He's now after the law and those whose caused all this damage including Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), Jonas Cantrell (Bruce McGill), and the whole team. While their acting is not superb, Butler and Foxx pull in good performances for the type of film it is. The ending is a bit out of place but in the end works out well with the story as a whole. It's another solid entry for the crime drama genre. **1/2

After reading some reviews, I had low expectations. Just saw it last night, very awesome thriller. The deaths were all pretty crazy, but in the end, I almost wanted Gerard to finish his plan... is that bad to say, ha? He was pretty much unstoppable, except for his dumb mistake in the end of not hiding his entry better. Kinda what a realistic Joker-type character would be like. Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler both had solid performances.

B+

Jim, when you said you didn't like the last 20 minutes, did you mean past the point they figured out his tunnel? That was my only complaint. Do they really not have any guards in solitary confinement??

Leonidas bad-assnes > Clyde Shelton bad-assness still.

B

I agree with most of the above. The film was pretty awesome until the last third but after a certain point it completely lost me and I would have loved to see Butler finish his plan. B-

Is everyone just jumping on a bandwagon here?
What part do we not get about the ending? It was good because obviously as much as I would've liked he couldn't have killed them.

A

This was pretty freakin' sweet. I don't see the problem with the ending either? Except that it would have been cool if the film were more ballsy and let Gerard Butler finish his plan, but the actual ending was still good.

Great until the last 20 minutes.

B

I enjoyed this movie, but at the end, while not a "bad" ending, I would have liked to see the whole justice department go down. I feel dirty for rooting for
Butler's character, but I still did. Butler's acting was better than Foxx's, IMHO.

B+

B


I enjoyed it as a nicely done action thriller. I loved Butler's traps and the way his plan has unfolded. It was all rather unpredictable, surprisingly brutal at times (thinking of the scene in which Butler kills his cellmate) and the movie has a great flow to it that many thrillers are missing nowadays. There's not a single dull moment and the viewer is always left wondering what will happen next.

Unfortunately, the characters and the film's ultimate resolution are the film's pitfalls. Whole Foxx and Butler do a solid acting job in their roles, they are both not likable. In fact, none of the film's characters, maybe except for Leslie Bibb's, are likable. This presents the problem as the viewer not only doesn't know who to root for, the villain Butler or the seemingly good guy Foxx...at some point the viewer also doesn't really care. It is fun to watch the action, but it doesn't matter whichever way it ends.

And then there's that ending...so he dug tunnels to all those solitary cells? And snuck in and out of his cell all the time. I don't think I even need to get into how illogical and ridiculous that whole idea is.

What also bothered me a little was that this apparently super-awesome spy was easily overpowered by two regular thugs at the film's beginning...

This movie was pretty dumb and pretty gross and pretty not good in any way. It just felt so superficial, going through the motions of a crime revenge story playing mostly on minimalist, stupid dialogue and not very interesting or tense "action" scenes. It wasn't awful, I wasn't bored or outraged at its stupidity, but it was totally worthless.

pretty

It's too bad they pussied out with the ending. This could've actually been something ballsy and interesting.

This is a weird one. At first it just plays as your average "[insert movie star] suffers [insert tragedy or setback] and goes into action" type deal, but there's a bit too much macho anger and torture-porn in its DNA for it to sit with ease alongside, say, Phillip Noyce's thrillers.

I felt a bit nauseous and confused at the end. Was Jamie Foxx's big, "I'm going to walk away in slow motion while you burn alive, Gerry" bit meant to be triumphant and badass? It played...I don't know. Made me feel odd. This might be a perverse compliment, I guess. The logistics of it were incredibly goofy, too, if I remember correctly. Foxx had the time and know-how to move a bomb and set it all up in the prison cell?

F. Gary Gray does know how to shoot a snazzy action sequence. I dug the bit with all the cars exploding.

It really, really couldn't have been, at all. At least not after the first 20 minutes have played.

I watched this last tonight. It's such a great film. Deserved a revisit. I saw it back when it came out and thought it was all right, good even, but I really think it's a top-class thriller now, and of the ilk they really just don't make anymore. Butler is very good, but it's just extremely well written by Wimmer (Salt, The Thomas Crown Affair remake) and directed by Gray (The Negotiator, The Italian Job remake). It's so nicely paced and builds that momentum perfectly, plus it's R-rated and not afraid to go to dark places.