It’s the only movie where the guy in solitary confinement has a better social life and more gadgets than my grandson, and I still can’t figure out which one of these clowns I’m supposed to be rooting for.
If you’ve ever felt like the justice system is a total joke… usually right after getting a ticket for “rolling” through a stop sign when we all know the cop was just hiding in the bushes, then Law Abiding Citizen wants to be your new best friend. It’s a movie that takes the concept of “filing a complaint” and swaps the paperwork for C4 explosives and a very bad attitude. It stars Gerard Butler as a man who loses everything and decides that since the law won’t work, he’ll just break every bone in the city’s body instead.
Jamie Foxx plays the hotshot prosecutor who thinks he’s God’s gift to the courtroom because he wears fancy suits and talks in soundbites. He makes a deal with a killer, and Butler’s character spends the next ten years turning into a cross between MacGyver and the Terminator to show him why that was a stupid move. It’s a loud, angry, and incredibly violent flick that asks the question: “How many people can one guy blow up from inside a jail cell?” The answer, apparently, is “all of them.”
Review by Ben Dover
Let me tell you something about movies today. Everyone is obsessed with “process” and “rights.” Back in my day, the good guy caught the bad guy, gave him a wallop, and we went home happy. In Law Abiding Citizen, Gerard Butler plays Clyde Shelton, a guy who watches his family get murdered and then watches the legal system let one of the creeps off with a slap on the wrist. Now, I get being mad. I get wanting to yell at a judge. But Clyde decides to go full-blown supervillain. He gets himself thrown in the slammer and starts picking off everyone involved in the case like he’s playing a deadly game of Whac-A-Mole.
The problem with this movie, and with kids these days, is that it doesn’t know when to quit. Clyde is supposed to be the “hero” we’re rooting for, but he’s about as pleasant as a kidney stone. He’s smug, he’s got gadgets that make no sense, and he’s always three steps ahead of everyone else like he read the script before the other actors did. Jamie Foxx, playing Nick Rice, is just as annoying. He’s the kind of guy who probably spends more time picking out his silk ties than looking at evidence. I spent half the movie hoping they’d both lose.
The logic in this film has more holes than my favorite pair of gardening socks. Clyde is somehow able to orchestrate a city-wide massacre while sitting in a 6×8 cell eating steak. How? Oh, “tunnels.” Because apparently, the city planners in Philadelphia just leave giant holes under the prisons for disgruntled engineers to use. It’s ridiculous. It’s the kind of plot a teenager would come up with after drinking too many energy drinks and watching Saw for the first time.
That being said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t entertained for a bit. There’s a scene involving a cell phone that made me jump high enough to pull a muscle in my back. It’s satisfying to see the smug lawyers get what’s coming to them, even if the ending is a total cop-out. They spent two hours building up this “genius” only to have him defeated because he forgot how his own bombs work? Give me a break. It’s a decent way to waste an afternoon if you want to see things go “boom,” but don’t expect it to make a lick of sense.
Cast and Crew
- Gerard Butler (Clyde Shelton): The “Lawn Abiding” guy himself. He spends most of the movie looking like he smells something bad, which, considering he’s in a prison cell, he probably does. He’s intense, but I’m not sure I buy him as a master tinkerer.
- Jamie Foxx (Nick Rice): The prosecutor who cares more about his “conviction rate” than actually doing his job. Foxx plays him with a lot of swagger, but you kind of want to see him get taken down a notch.
- Colm Meaney (Detective Dunnigan): The grizzled cop. Every movie like this needs a guy who looks like he’s one week away from retirement and hates his life. Meaney nails it.
- Viola Davis (Mayor): She’s far too good an actress for this nonsense, but she brings some much-needed class to the chaos.
Special Effects and Music
The explosions are loud. Very loud. My cat hid under the sofa for three hours. The gore is a bit much for my taste, there’s a scene with a power tool that’ll make you want to close your eyes and pray for a commercial break. The music is that typical “dun-dun-dun” orchestral stuff that tries to convince you that what you’re watching is deep and meaningful when it’s really just a guy in a jumpsuit being a jerk.
Rating
2.5 out of 5 Stars
(It would be 3 stars, but the ending was dumber than a box of hair.)
Synopsis and Plot Breakdown
The story kicks off with Clyde Shelton’s home being invaded by two thugs. They kill his wife and daughter while he watches, helpless. The prosecutor, Nick Rice, cuts a deal with one of the killers to secure a conviction against the other because he’s obsessed with his winning streak. Clyde is, understandably, ticked off.
Ten years later, the killers start turning up dead in very creative, very messy ways. Clyde lets himself get caught and sent to prison, but the killings don’t stop. He starts targeting the judges, lawyers, and assistants involved in his case. He demands things like a “comfy bed” and a “porterhouse steak” in exchange for “confessions,” only to use the opportunities to kill more people.
Eventually, Nick realizes that Clyde has been digging tunnels from a nearby warehouse directly into the prison cells. Clyde plans to blow up City Hall with a suitcase bomb. Nick finds the bomb, sneaks it into Clyde’s cell, and traps him there. Clyde realizes he’s been outsmarted and goes up in flames with his own device. Nick goes home to watch his daughter’s cello recital, pretending he didn’t just illegally execute a man in a prison cell. The end.
5 Famous Quotes
- “I’m gonna pull the whole thing down. I’m gonna burn this whole corrupt temple down on your head. It’s gonna be biblical.”
- “I’m just getting started. I’m gonna kill everyone. I’m gonna kill ’em all.”
- “Lessons not learned in blood are soon forgotten.”
- “You’re the one who makes deals with murderers, Nick. I’m just the one who cleans up the mess.”
- “I’m gonna bring it all down. The whole system.”
- “Fuck You and Your Pomme Frites”
Interesting Facts
- The Big Switcheroo: Gerard Butler was originally supposed to play the role of the prosecutor, Nick Rice, while Jamie Foxx was going to play Clyde. But get this, Butler actually said in an interview later that he suggested the switch himself because he thought Clyde was the more interesting role. Then, once they started filming, he supposedly regretted it because Clyde had to be naked in a cell for half the movie while Foxx got to wear $3,000 suits. That’s what happens when you try to be clever, Gerard.
- The Steakhouse Connection: That fancy steak Clyde demands in prison? The director, F. Gary Gray, picked Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse in Philly because he ate there so much during filming. I hope the restaurant gave him a discount, because that’s some expensive product placement. Personally, I would’ve held out for a bucket of fried chicken and a nap
- A Real House of Horrors: They filmed the prison scenes at the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia. It’s been closed since 1995 and has a real-life history of medical experiments and riots. If the place felt creepy on screen, it’s because it’s probably haunted by people who were actually treated worse than Clyde Shelton. They actually used the real Holmesburg Prison, which is a creepy place even without Gerard Butler lurking in the shadows.
- The Ending That Could’ve Been: There were apparently dozens of versions of the script. One ending had the lawyer, Nick, actually going to prison himself after killing Clyde, proving he’d become just as bad as the guy he was hunting. Another version had a “tie-strangler” device kill Nick at the very end during his daughter’s recital. Now that would have been an ending! But no, they went with the “hero walks away into the sunset” baloney as rumors suggest Jamie Foxx insisted his character shouldn’t lose. Typical Hollywood ego.
- The Slayer Connection: If you’ve got ears like a bat, you might notice that the character Darby’s ringtone is the song “Bloodline” by the metal band Slayer. It’s a bit on the nose, don’t you think? Like we didn’t already know the guy was a walking disaster.
- Don’t try this at home: The “cell phone bomb” scene is one of the most paused moments in thriller history, mostly by people trying to see if that’s actually possible. (Don’t try it at home, kids).
Photos
Trailer
Notes:
Great movie with a horrible ending. The story mostly follows Clive the mastermind setting his plan in motion and Jamie Fox’s character constantly trying to prove its Clive committing the murders, and trying to stop him, but he is 20 steps behind Clive Every step of the way, and then in the last 10 minutes all of a sudden his character outsmarts Clive by tracking his assets. Also Clive had backup plans for almost everything he did, yet in the last part of his plan, which was arguably his most important task to do, somehow he only planted one bomb, and also never thought to put a fail safe on like the bomb detonating if its tampered with or at the very least planting more than one bomb. Silly it just felt like they had no balls at the end, fuck it, everyone dies is my ending the bomb kills everyone and fades to black.
The point is there is a great movie hiding inside here, but it just finds a way to remind you it doesn’t quite know what it wants to say or where it wants to go. In the end every character sucks.