Before I get started here, I want to give a quick rundown of what I’m going to try to accomplish with this column. First, not all of my reviews will be “new” movies. If I watch a movie that I’ve seen a thousand times and feel like writing about it, I will. Secondly, if I’m reviewing a movie that’s already on DVD, I’m not reviewing the DVD, I’m reviewing the movie. I couldn’t (usually) give a shit less what the special features are like. If you want to know more about them, I’ll gladly spend the time to check them out for a specific movie, but that’s not what this is about. And finally, I’m not going to base my final “score” if you will on any number, i.e. 4/5 or 7.3/10 or eleven stars. The only thing I’m going to write is a recommendation of passing, renting or buying, or if the movie is still in theaters, if it’s worth your money to go out and watch it.

Now with that out of the way, my first review is going to be on a movie that just hit store shelves this past Tuesday.

Law Abiding Citizen

Useful Facts:
- Directed by F. Gary Gray, who is known for his direction of Friday.
- Written by Kurt Wimmer, who’s only other movie worth a shit is Street Kings.
- Stars Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. If for some reason you don’t know who these two actors are, you’re reading the wrong column.

Summary

Gerard Butler’s character (Clyde Shelton), who happens to be some electronics engineer that has ties to the government, watches his wife and daughter get murdered by two men. Jamie Foxx plays the Assistant DA that makes a deal to execute one of them with the others testimony, which sets the actual killer free in three years. Shelton seeks revenge not only on the killer, but also on the entire Boston Justice Department, all while sitting in solitary confinement in a “maximum security” prison.

My Thoughts

I’ll admit, I came into this movie expecting a lot. Gerard Butler is one of my favorite actors today, and while I don’t really care for Jamie Foxx much, some of his movies are quite good.

The plot itself makes for a pretty decent story. But the execution of it is terrible. Just a few minutes into the film it just all of a sudden skips 10 years into the future, with no real explanation of what happened during that time. We see glimpses of some of the bigger details much later on, but by this point you’re just waiting for the movie to be over.

My favorite parts of this movie, which are basically the only parts I actually enjoyed, was seeing what way Shelton was going to kill the next person. I liked that he was seemingly always one step ahead of everyone, and you really never know what to expect. Some of the things he does is a tad far fetched to be really believable sometimes, but for the most part it gets the job done.

I guess I can say that my biggest gripe about this movie is how much it tries to be so many things it’s not. The best way I can think of to describe it is a thriller/drama with some gore porn thrown in. There are parts of it that are not for the easily squeamished. From a rape scene (which is actually pretty tame) to watching a guy get his leg cut off with a circular saw (this part completely ruined my buzz). They just seemed completely unnecessary and irrelevant to the overall plot. I mean, yes rape happens when baddies break into a family home and kill everyone, but the way it was executed just seemed like it was mostly an afterthought.

One thing that I want to touch on just a bit is the acting. Butler plays a surprisingly good psychopath. He makes you believe that he is actually doing all the shit portrayed in the film, which I haven’t felt in quite a long time. Like I said earlier, some of the things he does is completely off-the-wall far fetched that it could never, ever happen, but I guess that’s what movies do.

Jamie Foxx.. he’s Jamie Foxx. Not much else to talk about here. He plays the roll of Asst. DA (and later on DA) pretty well, but some of his lines feel really forced and very unnatural. Not horrible by any means, but definitely could have been better.

In closing I’ll say that overall this isn’t a bad movie, but it’s certainly not good either. It’s very cliched and it suffers from “All the good parts are in the trailer” syndrome. It jumps around from scene to scene with little or no transition and there are more plot holes than.. well a movie with a lot of plot holes. And to top it all of, it’s following a trend of pretty much every movie released in the last 10 years.. the ending sucks.

I’m really tempted to tell you all to pass on this, but there are enough good qualities here to make it worth a watch. Unless you’re a very very hardcore fan of the genre or one of the actors, this is only worth a rent, and only then if the movie you’re looking for isn’t available.

Well that was fun, no? Feel free to leave your comments here or on the forums. Tell me what I can do to improve (I am pretty new at this) and leave any suggestions for movies that you want me to talk about.

Until next time.