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LAW ABIDING CITIZEN |
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I racehorse owner once told me that when a thoroughbred owner wants to see what his horse has, he enters him in a race with
proven veterans to see how he does. It's not import if he wins, it's a tune up. The boys in Hollywood are doing the same with Gerard Butler. He did well in "300" and sells well in rom-coms such
as "The Ugly Truth" and "PS...I Love You". He was mediocre in "Beowolf", "RockNRolla" and recently "Gamer". So they want to see how he does with highly skilled actors. Will he choke?
Will he excel? Or will he Tom Cruise and not screw up the film? They probably should have picked a better film than "Law Abiding Citizen" and a more flexible co-star than Jamie Foxx. |
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When watching the trailers I guessed that I would see some dynamic tension between a good guy turned bad and a questionable good guy.
I pondered films like "In the Line of Fire", "Cliffhanger", "Speed" etc. I'm still waiting for believable tension. Butler plays Clyde Shelton, an everyday guy whose the victim of a house break. He is conked on the head, tied up and stabbed while his wife is raped and killed. Then
just before he blacks out the main killer grabs his young daughter. She is whacked as well. The killers Rupert Ames (Josh Stewart) and Clarence Darby (Christian Stolte) are caught and indicted. However, the Assistant
District Attorney Nick Rice (Foxx) makes a deal to let Darby testify against Ames for a lesser charge of 3rd Degree murder. Shelton doesn't agree because he knows it was Darby who did the murdering while Ames looked on
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However, the deal has already been made and that is that. After ten years, Ames is finally executed, but instead of a nice calm death, he has an excruciatingly painful death. Murder! Ooooooo. Soon Darby is found in bits and pieces along with a video of his execution. Shelton is the number one suspect since the dissection happened on his
property. |
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Then begins a journey of various other people from the DA's office getting killed even while Shelton is in prison. How does he
do it? His big threat is that he is going to kill everyone involved in the justice which will end up pretty much everyone in the city government.
It is up to Roce to stop him. Yada, yada, yada... the end. Aside from the improbable manner leading up to the executions, we get to see no real hatred in Butler's eyes. He doesn't pull of the evil,
crazy guy well. Moreover there is no believable tension between Foxx and Butler. They come off as two actors going through a script and getting paid. I was expecting something like the
repartee between Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in "Virtuosity". But there was none. For action and interesting executions "Law Abiding Citizen" is a notch about "Saw". For acting and great expectations... uh... well. --GEOFFREY BURTON
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