Law Abiding Citizen

Law Abiding Citizen (2009) has a fabulous cast which is lead by the fantastic Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx. The film follows a mans personal vendetta and the love he has for his family vs the judicial system in America, its flaws and a lawyers life changing journey.
After the murder of Clyde Sheltons (Butler) family and the way his lawyer, Nick Rice (Foxx) chose to deal with the murder case in course, Clyde chooses to take matters into his own hands and show the court the ripple effect of their actions can affect a man and how hypocrisy is rife in Americas judicial system. 

The film has its comedic moments, but it does pull on your heart strings for the majority of the film. Even though, technically, Clyde is the antagonist and Nick is the protoganist, the roles are shown in a such a way that they actually are reversed. Weird, I know.
Clyde begins making strange requests in prison and making deals with lawyers in order to show them the error of their ways. Things soon take a turn for the worse and the judicial system soon realises that they have no control over a man seeking justice for his loss and vengeance for the courts letting him down and not fulfilling their constitutional role.

If you watch the film with an open mind, you will realise that the film is much deeper then it first seems (which is pretty deep anyway). The ending (SPOILER ALERT) first appears to be absolutely shite ending. That was my first thought, not going to lie. You have this massive build up, then it just falls flat on its face. But when you sit and think about it, you realise how clever it actually is. Clyde is repeatedly said in the film to be a genius and that whatever he shows to Nick is what he chooses for them to see. So when he gets blown up by his own bomb as Nick plants it under his cell bed, you think "oh shit, maybe hes not so clever". But he had already shown Nick the error of his ways and changed him, so his job had been done. Maybe he wanted to be reunited with his family now.

All in all, Law Abiding Citizen is a satisfying (and at time funny) revenge film that unfortunately pretty much looses its way in the last 20 minutes. Having said that, I am happy that I have this film on DVD as I would definitely watch it again.

I rate this film as a 9/10. Action to keep you on your toes, comedy to break up the tears, and who can resist Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx?! ;D 

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