Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

Director: F Gary Gray

Starring: Jamie Foxx & Gerard Butler

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: The System Must Pay

Plot: A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.

My Rating: 5/10

Would I watch it again? Aw, HELL, No!

SPOILERS!

This is exactly what is wrong with Hollywood. Take a potentially interesting, if by-the-numbers-it-writes-itself, story, build it up from the beginning to be something worthwhile and then about halfway through, jump the shark and take it to what-the-fuck-are-they-doing territory and finish with an ending that's as typical and unbelievable as they come.

What I liked? Butler. I'm not used to seeing him looking like a regular guy. I dig this cat. Having said that, I would have liked his character to have stayed cool and calm to the end instead of ratcheting up his performance in the last half hour or so. THAT would have been more interesting. I liked the premise and the execution until it starts to become unhinged and unrealistic halfway through.

What I didn't like? Foxx. I've yet to see him in anything outside of comedy that didn't have that one-note performance feel to it. He's got that angst thing going on that feels like he's trying too hard as an actor and can't quite convey what he really wants. It seems like he's internally struggling to tell the audience that there's supposed to be multiple levels of emotion or thought happening on screen. He feels forced.

What else? The telegraphed set-ups of who's going to die next and the dumb as hell, there's-no-fucking-way-that-could-happen ending. It's wrong on so many levels. And it's so much more than wanting Butler to win and Foxx to lose. That's just not going to happen in a Hollywood movie - not one with two big stars like this. No. It's that you just know 30 minutes in that it's going to end with Foxx getting the upper hand, saying something witty or spitting back something Butler said early on that makes it ironic now that the tables have turned, and having Foxx learned a valuable lesson at the expense of lots of his friends' lives but not the lives of his wife or daughter (whom he as become increasingly distant as a result of his over-dedication to his job). It wraps up all nice and tidy and incredibly dumb. I was insulted.

Now, if the ending had something to do with Foxx losing his wife and child AND Butler snuffing it without the macho ha-ha-the-joke's-on-you-mother-fucker banter, I could forgive the previous hour. Hell, if Butler had succeeded and Foxx had failed that would have been a damn sight more interesting than the path they chose. I just can't abide by these paint-by-number thrillers. At least they didn't throw in some stupid love interest. That would have really made me berzerker.