A Foxx and a Butler make a surprise hit

Law Abiding Citizen - F. Gary Gray

To be surprised in Cinema anymore is rare, to find a story you haven’t seen before or to find characters who you’ve never sided with before, it’s something you treasure, which truly separates a film from being good to being amazing. Finding a film that does that, that’s where the difficultly comes in. Not based on how many millions of people saw it like Avatar or how many awards it got, like The Hurt Locker or how many stars magazines and newspapers gave it, for example Empire giving 5 stars to District 9. To find a film, that no one knows about, that not much information has been released about, but you know, it will never be forgotten as an amazing film by you. Now I’ve only ever had that feeling a couple of times in my life, finding a film so excellent that i tell my friends about it, we watch it together and it keeps spreading, but recently, it’s hard to find a film that good, that hasn’t been noticed yet. And Law Abiding Citizen is a film that had the attention, but got given terrible reviews, when in fact; i think it’s a decent film worth seeing. It’s the total opposite of what i was talking about earlier, where too much publicity could ultimately harm your film, especially with the leads being Jamie Foxx and Gerald Butler.

The film follows a lawyer who gets entangled with a widow’s revenge where his wife and child were killed and the two responsible are not given the right amount of justice. Butler sets about a string of killings with everyone involved in the case, leading to him being arrested and locked up, but still people die. The gradual build up of the plot is delightful and you fully realise by the end of it how fucking evil Butler really is. I won’t ruin the ending, but it’s a good plot twist. Foxx plays it well, trying to figure out Butler’s next move. It mixes Shawshank Redemption with recent films revolved around exaggerate killings and tests. The film is layered with questions about revenge and picking which side you would agree with, Butler, standing up for his dead family and making sure he gets his justice he deserves or Foxx, who follows the law system and only does what he is allowed to do. It’s a great question to ask, one that doesn’t have an easy answer to.

So overall, a decent film, a really decent film, something that will surprise you. It has a good pace, good action sequences and the acting isn’t as off putting as you first may believe. So go check it out, it may be a surprise hit for many. I don’t understand the bad reviews, but i guess its different strokes, different folks.

7/10

Simon Childs