Law Abiding Citizen

Law Abiding Citizen 2009
Director: F. Gary Gray
Writer: Kurt Wimmer
Starring Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Colm Meaney, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Gregory Itzin and Regina Hall

Gerard Butler is on a roll lately with some solid action roles, films like Gamer, which I have heard nothing but good things about, and his latest Law Abiding Citizen. This seemed like a excellent idea for a movie and the final product is a great thriller, that is tense and suspenseful and at times as bloody as any recent horror film. In a nutshell the film is like Saw meets Batman. If Batman was retired and married and his family was killed and it drives him over the edge and takes his meticulously planned revenge on everyone involved with screwing up the righteous justice he feels he is due and he plans to collect. The setup in the film is set up quickly and it ratches up quickly and does not lessen till the end credits roll.
The plot basics are this, A tinkerer, Clyde Shelton (Butler) has a happy life with his wife and daughter when his house is besieged by a couple of thieves and his wife is brutally raped and murdered and his daughter is killed as well. The perpetrators are caught, but the one that actually did the killing pleas out and a up and coming District Attorney, Nick Rice (Foxx) takes the deal and this does not sit well for Clyde. We flash forward 10 years later, and the criminal that got the death penalty is executed but it goes horribly awry. The Nick believes it is the one who pleaded out and hunt him down but he has help via a phone call and escapes. But the one who helps him is Clyde and he then tortures and dismembers him, while he is fully aware. Soon, Clyde is picked up, but it seems he wants to be caught. And soon, everyone involved with screwing up the case of his family's murderers is picked off one by one and they cannot seem to figure it out. Soon Clyde has the entire city in a grip of terror as he is much more than he appears to be and this begs the question to Nick can he change and be a just man or is he doomed to die for his moral failings?
This was a dynamic thriller. Gray's direction is taut and suspenseful. He uses the setting of Philadelphia very well. The action scenes are set up nicely with lots of explosions peppered throughout the film. The script by Wimmer is great, it really makes the view question the moral ambiguity of the law and how justice sometimes is not just. The characters are all well rounded too, you really empathize with Clyde and actually want him to succeed. The cast is great, Butler commands your attention with every moment he is on screen. Foxx does a good job too and I usually do not like him, but he portrays the man with a moral quandary very well here. I really liked Bibb as Foxx's co worker too, her best role yet. Finally, it is always good to see Meaney and it seems he is playing a continuation of his character from Con Air and he plays it with relish. The SFX in the film are phenomenal, the kills are very bloody and seem more in line with a horror film than a thriller, but it works well. It is really a combination of a vigilante film and the type of horror films like the Saw films. There are a few moments in the film that are real WTF moments and I really appreciated them. The film also keeps you guessing till the ending. If I had one complaint, I would say that the ending is a bit anticlimactic. I was hoping for more of a bang, but it is still a great film.
This one gets 5 out of 5