Law Abiding Citizen: Review By Querido

Law Abiding Citizen is a demagogic film which completely downplays jurisdiction. Judiciary is seen as something useless, which attracts us all too low. This is the kind of movie in which we have to believe that the Mayor of Pennsylvania speaks with words like: "you boys sure f*cked this up!" Right wing propaganda can be quite enjoyable (like the numerous Bronson vehicles) but all of those have a comical overtone. This piece of sh*t takes itself way, way too serious.

The design of the movie is actually quite simple: Gerard Butler plays a lovely father who, one day, witnesses his wife and daughter getting raped and killed by two "bumpkins from hell". Of course, the verdict is inadequate, but please have no worries: Butler knows what to do next! He devises a plan which takes TEN YEARS to complete and he then subjects the murderer to the most gruesome kinds of torture. The worst thing about it is that the act is respected by the characters (who all work for the police or the D.A.)

Surprisingly (in a negative way), the film degenerates into some kind of race-against-clock-thriller, because eventually it turns out that Butler's character is actually a special agent (implausible) who has devised a plan to take revenge against judiciary (particularly against his lawyer, portrayed by Jamie Foxx). However, at this point he is already in jail, but he still manages to commit murders. From that point on, the movie is nothing more then a stupid gimmick: the only question throughout is: what will Butler's character do next? We get all sorts of high-tech absurdity, the worst being a cellphone which blows a female judge's head off. The implausibility just keeps going and going, and I am surprised that I managed to stick until the end of the movie.

Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler, both having no charisma or talent at all, have been type-casted once again as quasi-tough-guys. Both of them are unable to even have a little intimidating expression.