Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

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An everyday guy decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets his family's killers free. His target: The district attorney who orchestrated the deal. (imdb)

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Directed By: F. Gary Gray

Written By: Kurt Wimmer

Starring: Bruce McGill, Colm Meaney, Jamie Foxx, Viola Davis, Gerard Butler, Regina Hall, Leslie Bibb, Michael Kelly, Gregory Itzin, Annie Corley, Michael Irby, Christian Stolte

Genres: Drama, Suspense/Thriller, Crime

Country: USA

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Law Abiding Citizen belongs to 22 collections

1. Vigilante / Revenge (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 13 stars)

2. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 12 stars)

3. Top 3000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 5 stars)

4. Prison (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 4 stars)

5. Top 1000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 3 stars)

6. Capital Punishment (collaborative: moderated by mpowell - 2 stars)

7. Snuff (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 2 stars)

8. MovieMeter.nl Top 250 (collaborative: moderated by Jorg - 2 stars)

9. The Flop House Podcast (collaborative: moderated by mucow - 2 stars)

10. Top 2000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 2 stars)

11. Philadelphia (collaborative: moderated by djross - 1 star)

12. Eligible for Academy Award Best Picture 2009 (collaborative: moderated by Ross - 1 star)

13. film puanlamalarım (collaborative - 1 star)

14. African-American director (collaborative: moderated by djross - 1 star)

15. Reza Archive (public: reza899 - 1 star)

16. Masoud Archive (public: Masoud569 - 1 star)

17. Simon Says Psycho (public: Ag0stoMesmer - 1 star)

18. Cello / Cellist (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer)

19. My movie collection (public: ravenheart)

20. Watched in 2011 (public: dgeiser13)

21. 2009: Year in Review (public: polanski28)

22. My ratings (public: tpbradbury)

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TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
7	Pickpocket	7 _68th
My score would've been higher had the ending not been so terrible. It didn't even make sense and it was a huge cop out. Why spare Nick? It was still entertaining and pretty solid up to the end. I also had a hard time believing that the guy who sang the song "Do What It Do" could be a lawyer. Whatever, it's mindless fun.
6	KasperL	40 _20th
Neither Butler (too whiny to be menacing) nor Foxx (bland) delivers in this one. The script feels incredibly dated. If you hate mediocrity, make sure to steer clear. On the other hand, if you're nostalgic about 90s-thrillers then this might just transport you back in time.
5	NathanDarko	86 _63rd
Okay, "Law Abiding Citizen" is absolutely absurd and you'll find a lot of unlogic things in it, even if you don't search but this movie is good. for just one reason. this family father did, what millions of people would love to do. to burn the hole corrupt and dirty system down to the ground. let everyone bleed for their wrong interpretation of justice..just let the right one die, only one time. It's a pity that the ending is inconsequent!!!
4	frederic_g54	3 _9th
I was simultaneously bored to death and entertained by this film, something which doesn't happen very often. You're not really sure which side you're supposed to take and the film seems to make most up as it goes along. And don't tell me he dug that tunnel on his own, now that I can't abide...
4	Luna6ix	81 _78th
A pretty decent thriller that could have been better had Butler superceded Foxx in screen time. Personally, I have a pretty gruesome mind, so I would have liked some more meticulous torture and killing scenes, so it really bothers me to see Hollywood pull the punches like this. But nothing tickles me like a righteous man torturing people.
4	Okkervil	39 _27th
Way too far fetched and very predictable, with a terrible ending. Worst of all "Law Abiding Citizen" treads the line of moral ambiguity & dilemma as delicately as a hammer to the head! It's not completely without merit however, and has it's enjoyable moments, with Butler and Foxx both more than good enough. But when a script & plot are this poorly executed, with such lazily drawn characters, it is hard to admire this film too much. Likeable, but seriously flawed.
3	djross	30 _12th
The institutions of human justice are found wanting by a man possessing magical powers granted to him by the feeling of injustice. As a result, a representative of earthly law learns to reject fallible human justice and instead become a murderer himself, as the true path of salvation for the city. More importantly, as has long been established by Hollywood, all transgressions can ultimately be forgotten, so long as a father learns the importance of attending performances by his daughter.
3	cagedwisdom	50 _38th
Would have worked much better for me as a courtroom drama than a thriller, but its not surprising that the latter is what it is. Quite enjoyable nonetheless, I like Butler and Foxx both and the one court scene with Butler alone was enough to make the film worthwhile for me. I cannot dislike anything that carries such appropriate criticism of the American justice system, which is one of the worst in the western world no doubt.
3	Ytadel	5 _57th
It's objectively bad, but there's a rough sort of charm in the gore and absurdity, giant plot holes and all. Gerard Butler's character seems like an attempt to fuse Hannibal Lecter and Jigsaw from the Saw movies. It's definitely one of the most Republican-friendly movies I've seen in some time, with an actual, stated moral of "fuck civil rights!" But I guess everyone needs entertainment, so I won't hold that against it too much.
3	WWallce4prez	35 _5th
Trying to have the "moral ambiguity" card as your central theme is completely ridiculous when the film is so over the top its laughable. Its as if LAC wants us to take it seriously...really? Bad script, bad acting, and plot holes galore are the least of this film's problems. The first 35min or so...ok you hooked me. Guilty.
2	fudgieb	85 _55th
I'm sorry, but anyone who rates this movie poorly is a pretentious schmuck. This movie was really well done. Sure, it was a little unbelievable, but it kept me on the edge of my seat and interested and seemed somewhat relevant to our modern justice system. Here's one case where I let others' perceptions cloud my judgments, but I actually ended up liking the movie more than expected.
2	Alex Watkins	2 _15th
This movie is fucking absurd. Not a bad ride though.
2	Radres	69 _41st
it was going suprisingly well until the finale kicked in. What a disappointment for the last minute, followed by a huge plothole.
2	Wiche	83 _85th
However the first thirty or forty minutes were just breathtaking, the movie falls apart towards the end, which is just too bad. You sympathize with Butler's character and try to live his emotions to a certain level, hoping that everything works out for him. This way you just have to be disappointed with this ending.
2	Bitch Alert	40 _25th
After a decent start and some good tension being built, it is frustrating to see the plotline crumble in it's own stupidity. The final twists make me want to laugh.
2	monclivie	65 _29th
What a shit at the end. Hays' fucking resurrection.
2	ofallpieces	65 _16th
The first half of the movie was spectacular. You could never be sure of where it was going to go, the moves that he was making were wonderful. Gerard Butler's character extensively studied law, and I wish they'd done more with that in all honesty. By the time things started exploding, it was like the movie had burnt itself out and they ran out of new material. It stopped being interesting and became predictable, leaving you off with a very boring, standard finish. Yawn. Love Jamie Foxx' swagger.
2	Joelius	24 _27th
This movie was, well, like Jesus Christ. It was making such a strong and righteous stand that somebody just had to kill it. The plot was strong and the main character was great right up till the end.
2	nunstrangler	43 _16th
Starts out as an effective revenge thriller, but the plot holes and increasing absurdity take the whole thing down.
2	smacfarl	55 _8th
Just total crap, plot makes littles sense and advocates for "Saw- like" ethics. Avenging white man decides to gruesomely kill his family's murderer and wipe out the Philadelphia Judicial System that failed their persecutions. Torture porn, advocation of libertarian/"conservative" right wing white male terrorist fantasies. Would be harmless if not for a current real world media climate preaching similar messages.
2	SirStuckey	65 _45th
I came in with very low expectations for this movie and was pleasantly surprised. The story is rather interesting (just ignore plot holes) and surprisingly it isn't too predictable. On the other hand, the ending was lame and I just don't like Jamie Foxx as an actor much. It's fun and a lot of people will enjoy it.
2	leekenn	71 _50th
Although the beginning is rather weak and distant, I walked away quite impressed. Gerard Butler as always was great, and the film worked through a number of script and character issues to be entertaining and a little thought provoking at the same time. However, the ending is rather unsatisfying and feels tacked on, to the detriment of the overall story. That aside, this is a pretty good film that merits seeing on account of its style and a fair amount of tension. Definitely exceeds expectations.
2	FrederikA	40 _18th
The premise was interesting enough and as a late-night TV time waster it worked fine. But the whole things seems to have been made from a "Can't we just wrap this up? I've got dinner reservation tonight" approach to movie making. Especially Foxx appears to wish himself far away.
2	Ray	60 _49th
Utterly ridiculous, yet so full of action. There's not a likable character in the entire film, but that may be the point. Truthfully I'm unsure what the point of this film is. All I know for sure is it's full of explosions, unintentionally hilarious scenes, a few intentionally funny scenes too, and some decent acting. It's ending is absolutely terrible, however. A pointless, somewhat fun film that ultimately leaves you asking yourself why you bothered watching it.
2	woodoo	75 _30th
Fun and hilarious reverse Batman movie where the wronged takes it out on the criminal justice system. Unfairly criticized for depicting lawyers, judges and legislators as buffoons.
2	Dakota99	7 _77th
The first half of this movie is expcetional. However, Law Abiding Citizen tries to come off more clever than it really is, and in reality it gets less interesting closer and closer to the end of its run. That said, it was entertaining, and by no means was the second half horrible, but they could've taken this a lot more different directions. Butler and Foxx are obviously the stars and they do live up to it. Overall, it was actually better than I was expecting.
1	Kavu	64 _37th
Gets more over the top as it progresses but stays entertaining all the way. It's rubbish but it's good rubbish. What a badass villain!
1	auritech	18 _7th
A repulsive film that feels like the kind of movie a 14 year old would write. Probably the kind of revenge fantasy for victim's rights if seen through the eyes of Falling Down, which at least had a sense of sarcastic intent. Another thing that disturbed me was the audience's reaction to the film. How does this garbage get greenlighted? At least Jamie Foxx did an okay job in his role, but it's not like they gave him much to work with. I even considered walking out on it. Avoid it.
1	mikeparasol	25 _4th
Could have been an interesting thriller, but is over the top in almost everyway imaginable. Acting, violence, and cinematograhpy. The dialogue is ridiculous, the motivations of the antagonist are at times obvious and at others ridiculously obscurant. The cinema I saw it in was constantly bursting out into laughter so I guess I'm not alone.
1	PeaceAnarchy	72 _32nd
This spurs an awful lot of mixed feelings. On the one hand it's a reactionary mess with a moral that is somehow both blunt and wishy-washy. On the other hand the message is subordinate to a tense thriller with some really exciting, if unbelievable, twists and turns. As a pure ride I enjoyed it a lot even as I was put off by what it was saying.
1	evrana	56 _20th
It might have been interesting, if it hadn't been mired in all the possible cliche dialogues a la Dirty Harry, or if it hadn't been lazy for using all the tired ways to develop tension between the characters. It touches a subject (The seperation between justice and the legal system) that probably must not be dealt in such an infantile way, if you just want to do a thriller do a thriller. If you want to make people think, blowing cars and simple traps are not the way to go
1	martryn	67 _43rd
Movie would have been much, much better if he would have just gotten away at the end of it. Jamie Foxx should have been the first character killed. Bonus points though for Colm Meaney surviving to the end. Should have fucking taken charge though. Fuck Jamie Foxx.
1	Spunkie	55 _52nd
A movie that a future Tarantino would go for.
1	helfen419	70 _39th
Some cool ideas, but I'm getting really sick of these lame endings.
1	nandorizzi	60 _46th
The film begins very well, with its realistic violence and discussions of the justice system. But the character of Butler wins a profile supergenius of the crime with high technology, losing all the reality and focus of the film.
1	Andreas	69 _78th
Is it wrong to be rooting for the badguy?
1	KMcNeil	3 _24th
Ridiculous, repulsive and - on many levels - just plain rubbish. Yet still way more fun than it has any right to be.
1	spamhead80	20 _1st
This movie made me angry. Seriously angry. I don't know who I was supposed to root for here, other than possibly Jamie Foxx's daughter (who was not at all loathsome, like everyone else in the movie). If you are not going to have sympathetic characters in a movie, the characters that you do have had better be damned compelling (No one in this movie is compelling).
1	BillyShears	70 _53rd
Ridiculous.
1	micah	40 _9th
Saw for the CSI crowd. Terrible.
1	Vandelay1	74 _84th
Good Movie
1	Etheriel	36 _34th
Ridiculous and ideologically offensive, but entertaining throughout. Watch Jamie Foxx pretend to be a lawyer pretending to be a cop.
1	QVT	60 _64th
Shitty ending.
1	RealMacgyver	80 _79th
Good stuff but Gerry's accent sucks. And the moral is "you have to kill a bunch of people to make a lawyer act decently".
1	nauru	35 _25th
Good premise, and strong first half. However the writing goes downhill quickly as it becomes clear that we actually aren't supposed to be rooting for Gerard Butler. A better second half would be Butler carrying out his plan, systematically killing off officials until finally doing away with Foxx's family; and then using his legal knowledge to get a deal for a light sentence, or otherwise find some way to get away with a slap on the wrist for a couple dozen murders. That would be a great film.
1	Anselmi86	58 _34th
I have to admit, In this movie I am willing to partially forgive this movie of its faults for it really was just damned entertaining. The pacing works well and the viewer is very much kept on the edge of their seat with each act of vengeance. Yet, the film has a awkward sense of self-importance, unable to even decide what its absolute message is. The ending is really quite unsatisfying as well, mostly because the audience is largely unaware of Gerard Butler's sudden role shift to antagonist.
1	lostinlodos	82 _70th
Good until nearly the end. Do keep in mind that this film is one where the TRUE HERO, the proud, honourable, righteous man is billed as being a villain for doing exactly what needs to be done.
1	forehead1	50 _47th
This film disappoints after a fantastic opening half-hour. The plot developments then start to raise an eyebrow before becoming increasingly far-fetched (although some of the 'kills' were admittedly enjoyable), leaving inevitable feelings of unfulfilled promise as the credits roll. Butler's nicely convincing, Foxx could have been anyone. Worth a watch, sadly nothing more.
1	Yonzy	85 _77th
awesommee movie. Loved the ways people died..:P
1	lukey86	55 _14th
There was a point while watching this film that I started to buy into it. I knew this was not great filmmaking, but it was interesting none the less, and I seemed to forgive some bad dialogue and predictable story. Then the twist, and the end just was too much. It really was a stupid way to end the film. I've changed the score three times while writing this. Pass on this, unless you have a hard on for Gerry Butler.
1	illimani	75 _46th
A story of revenge. I know the Conservative manifesto proposed more rights to self defence for the householder but this is ridiculous! The story keeps you engaged though much if it is unbelievable. Some horrific scenes, one in particluar not leaving much to the imagination. Perhaps truth and justice should be left to Batman where it is allowed to be unbelievable! Worth watching but the unlikely story let it down.
1	misterlizard	35 _39th
Tries hard to be a tense revenge thriller, but the plot holes hit you so hard you miss the next 5 mins of the film because you're trying in your head to make sense of the nonsensical thing that just happened. Talented cast, but most of them are sleepwalking their way through shallow characters. A very forgettable film.
1	hellboy76	62 _30th
The first part of this revenge thriller is actually not bad but it turns south after that.
1	glumpy_99	68 _31st
Silly but passable mash-up of FALLING DOWN and DEATH WISH is (hopefully) not meant to be taken too seriously, but still suffers from absurd gaps in logic and credibility which make the drama difficult to become invested in; everything plays out arbitrarily and there's not quite enough fire in the direction for this to work as a spin on, say, TAKEN sensibilities. Butler and Foxx make a great pair of antagonists, and are both fun to watch - they are really the chief reasons for watching this.
1	Darren	0 _0th
I remember sitting in an AP English Lit class and some dumbass was talking about how this movie was the smartest movie ever. But no, this is the type of movie that makes you want to grab all the benzos you can and all the booze you have and hope you just fucking die before you have to see another minute of it. It's just so shameful that MILLIONS are wasted on picture like this. It really puts a damper on wanting to do anything artistic if this is the type of drivel that is wanted.
1	alix	54 _5th
Very cliche. Not that I expected much, but it could've turned out nice - the story idea wasn't bad. The result, though, was your standard good-guy-after-bad-guy flick, with a not so original good guy and a not cool enough bad one. The dialogue was particularly awful, and the so-called 'twist' in the end couldn't really impress anybody. Finally, Jamie Foxx is not at all convincing as a DA; I guess he's played the cop so many times, he just can't shake it off.
1	veeqdee	0 _0th
Wish I could give this a negative score.
1	eCitizen	70 _70th
The story is pretty far fetched and unbelievable, but still clever and complicated. Classic story of injustice int he justice system, and vigilante justice dispensed in a novel way. Gerard Butler was a grieving husband mourning the loss of his wife and daughter to brutal killers. When justice is not served, he take the solution into his own capable and clever hands. Most of the story was pretty incredible, and the rest was pure fantasy. Still it was entertaining.
1	Paxton	52 _23rd
Richard Kimble he ain't.
1	Nick Hamden (Gorgon Reviews)	80 _77th
A movie that has you rooting for the bad guy the whole time. Would have been higher if the ending was a bit better. [Full Review]

Average Percentile 46.45% from 3540 Ratings