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When a home invasion robbery turns deadly, the lone survivor will stop at nothing to avenge his lost loved ones in Law Abiding Citizen, an explosive examination of blind justice from the director of The Italian Job.
Clyde Shelton is an upstanding family man whose wife and daughter are brutally murdered during a home invasion. When the killers are caught, Nick Rice - a hotshot Philadelphia prosecutor - is assigned the case. Nick offers one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his accomplice.
Fast forward ten years. The man who got away with murder is found dead and Clyde Shelton coolly admits his guilt. Then he issues a warning to Nick, either fix the flawed justice system that failed his family or key players in the trial will die.
DVD Special Features
• The Justice of Law Abiding Citizen
• Law in Black and White: Behind the Scenes
• Theatrical Trailer
BLU-RAY Special Features
• Unrated Director's Cut and Theatrical Version Feature
• The Justice of Law Abiding Citizen
• Law in Black and White: Behind the Scenes
• The Verdict: Winner Trailer Mash Up
• Theatrical Trailer
• Audio Commentary featuring Producers Lucas Foster and Alan Siegal
Stars: Gerard Butler, Michael Gambon, Leslie Bibb, Jamie Foxx, Josh Stewart, Regina Hall
Product reviews...
Review by: kiwireviewer-00
Dated: 17th of July, 2010
Take a really good plot, add some gruesome deaths, a corrupt and self-centred justice system, a couple of immoral criminals, stir in some seriously black-ops type planning and a few good twists and turns, and you have... the nightly news.
Or this movie.
This movie has so much potential, right up until the last half hour or so. I was riveted... then felt like I had been sucker-punched in the gut when the ending fizzled out into a flaccid droop when it could have been an eruption of mind-gaming brilliance.
Throughout the movie, the lead character, played by Gerard Butler, reminded me of a younger and more rugged Hannibal Lecter in his ability to twist minds, situations and seemingly reality itself, to achieve his goals and kill off every one of those who played a part in the travesty of justice that was the trial of the two men who raped and murdered his wife and young daughter... then right at the very end it suddenly got very predictable and more than a little disappointing.
Now, in fairness, both Butler and Foxx played their parts expertly, with no effort required to really believe in their characters... and I suspect that played a big part in why the movie was so disappointing. If it were harder to connect with them, the limp ending would have been more tolerable and felt less like a broken promise of better. This was definitely a failure in the writing, not the acting.
The acting was pretty spot on, the special effects - though subtle in places - were realistic enough to give me the bejeebers during some of the more 'bloody' scenes. A lot of the really nasty stuff was implied rather than clearly shown, which is a pretty good thing really, considering one of the scenes is seriously icky! "Now, I'm going to start with your eyelids..."
Overall, though the greater majority of the movie is pretty good indeed, the ending is limper than a 3 week old salad. If you sit down expecting a good action flick, you'll be happy with what you get... if you want a stunning ending, then you won't be quite so happy.
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