Law Abiding Citizen

Gerard Butler is a man out for revenge in Law Abiding Citzen.

In the film, directed by F. Gary Gray, Butler plays Clyde Shelton, a man who is seeking redemption against the men who brutally murdered his wife and daughter ten years ago.

When the assailants are caught, assistant district attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) makes a deal that sends one man to jail for 10 years and the other given the death penalty. Shelton angered by the deal orchestrates a plot of revenge that not only focused on the two murderers, but on Rice, the judge and every official associated with the case, a series of high-profile murders that grip the city of Philadelphia - all from inside his jail cell.

After Shelton brutally murders both of his family's killers, he is later arrested and admits to Rice he is responsible for the murders, however he warns Rice that he must be released and fix the injustice that was given to him and his family or he kills everyone who is associated with the case. Rice realizes that he is the only one who could put a end to Shelton's reign of terror.

After coming off, two subpar films, The Ugly Truth and Gamer, Butler delivers a somewhat decent performance as the sociopath Shelton, Jamie Foxx whose delivered strong performances in the past was rather mediocre in this movie, a positive though this movie was not even as bad as Stealth. Yes fellas, a movie with Jessica Biel was absolutely awful, I'm sorry.

The movie may have been focused on one man's revenge, but the violence was way over the top, it was like taking revenge to an unnecessary extreme.

Payback was a movie of the same premise, and it was good because it didn't have to use so much violence and gore to sell the revenge story line plus it featured one of Mel Gibson's best and somewhat underrated characters.

Butler, whose career was on the rise after 300 now not so much, could not save this film, and F. Gary Gray who has directed some great movies including The Negotiator and The Italian Job really missed the mark with Law Abiding Citizen.

Next time on the Reel Revue, will be my review for Zombieland starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin.