The movie ends with a pretty cliche on top, but its the first 30 minutes of "Law Abiding Citizen" with the tension between Butler and Foxx that will entertain you.

Just finished watching it. This is the kind of testosterone festival that makes troglodytes cry "YEAH!" Synopsis: Stock characters follow predictable plot devices and present the fantasy of limitless financial resources as "cunning intellect".

Some shocking moments, but the movie is very flawed and the ending is horrible.

the ideas are appealing sort of a "dark night" destination but the deliverance is very flawed

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Way underrated, deserves at least a 70 from critics, but they know nothing, listen to the user reviews. Anyways it's full of action, and makes somebody really think. A++ movie would watch again.… Expand

This movie is what I imagine getting a colonoscopy is like. The acting was what you would expect from a middle school play, not a multi million dollar feature film. I would not recommend this to anyone.

A poor man's "Seven." Gerard Butler is so unappealing on screen, but combined with the personality-less Jamie Foxx, it doesn't matter how on-edge some of the scenes are. It still comes across like a B movie.

Law Abiding Citizen has a very strong beginning. I found myself caring for "Clyde" (Gerrard Butler) and wanting to see how he would change the American justice system. The scene where Clyde is in court and argues with the judge is a great example of this - he uses the system itself to prove his argument, and shows that the law needs to be changed for true justice to be served. Then the second half of the movie comes along, and Clyde's character shifts from an intelligent citizen to a complete psychopath. All that was clever about this film turns into a mindless bloody mess. By the end I was left wondering what had happened.… Expand

What started off so interesting ends so poorly. The acting is fine (I didnt really like Jamie Fox as the lead, Thought he was a poor fit) and the action was good. The story is so generic though that it just takes away from the overall value.

I had to check to make sure it was the same movie by the end, because it wasn't nothing like the first half hour. What a complete disaster for a movie that started so strong, could have easily been an 8.

Law Abiding Citizen plays with some interesting themes and issues but it doesn't seem to have a clue what it wants to say. Is the justice system corrupt? Is serious reform needed? Are Clyde's (Gerard Butler) actions justified? The film never gets close to answering these questions as it fumbles from act to act. It's a shame really because the performances aren't bad, Butler plays light and dark well with Jamie Foxx actually being a perfect foil for him as the straight laced realist. They play well off each other and dialogue wise, the script is pretty good so some scenes are thoroughly entertaining at least aesthetically. The problem is that the final product is so remarkably empty you can't look back on the things you like and leave the viewing with a positive reaction. It's a film trying to make some kind of a point but all you really get is a dark, gritty thriller that is void of substance. It doesn't help that the last 40 minutes move the film from gritty, character drama to cliche filled farce with a final twist so remarkably stupid it just ruins it further.… Expand

This movie started out great with an interesting premise and the promise that justice was going to prevail and the bad guys were going to get their just desserts. However, as the movie progressed, the good guy most deserving of getting his revenge went way over the top, morphing from a greiving father and husband into the killer-clown from "Saw". At the same time the plot morphed from being mostly believable to totally preposterous. By the time of the movies climax, I had pretty much lost interest and felt cheated out of a movie that could have and should have been much better.… Expand

This movie give you A perspective of what happen when a man lost his family and the lawmen trying to balance order. Forget what people say about this movie, watch it and have your own perspective. I enjoy it. Another way to show you how America justice system work.

Among things most moviegoers don't want to see, a small girl being murdered during a home invasion would surely be close to topping the list, especially if the child makes bracelets that spell out "daddy" for her proud papa. Since "Law Abiding Citizen" turns out to be "Clyde: Portrait of a Serial Killer(or "Clean Shaven Death Wish), in which the daddy-turned-vigilante(played by Gerald Butler) starts killing, not NYC lowlifes like a Scottish Charles Bronson, but innocent people, ala Henry(Michael Rooker) in the 1989 John McNaughton film, brutality needs to match brutality, because the cause and effect of the carnage needs to be better proportioned. Our reaction to a decollated head, or a woman in car being blown up to smithereens, is more visceral, and far outweighs an abstract murder that took place beyond the fade-out, when it comes to impacting the audience, who needs to sympathize with Clyde's loss during his self-righteous killing spree. Not nearly enough time is spent on establishing Clyde as a husband and father. The filmmaker cuts to the chase, mere minutes into "Law Abiding Citizen", so, impassioned speech with his lawyer Nick(Jamie Foxx) about justice notwithstanding, the film largely pre-supposes Clyde's family man integrity as a given. In most cases, flashbacks often do nothing for a film, except oversell the protagonist's loss with affected sentimentality, in a scene that depicts happier times, where the grieving spouse gets all red-eyed after waking up from a reverie. This time around, it would help "Law Abiding Citizen", if Clyde displayed some sign of humanity, since the fallout from his vengeance is so distortedly pronounced, the film's message about a broken judicial system gets lost in the arterial spray.… Expand

By all accounts this is something that started out as a great idea in someones head which ended up being an absolute failure by the time someone tried to turn it into a 90 minute feature film. The decides to rather than create a character that's extraordinary yet still believable, to create a character that defies all belief and as such, create a series of scenarios that leaves the audience frustrated with being force fed hole filled plots, rather than leaving them impressed at the main characters ingenuity. Jamie Foxx also delivers an extremely dry performance. With no characters to love or to hate, and no plot to entertain, you will just want this movie to end so you can go home and watch paint dry.… Expand

James H. is wrong if your wife and daughter were beaten to death you're saying you would only be mad for 1 to 2 years at the most. Your wrong

Horrible, horrible, horrible. Crap piece of hack work made for the money. The message of this film is that in the end Law is worthless. Do you believe that? Do the people who made this crap believe it? No, it's simply a cool way to show off special effects. Sad.

A Horible Movie that shys away at the good parts, and during its "revelations" in the plot was found to be HILARIOUS. Not what they were going for I think. I wasted 2 hours of my life watching this crap and I hope there aren't many others as unfortunate as me.

I don't listen to movie critics because most of the time the movies they think are good actually suck and vice-versa. Yhis movie was phenomenal. Although parts of the plot may seem implausible, there is such a powerful message being conveyed. Bravo...I. love it!

A great revenge flick... Though I kinda wish it ended differently though. Gerard Butler gives a really good performance (which was a supprise to me), the kills are clever, however it does start to become improbable towards the end... But a lack of complete realism never killed a move for me.

This movie was awesome!!! Based on true revenge, what happens when you pick the wrong person's life to ruin. I can't believe critics booed this movie it's one of the best this year!!!! Trust me, watch this movie if you like action.

Gripping. A movie all law students should watch before becoming lawyers, even if it is unrealistic. This is what I would do to someone if they murdered my family.

Awesome movie...but the ending RUINS IT.

I agree with Lorenzo. The way Metacritic interprets scores (especially when a score is not given) is imperfect at best and arbitrary at worst. I would suggest reading the reviews instead of judging based on scores alone. As for the movie, it's a fun revenge flick. It's not supposed to have deep insights into our society. Instead, it is a revenge story based around something that can be seen as a flaw in our justice system. You aren't supposed to be blown away by it's depth anymore than you are supposed to look for the meaning of life in the Deathwish movies. Anyone who doesn't get that should learn to lighten up before watching movies.… Expand

Please do not listen to the critics! Law Abiding Citizen is a good movie with great actors and a powerful message. Just because critics are too dense to see it, doesn't mean this movie does not make a powerful comment on the injustices that occur in our "justice system", while also making a comment on personal motivations. A must see!

This movie is just as good as the self-righteous trailers led you to believe it would be. I honestly don't understand why it's rated so low by these credits, actually I don't understand how Metacritic calculates such a low score from reviews that don't have number values. In any case the acting is superb, the plot is great and there are even some *unexpected* plot twists. Take a chance on watching this, you'll love it.… Expand

I really enjoyed this movie, until the end. The ending was horrible. I forgave some of the non-story telling in the beginning with the obligatory plot fill-ins during the movie, but come on. **SPOILER ALERT** This isn't a movie ruining spoiler, but how does he not notice that someone has broken into his lair? There is a lot more to complain about and I don't want to ruin anymore, but I say it again, come on!… Expand

This movie by all accounts is the movie of the year. I am flabbergasted at the critique's take on this film. What movie did they see?

Violent, crazy movie that made its point over and over again... Jamei Foxx looked almost bored through it and his daughter was a terrible cello player (no bow control, bad fingerings, etc.).

The first 10-15 minutes are interesting and engaging but unlike ‘taken’ which has a plot, there isn’t much but pure revenge on the mind of Clyde and he takes it to levels which are absolutely absurd. That doesn’t leave me w. anyone or anything to root for. Yeah, I suppose you can root for the selfish and ambitious prosecutor but he’s played like a fool for most of the flick so that seems unreasonable. All in all, ‘arrested development’ seems like a more appropriate title for this lame adventure.… Expand

N1Acord03, if the critics don't like the movie then it is NOT "by all accounts" movie of the year. "By all accounts" means everyone who gave an account of the movie. It's definitely not movie of the year but, unfortunately, I've seen worse.

The ingenuity and complexity of suspense in this film is refreshing, as is equally the plot. It has been a long time since a first-class, nail biting, on the edge of your seat, intelligent macabre suspense story and film on the scale of Silence of the Lambs and Se7en was made. Law Abiding Citizen came close in plot and suspense, but missed the boat. Kudos to F. Gary Gray for a good attempt. BUT, unlike Silence of the Lambs and Se7en, Law Abiding Citizen will likely not even garner one industry nomination, let alone a win. Too bad F. Gary Gray, screenwriter Kurt Wimmer and the host of producers decidedly chose the easy route to opt to make a low-budget almost-but-not-quite-good [hopefully] money maker rather than work smarter not harder to create a low-budget classic-award-winning film. Such a wasted opportunity. The film plot has extraordinary potential. The film instead is glued together with ridiculous amateur scenes [like the prosecutor publically shaking hands with the convicted accomplice in the slaying of a mother and her child] and injected with simplified unintriguing cliché dialogue [like, “if you even think about touching my family” . . . WHAT?] Now Hollywood machinery will crank out a dozen or so formulaic versions of a could-have-been-great-film and we consumers can be reminded again why we stopped going to movies.… Expand

Although not the greatest film ever made, it has quite a startling beginning that keeps you enthralled for atleast 30 minutes. When Gerard Butler gets sent to jail is where things begin getting iffy, and the second half of the movie is not as well put together as the first. For example, you find out that Butler's character was some kind of operative agent, but this seems to be putty in a plot hole to explain why he is so good at what he is doing. The final twist is intriguing, but you won't be enthralled by it. Overall a decent movie, I would suggest renting it for some mild entertainment!… Expand

This would be one of the greatest movies in the world if only they didnt fuck up the ending the way they did. I almost threw my pc out the door when i saw it end. if you must watch the movie turn if off when there is only 20 minutes left. truly truly disappointing

One of the best movies I've seen in a while. Intense, brutal, violent...yet at the same time, an intelligent look at the shortcomings of our criminal justice system here in the US.

The movie really shows a man (Shelton), whom in the beginning could be any man loosing everything dear to him. Unformatunatly for the crims, he was just the wrong badass to mess with. Overall, I could relate quite well to how he went about his revenge, as you can only imagine what he witnessed in the brutal slaying of his wife and daughter. Shelton had the money to back his plot and kept ti himself, so when you stop and consider what you couldl do in that position, i get a sence of reality. Too many critics compared this movie to other movies (SAW) in particular, which in my opinion shows that critics need to step up their game and look at a movie for what it is, what it offers and what it means, instead of being a puppet and following the next critics comments into their own views.… Expand

This movie was a mixter of Death Sentence and Saw. Definitely not what I'm used to seeing from Gerard Butler, but he was amazing as usual.

this movie was extremely great! I think critics dont like it because it proves a point on our so called justice system!

Excellent movie showing government corruption. The ending isn't perfect but still I give this a 10/10.

The film was good in the first half, but towards the end the film started getting really mediocre. The ending was the opposite of the the beginning of the film. This film wasn't awful, it was just the opposite of a decent film.

This movie had potential. It kept me interested up until they revealed the how he managed to rig and terrorize people. It immediately dropped from possibly being a 7 or an 8 to a firm 1.

Because it's better than Seven! heh heh. Slightly weak 3rd act though.

I had no idea what I was walking into. The beginning was entirely predictable and I thought, "Gee, if he's exacted his revenge this quickly, this is gonna be a really short film." Of course, the beginning is only the tip of the iceberg. It makes Philadelphia as scary a place to live as Gotham under the Joker. I enjoyed it a lot despite being a little over the top.

Great acting, surprising plot twists, and just the right amount of violence to keep the movie interesting. I strongly disagree with the general poor reviews for this movie. This movie really did keep me at the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. Sure, it had a couple of minor plot issues here and there, but all in all I found it to be a highly entertaining movie well worth the time and ticket to see it.… Expand

Great movie, terrible ending.

Great story with good plot and a theme that can be correlated to real life. Phenomenal performance by Gerard Butler.

Gerard Butler plays an insanely intelligent assassin focused on biblical scale of retribution. Teaching his deadly lessons, bringing the city of Philadelphia face to face with its past deeds and dealings. “Revenge as Christopher Walken put it, is a meal best served cold.” Cinematography/Directing: Nice panning views of the Philly. End scene masterfully shot. Rest of movie pretty standard views and shot angles. Cutting back and forth between Jamie Foxx daughter recital and brutal GB hack killing was both creative and moving Acting: Jamie Foxx was his usual self. Decent. Solid. Gerard Butler really portrayed great emotional elasticity for this role. Worst Acting Scene: Jamie Fox, in beginning of movie, attempting to get GB to take deal. Gerard was great, Jamie seemed contrived - not real Best Acting Scene: Same scene. GB was so believable, pleading with Jamie Fox to not take deal and fight for his family. His slight lazy eye made him that much more sympathetic. Writing: Great comic quips throughout movie. The overall story held together well. Plot Holes: Last 15 minutes, was like O.K. lets finish this up. GB was a step ahead the entire movie and by some miraculousness feet of Star Trek like beaming, something got somewhere in a time frame not possible. Don’t want to give away the end, but suffice to say. No Way Possible. Better Actor in Role: Denzel would have killed this ala Man on Fire. They should have hired my girl Shambala Green (Lorraine Toussaint) from Law and Order to play the mayor.… Expand

Totally unengaging and ridiculous flic. Manages to be repulsive AND boring at the same time. Quite unique actually, if you put it like that. Still, don't go and see, believe me. It's for your own good.

"Just finished watching it. This is the kind of testosterone festival that makes troglodytes cry "YEAH!" Synopsis: Stock characters follow predictable plot devices and present the fantasy of limitless financial resources as "cunning intellect"." Said some dumb bitch with sand in her vagina. Gerard Butler rules, and I haven't even seen this movie but it rules because it has the 300 guy. YEAH! … Expand

Can you say "ridiculously impossible" ? So unrealistic as to be cartoonish! Please! I love the critic who said "Saw with a conscience"!! How stupid do we moviegoers seem??! I'm insulted by this movie. The premise was realistic. They could have done great things with it. Too bad.

Totally awesome movie, no doubt one of the best thrillers ive seen in a while. Thumbs up for me.

Great movie and I liked Butler's acting. Really violent the only problem for me was the ending.

Not as bad as I thought it wold be. Entertaining at least. And I think the best part is that we all want to enact vengeance from time to time. I found myself actually rooting for Owen.

42/100. Preposterous plot that has so many holes it resembles Swiss cheese. Over acted by the leads with unmemorable supporting performances. The score is too intense and interferes with the story. After thirty minutes you just don’t care what happens. This plot has been done so many many times before, can’t Hollywood come up with something more original? It is never convincing because it is all so absurd. Dark and dingy, it tries to throw in out of place “Saw” type scenes to attract that audience, making it needlessly violent and unpleasant. A silly mess. It doesn't even make much good use of the Philadelphia location shooting. On the plus side, it does have some good cinematography.… Expand

Complexity is the first word. Awesome is the second. I just with people would stop comparing it to SAW for pete's sake! There's one torture scene that he films. THATS IT. This isn't "saw with a concience" or some bull. This is a story of a man who had everything taken from him, and wants what's broken to be fixed; not so much for him but for the world as a whole. During points in the film he uproots the bullcrap that lets criminals walk free. Gray keeps the audience guessing until the last 20-30 minutes of the film, where it all falls into a beautiful cataclycism of events leading into the ending. The characters are solid, the storyline is not exactly unique but the presentation and way it all unfolds is wonderful. Butler delivers. Simple as that.… Expand

I liked this movie. I think it was awesome and I'm a 50 yr old woman. It doesn't matter if it may seem somewhat unrealistic; it's just a movie for pete's sake.

Yeah!

Yuch. What were a fine group actors thinking? Paycheck, maybe?

[***SPOILER***]LAC started off VERY promising but somewhere along the line the plot began forming holes that were never filled. It first painted Jamie's character to be more involved with the death of Butler's family than he turned out to be. Leaning in to talk to the murderer at the court room, shaking his hand afterwards. Idk if real lawyers actually do that. It starts with Butler being the protaganist but he quickly becomes the badguy. It wasn't the best plot or the best way for the movie to end. It was brilliant how he pulled off the murders but it definetly ended the wrong way. Butler should have been the smart, crazy, good guy. Jamie should have been the evil masteind trying to further his career. Plus 10 years to hold a grudge is a little too extreme and that was my first flag. It should have been maybe 1 yr or 2 @ the most. The movie should have also set up who Butler really was by showing pictures of his military background and then showing his family instead of just "dumping" his surprised past on us. … Expand

Sweet movie. Great plot. I was in to it.

Gets a 9 because it's a little too long.

It's emotionally intriguing and it's definitely entertaining- in retrospect a little ridiculous, but so what. The critics that ranked it in the lower 40% took this movie as a mid-level studio film to stomp on and get their elite intellectual film critic snob on, cuz it just ain't that bad.

This movie stirred me and made me wonder how I would feel not only in Clyde's shoes, but Nick's as well?

No one listens to critics anyway at the end of the day, what the hell do they no? i just watched the movie and its awesome, great story, very smart, gerard butler bravo on some more great acting, great action. you cant go wrong with this film, as for the bad comments well people who obviously just like to be the negatives of life.

Not sure why critics disapprove so much, I thought it was awesome. User reviews for the win.

An amazing performance by Butler. I was on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. Foxx and Butler had great chemistry.

Picture it you have a beautiful wife a loving and sweet daughter a great job that you love and every night you come home to your family knowing there will be a great dinner waiting for you so you can sit around the table and just share some quality time with the ones you love. It is essentially the American dream; the dream that all want and most get but what if one day that dream was taken away from you? What if some crooks from off the street broke into your home rob you and murdered the ones you love Now say that the police were able to find and capture the men who murdered your family there are about to be prosecuted for the heinous crime they have committed. The Executive A.D.A( Executive Assistant District Attorney) cuts a deal with one of the murders meaning one spends five years in jail and is free while the other is sent to death row. There is one person who shares this horrifying story and that person is Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler). Two thugs looking to loot the place but instead one of them decided to take it a little further and rape and murder both his wife and daughter murdered his family. After one man is un-officially set free by a slick Executive A.D.A. and the other on death row Sheldon plots his revenge against all who have wronged him. The men who destroyed his life and the Justice system that let one of them get away. F. Gary Gray and Kurt Wimmer's "Law Abiding Citizen" is one of those films that came out last year slipped under the radar for me I had heard things about it albeit nothing good. Most critics and audiences members turned there backs on "Law Abiding Citizen" in favor of worse movies. However, compared to other movies that came out around the same time, as Law Abiding Citizenâ€� this film is one of the better ones "Law Abiding Citizen" is a smart merciless thriller that works its grim, macabre sequence of events on the audience. Like a symphony orchestra works you over with there overpowering music it flows so swiftly and confidently onscreen with the suitably cast and semi-convincing performances from Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. It almost over shadows the massive implausibility’s in the script and plot. What makes this film so interesting to watch is not about the story but what is most intriguing about this film is how Clyde Shelton(Gerard Butler) is systematically killing everyone while amazingly being locked up in a maximum security prison throughout the whole film. I is the biggest mystery of this films biggest flaw, it is it biggest flaw because it requires a huge suspension of disbelief requiring you to actually believe you do not know how he is pulling off these elaborate and ingenious murders. However, when it comes down to it you either accept the implausibility of the films plot or brush it aside as completely absurd, I choose to embrace its implausibility even when in the end it turned out to be as absurd as it is. I did not completely like this film as I said it is highly implausible but also entertaining this film is the kind of film that you like more when you are watching than afterwards. But even if it is very flawed and at sometimes half baked "Law Abiding Citizen " works better than it should and plays out far better than you could ever expect even if at times it is extremely absurd. This film will not become a classic and it sure as hell does not have the makings to become a cult classic what it does posses is a certain charm and sense of dread that works the audiences over enough to come out as a convincing and gripping revenge thriller. However due to a mild script and mediocre direction "Law Abiding Citizen" is left in the average area of films instead of resting in the more well deserved good area however, then again considering the ideas imposed in this film average suites this film perfectly.… Expand

This film is a good all-rounder and kept me intrigued until the end, it always amazes me how critics can score things so badly and one describing it as saw with a conscience could do with getting another job. The Ending is a let down I think its a pretty atypical Hollywood ending which they had to do otherwise it would be portraying the wrong message. That said the whole film is very interesting and enjoyable all the way through with solid acting from all involved, Overall an enjoyable film experience and worth a watch… Expand

Awesome movie! I do personally think the system sucks! Too many stupid rules and regulations and loop holes! Not too many people might want to admit it but I bet there are a ton of people who would love to have the brains and know how just like the Anti-Hero in this movie. I can tell you that if anything ever happened to my family and the maximum wasn't done against the criminals, I have no doubt that revenge will be taken into my own hands! It was really weird but I don't remember a time where I was rooting for a character of Gerard Butler's stature. Yes, there are a couple of minor flaws but overall a really well done movie.… Expand

I just finished watching this movie and I don't understand what people are complaining about saying this movie is not that good. It is a very clever movie that has a very clear and loud message "Everyone has to take responsibility for their actions." Nick played by Jamie Foxx was too concerned about his status and was focused on achieving a high conviction rate so cut deals for criminals that should be locked up for a very long time. Clyde was an innocent guy who lost his family and I can understand some people saying the good guy Clyde went way over the top to become the bad guy toward the end of the movie but I can understand why he went over the top because if you remember, Nick told Clyde at the beginning of the movie that he already finished the deal without even asking or considering Clyde's opinion. The guy lost his family and had his feet cut out from beneath him when Nick finished a deal. This is one of the best movies I've seen and it's very clever and has an important message. I'm from a different country, I wasn't born here in the United States, and I have read and witnessed about cases like these occuring often where justice is not correctly served and criminals escape day after day in my home country so maybe that's why I appreciate this movie more than others because to me, this movie is a partially a true story in some sense.… Expand

Law Abiding Citizen points out an imperfect justice system. In seemingly obvious cases of murder a judge might not care enough about justice and only obeys the law so as a killer can go free if there is a lack of physical evidence; lawyers might make deals with criminals just to put an easy end to a case; and if it gets really bad for those who work for this system they might try to find a way of how to take away the constitutional given civil rights of the person they feel threatened by. A very smart movie that gives you some food for thought about how law and justice might not always be the same. The first half of the movie is quite brutal and likely hard to watch for many viewers. The second half offers some surprise. Definitely worth watching.… Expand

bad writing, bad acting, bad everything. Gerard Butler should never try to pull off another American accent again...awful, just awful. Ridiculos premise, but lots of stuff blows up so it likely kept American audiences happy. When foreigners put down Americans for their cinematic stupidity, this movie is Exhibit A.

This movie was actually kind of fun. Is it a cliche oh heck yeah. But it does have some pretty inventive ways of killing off some people and some of the ways the villain is able to do the things that he does. The acting is also very solid with the exception of a certain mayor. Overall this is worth a watch.

CRITICS ARE STUPID!!! This movie was great! It shows how ridiculous our justice system is. Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler do a great job, I thought Colm Meaney could have done a better job with his role but other then that it was an intense movie that was well made.