Law Abiding Citizen: A Film Review

Think again. Gerard Butler smudges the already blurry lines between justice and revenge in this thrilling action drama.

Clyde Shelton witnesses the brutal murders of his wife and daughter. To Clyde's continued horror, the American legal system cuts a deal with the worst of the two culprits, and Clarence Darby (Christian Stolte), that disgusting man, walks away free.

After the huge disappointment in both the American idea of justice and with the man Nick Price (Jamie Foxx), who made the deal with Darby, Shelton's torn morals manifest in a 10-year-long planning spree to get back at those who brought him the worst kind of pain: losing family suddenly and to violence.

Rupert Ames (Josh Stuart) is given the death penalty ten years after the conviction for his part in Shelton's family's murders. When the lethal injection goes painfully, awfully wrong, Price digs into the past and, with his partner Sarah Lowell (Leslie Bibb), Price discovers a cleverly hidden past.

Lowell and Price send out an APB for Darby only to find him cut into pieces in a warehouse that just so happens to belong to Clyde Shelton. The police bring Shelton in, and that's when the movie starts.

From behind bars, Shelton is able to wreak havoc on Philadelphia, the prison system, and the justice system of America. He is literally a one-man army. Or is he? Lowell and Price can find absolutely no solid proof that Shelton is behind anything, and to top it all off, Shelton starts to make ridiculous demands.

Maybe it's just for the hell of it, but Shelton makes ridiculous demands of Price and the jailers before he says he'd be willing to give any type of information or confession. First, he asks for a First Class Bed. Then he asks for the best meal around. With background music. Price keeps getting advice from his peers to not deal with the madman, but Price sees no way around it and gives Shelton what he wants, only to continue to come out one step behind.

With two prisoners, one citizen, and many colleagues dead, Price is done with the bull. He digs deeper. Meanwhile, Shelton goes about his prison life as if nothing is wrong. But it looks like the Mayor of Philadelphia (played by Viola Davis) is next. Can Price stop the deaths? Can he stop Shelton? Or is Shelton justified and going to get what he demands is justice for the deaths of his family from a decade ago?

I won't spoil it for you, if you haven't seen it already. This movie is a must see. Not only for the eye candy and thrilling action, but the acting is so phenomenal that you'll even forget these top names from Hollywood. Rent or buy it now; you won't regret it!