Law Abiding Citizen - A bereaved and frustrated middle aged man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the system, he sets out to achieve revenge against the those he believes to be responsible.
Hello to All
Welcome to next film review, by me Dr.Film. My next instalment of film reviews is 'Law Abiding Citizen' which includes Hollywood stars Gerard Butler and Jamie Fox in the leading roles.
SPOILER ALERT: As I do whenever I post a review up, I leave a little warning just saying I'm going to be revealing some spoilers. If you haven't seen the 'Law Abiding Citizen' and you don't want it to spoiled, fine I can respect that. but It does mean, that this review isn't for you.
The Film came out in America on the 16th of October 2009 and came to the UK on the 27th of November 2009. Rated for people of 18 years and above. It is now available to purchase on DVD, Blu-Ray and to download off Itunes.
The Film is basically about a man, setting out to get revenge against a killer who murdered his wife and child, and to prove the point of 'The only law is vengence'. It also is about a detective trying to prove to him that violence is not the way to get the justice he seeks.
You got Jamie Fox playing the detective 'Nick Rice' who at the time when I first watched 'Law Abiding Citizen' I had no idea who he was. but when watching it I thought 'that's a very good person they've cast there' and of course Jamie Fox has later gone on to be more identified as an actor, when he played 'Django' in 'Django Unchained'. which he did another great performance in that.
Gerard Butler was cast as the bereaved man 'Clyde Shelton' which I thought was an interesting choice, because Gerard Butler is in any case an action man. He's done films like '300' and 'Olympus has Fallen' so he's quite fit and capable of performing physically as well as motionally. I thought his character of 'Clyde Shelton' was very angry,calculative and clever, anything he did he was doing for a reason, and it was up to us as a viewer to follow Jamie Fox's character to find out what those reasons are. And I thought it was that interest that drived me through the film and made me excited as to what was going to happen.
What happens is Clyde Shelton is brutally attacked and he watches his family is brutally murdered, by two vicious intruders. but the men responsible are later caught. However, because of an improper procedure, the D.A., Nick Rice only has circumstantial evidence against them. So he then decides to get one the men to testify against the other. When Shelton hears about this, he is left unsatisfied and not happy.
Ten years later, the man who ended up being convicted is sent to be executed but something goes wrong; his execution goes awry and he suffers. It is soon discovered that someone deliberately tampered with the machine. And the other one is found dead, killed in a gruesome and gory manner.
Rice then suspects Shelton, so he has him picked up. At first, Shelton agrees to a plea an agreement with Rice but then he changes his mind. It soon becomes clear that Shelton is not done yet, as he now not only blames the people responsible but blames the whole system. He soon declairs war on it going after everyone involved with his family's case. So it's up to Rice to find out what he is planning and stop him but as it happens Shelton is one step ahead of him.
I think that 'Law Abiding Citizen' is quite a good attack on American society, and it suggests that there are alot of corrupt people in the justice system and that the bad people should be punished. So although the events that happen in the film are fictional, the message is very real.
I do have to say that my favourite scene in 'Law Abiding Citizen' has to be the scene where Rice interviews Shelton, and he's asking him questions about the murder of Clarence Darby and Shelton doesn't give him clear enough answers. He says to him 'I'll give you a full confession if you give me a new matress' When you watch that scene, you'll understand why I like it so much, because it's about one man thinking he has what he needs, but it's actually about another man taking control.
I really like 'Law Abiding Citizen' it's a very dark, spine thrilling, hard hitting drama. that has alot to prove about the way people live and the how the justice system can let them down.
I do feel that this is a film you really have to be in the right mood to watch, because you really have to get into it. you have to really watch it to fully understand it. but what's good about 'Law Abiding Citizen' is it's not slow, you do get into it quite quickly because your attention needs to be grabbed.
I thought it was brilliantly written by Kurt Wimmer, I thought he wanted to excellent a lot about what he thought on American politics. I think he communicated everything clearly, and the actors did a great job with his dialogue.
Overall I'm going to leave it up to you, If you want to watch 'Law Abiding Citizen' go for it. If your not bothered, then that's fine as well.
I'm going to give this film a 7/10
1 Gold Star to Jamie Fox
1 Gold Star to Gerard Butler
Thanks again, for reading this review.
NEXT TIME: I will review 'Run Fat Boy Run' starring one of my favourite actors 'Simon Pegg'!
I will post that review on Thursday the 20th of June 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment