Rating of
3.5/4
Gerald Butler is becoming a star!!
mdtinney - wrote on 03/20/10
Law Abiding Citizen does not fail to bring intensity and intelligence. The movie was great: good character development, great action, good suspense and the plot is alluring. Clyde Shelton, Gerard Butler's character, is surprising likable even with all his misdeeds; I found myself rooting for him at the end. I thought he did a fantastic job with this character – Clyde Shelton was chillingly intelligent and charismatic. The movie shed light on the corruption and problems with the legal system and how one man decides to fight back. Although his actions were extreme, he got his message across and his justice served. Jamie Fox's character, Nick Rice was slightly conceited and not very likable; however he does learn his lesson. As a whole the movie was entertaining and good; however…
***SPOILER ALERT*** the ending was a huge let down; as many might agree it seemed very improbable and inconsistent with the story line and the characters. Everyone knew that the antagonist was going to fall, but the way they did it seemed infeasible. Clyde Shelton, who is supposed to be a "Brain" and who had ten years to think and plan this through, is easily outwitted by a lawyer and cop? How is this probable? Through out the movie we see Clyde manipulate everyone to do his bidding in order to shed light on the legal systems' defaults; his plan seems flawless and ingenious. Of course not all plans are flawless and sooner or later they might have caught on. However he had ten years, he would have thought of all the possibilities of someone catching him thus I doubt Nick Rice would have discovered his secret plans that easily and early. So to cut to the climax of the movie they rushed the ending – the last 20 minutes - so they completely disregarded Clyde's background, plus all the years of planning, and made Nick Rice the hero. I could hardly cheer for the protagonist because of the inconsistency.
