Review of Law Abiding Citizen (2009) by Kyoo-Sang H — 24 Feb 2015

Review is personal, amateurish, and may contain spoilers.

Only people that watched the movie should read the review.

What is the definition of a Law abiding citizen in the first place? A law-abiding citizen always obeys the law and is considered to be good and honest because of this. Knowing his meaning, the content in the movie and the title are total irony. What happens in the movie and what the title meant is the polar opposite.

The story is something like this: Clyde Sheldon (Gerard Butler) had a happy life with his family. However, two thugs break into his house and kill his wife and daughter. The happy life Clyde had was shattered. Both of the thugs are captured later on and a prosecutor named Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) takes the case. However, there was not enough evidence to put both of the thugs in jail. Nick decides to only put one of the thugs in jail, and let the other one go free. Furious about this, Clyde decides to take revenge.

10 years later, the thug that was captured is executed. However, during the process (meant to be painless), the thug dies in pain and agony. The other thug who was never captured is captured by Clyde, who was disguising as a police officer. Clyde kills the thug by drugging him and cutting off every body part with a saw. The police capture Clyde and he meets Nick one again. Nick wants to put Clyde in jail but there is not enough proof. Clyde then asks Nick for a good bed and he will confess. He does as if he is trying to mock Nick. Nick agrees and gives Clyde a nice bed, and Clyde confesses. In jail, Clyde now asks for a nice meal from his favorite restaurant. If he gets his meal, he will tell the location of where Bill Reynolds (Lawyer of the two thugs) is. Though a deal is made, Nick and the police reach Bill too late, and Bill was already dead. While Nick was away, Clyde kills his cellmate with the T-bone he had from his steak. With this Clyde is sent underground to use a room alone.

Later, Clyde's identity is found out. Clyde Sheldon was a government agent who specialized in assassinating others. He was considered a genius in his field. Nick asks Clyde if he is doing this for revenge. Clyde answers by saying that he is doing this as resistance against the justice that is oblivious of what right and wrong is. Clyde then threatens Nick to release him free. If not, he will kill everyone related to his case. Nick refuses.

Later when he was trying get on his car, all the cars in the parking lot explode, killing his partner, Sarah and many other comrades. Later at the Funeral of Sarah, an army droid comes and destroys more of Nick's friends and police officers. Nick is heavily depressed because of this, but with help from a friend (Sarah's boyfriend) he learns where Clyde's secret base is. In this base Clyde was hiding all sorts of guns, equipment, and even armed droids. Clyde's base was connected to Clyde's cell room. Meanwhile, Clyde is disguised as a janitor and breaks free from his cell. He places a time bomb in the Office building of the mayor and comes back to his cell only to be greeted by Nick. Nick tells Clyde that he doesn't need to do anymore of this, but Clyde refuses and detonates the bomb. However, Nick already place the time bomb under Clyde's bed. Nick acted quickly and brought the bomb to the cell room. Clyde eventually dies and Nick continues his life as a prosecutor learning a lesson.

Apart from the long and sloppy storyline I wrote here, the rating of this movie isn't that good. Actually, everything is sloppy considering the title of the movie. Is the movie really trying to criticize the law and justice system of the society or is it just the opposite? The ending couldn't explain this (Clyde goes crazy and kills people, only to be killed by this trap. However, the person responsible for making Clyde crazy is living a happy life). Was Clyde just doing all of this just for revenge? The one responsible (Nick) is living his life without any problems. Anyway, many of the aspects in the movie do not make a lot of sense. This may be a fair reason why many are disappointed and confused about this movie. It would have been a lot better if Clyde just succeeded in his revenge and killed Nick and his family.