Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

Directed by F. Gary Gray. Starring Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meaney, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Viola Davis, Annie Corley, Christian Stolte, Michael Kelly, Regina Hall, Michael Irby, Emerald-Angel Young. [R]

After his family is murdered, engineer Butler is understandably upset when district attorney Foxx makes a deal that puts one of the killers on Death Row but the other one is given a much lesser charge. A decade later, he exacts a complex plot against those who allowed such a travesty of justice, an attack on the system that failed him and so many others that somehow manages to continue even after he’s incarcerated. Slick but very dumb thriller turns far-fetched quickly, winds up outrageously absurd before it’s over; worse, the film suffers from self-importance, thinking it’s actually making a trenchant statement about criminal justice in the guise of grim, violent entertainment. Butler also co-produced. Director Gray cameos as a detective.

30/100