Ten years after his wife and young daughter were brutally murdered, Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) unleashes a deadly plan to exact justice on both the men responsible for the crime and a justice system he believes betrayed him--particularly Nick Rice (Jaime Foxx), a prosecutor whose deal-cutting ways led to a reduced sentence for one of the perpetrators. Clyde is quickly arrested and locked away, but his rampage continues, and he vows not to stop until everyone has paid.

CRITIQUE

To paraphrase the members of Spinal Tap, the line between clever and stupid is a fine one. Law Abiding Citizen goes out of its way to construct a scenario in which a clever man devises a clever plan to exact justice on a system he believes has wronged him, but the movie is so preposterous it sails past stupid and comes ashore on the coast of insulting. The filmmakers want you to think it’s smart, but they don’t want you to actually think about it. And not thinking about it pretty much requires you undergo a lobotomy beforehand. This movie’s plot holds water in much the same way the Titanic held water, and the results are similar.

It would be one thing if this movie were believable on its own terms (which would still be a major stretch), but it’s not. The setup isn’t believable, what follows isn’t believable, the explanation isn’t believable, and the resolution isn’t believable. Two guys invade another man’s home, stab the man, assault the man’s wife, then murder her and her daughter, all while the man watches, yet somehow his eyewitness testimony and all of the forensic evidence--including a substantial amount of DNA evidence--are worthless; the entire case instead comes down to the word of one of the perps against the word of the other. I know what you’re thinking: really? Really. And all of this, which is really the bedrock of the plot, is handled with less than five lines of dialogue. Again: really? Really.

Then things start to get worse. It’s dumb enough to think Butler (who is miscast, and not just because he can’t do an American accent; the role requires an Everyman, and Butler’s not) is somehow able to stage elaborate deaths for his targets while he’s free--yes, screenwriter Kurt Wimmer, the man who gave us the modern classic Ultraviolet and lately has been linked to a revamp of Total Recall (yeah, that’s going to go over well), has seen Saw--but it’s ludicrous to think he’s somehow still able to do it after he’s been locked up.

In fact, there’s an explanation for how he’s able to do so, but the explanation (just like every explanation the script offers up) is so damned ridiculous (it flies in the face of every sort of logic known to mankind) I don’t want to even contemplate the possible ideas Wimmer decided wouldn’t work. I while I wouldn’t dream of revealing the explanation, I will say that in order for it to be even the least bit plausible, Butler would have to be omniscient and omnipotent, and everyone else in the movie deaf, dumb, and blind. Really.

Just as you’re trying to prevent your brain from imploding at the straight-faced reveal of the mystery behind Butler’s schemes, the movie goes even dumber. After expecting us to side with Butler because he’s been wronged, Wimmer and director F. Gary Gray (director of the surprisingly good remake of The Italian Job and the unconscionably ill-conceived adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s Be Cool, who took over the project after Frank Darabont bailed) suddenly expect us to shift loyalties to Foxx (whose performance leaves a lot to be desired), this despite the fact he’s just as much of a scumbag as Butler.

Further, to top of this shift in loyalties, there’s also a shift in power, as the climax could only work if Foxx becomes the all-powerful one (with everyone else remaining brain-dead). There’s simply no way Foxx could actually pull off what he does in the movie’s penultimate scene; not only does it violate about fourteen thousand laws of time and space, it’s absurd to think he’d be allowed to do it. The finale is so ridiculous (to say nothing of unconstitutional) that Gray and Wimmer could have resolved the plot via the introduction of a purple cow that farts rainbows of sunshine and happiness and has the power to turn back time in order to prevent the murders of Butler’s wife and child and the movie would have ended on a more credible note. Really.                          

Here are some questions to keep in mind if you do choose to watch the movie (although in that case “What the hell am I doing?” would be the biggest question, but never mind): Why does Butler strip naked when the cops come to arrest him? Why is a prosecutor in a major metropolitan city constantly allowed to go on takedowns with cops? Why is a SWAT team called in to help arrest a man with no criminal history whatsoever but not called in to help arrest a repeat offender with a history of violent behavior? Is there only one judge in the Philadelphia court system? And last but not least, exactly who in the hell is this Chester guy?

This release gives you twice as much nonsense for your buck, as it includes both the theatrical cut and an extended version (which has been dubbed a Director’s Cut, although it remains to be seen whether or not that’s actually the case). The longer version adds about nine (unnecessary) minutes to the movie. Most of this material consists of (unnecessary) scene extensions, but some of the kills (one of which I have to admit is pretty damned cool) have also been made gorier.

THE VIDEO

The 2.40:1/1080p transfer--encoded with AVC--offers a superb representation of the movie’s somewhat cold, desaturated look. Grays and blacks dominate the color palette, and they’re delineated very well. The image is smooth, sharp, and detailed. Only some mild jitter on hard horizontal or vertical surfaces (cell bars, desks) keeps this one from earning a perfect score.

THE AUDIO

Audio here comes in the form of a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track. The mix largely collapses into the front channel for interiors, but exteriors make very good use of the entire soundstage, with smooth pans and seamless discrete effects. There’s a great deal of deep bass action, both in the effects and Brian Tyler’s score. The only flaw in the mix is some muffled dialogue; it can be quite difficult to make out in the early scenes (especially the opening), but does become clearer as the movie moves along. No other audio options are included; English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

Disc One of this two-disc set, which houses the so-called Director’s Cut, contains the following extras, all of which are presented in high-definition:

The Justice of Law Abiding Citizen (6 minutes) takes a look at the legal quagmire at the center of the movie’s plot, but--for obvious reasons--doesn’t dig too deep. 

Law in Black and White (15 minutes) is an EPK-style making-of/promotional featurette.

Preliminary Arguments (7 minutes) looks at the CG effects employed in the movie. 

A couple of theatrical trailers are also included.

The sole extra on Disc Two, which houses the theatrical version, is a commentary by producers Lucas Foster and Alan Siegel.

FINAL THOUGHT