LAW ABIDING CITIZEN - UNRATED DIRECTOR'S CUT (Anchor Bay/Overture Films)

Mike LoManaco

Studio Name: Anchor Bay (Overture Films/The Film Department)
MPAA Rating: R
Disc/Transfer Information: 1080p; Widescreen 2.40:1
Tested Audio Track: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Director: F. Gary Gray
Starring Cast: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meaney

PLOT ANALYSIS:

The element that did in the reasonably taut thriller Law Abiding Citizen was the casting of Jamie Foxx here – as hard as Foxx tries (and I am a fan of his work), he can’t hide that “I’m the kid from the ghetto that knows it all and who will mouth off any time I feel like it” which defined his performance in Any Given Sunday. I just didn’t buy him as a Philadelphia prosecutor.

The genesis here has been experimented with before on different varying levels – it’s a story of human-driven revenge and how far someone will go to avenge a wife and child that has been slaughtered. Sally Field had her hand in this in Eye For An Eye and of course we had that Jodie Foster vigilante thrillster a few years back. Heck, Charles Bronson has been doing it through multiple Death Wish sequels. But F. Gary Gray’s Law Abiding Citizen takes the whole concept to a dizzying new level – that’s not to say the film was great or effective because for the most part, it wasn’t. But the way Gerard Butler plays the brooding, chillingly bent-on-revenge Clyde Shelton, it may go down as one of the best character performances from this actor akin to the way Javier Bodem played his hit man role in No Country for Old Men.

From the get-go, the plot seems fairly simple. Clyde Shelton (Butler) is a seemingly ordinary family man whose life is turned upside down when a home invasion takes the life of his wife and little daughter. Enter Jamie Foxx’s Nick Rice, a hotshot Philadelphia prosecutor assigned to the case, who ends up letting one of the accused men cop a plea when he fingers his partner in the crime. Of course, this situation infuriates Butler, and then we fast forward 10 years later where the criminal that copped the plea is on the run from the cops, and a mysterious caller routes him to apparent safety within an abandoned factory of some kind. The real kicker comes when the man learns the real identity of the person who lured him into this factory – and what he wants. The criminal is tortured unmercifully and rather horrifically, Saw-style, and his remains at the end of this sequence are very difficult to look at. Meanwhile, the other partner in crime that got collared for Butler’s family’s murder in prison, meets a horrifying death in the lethal injection chamber – worse than anything the injections could have done. Is it a coincidence that these two men responsible for the horrible crime 10 years earlier were both murdered off in a rather graphic fashion?

Unbelievably, Butler admits to both murders to Foxx, after he’s cornered as a suspect; why anyone would wholeheartedly admit to such crimes knowing the penalty is the question here, but Butler seems to have a motive. This began to feel much like the Anthony Hopkins thriller Fracture at this point, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Suddenly, anyone connected to the case begins to be killed off, and seemingly, somehow, even from prison, Butler is behind it all. It begins going beyond revenge for his family at this point, as Butler tells Foxx that he either fixes the corrupt system of law they’re dealing with, or everyone is accountable – and he will continue his killing spree no matter where he is locked up.

As Foxx and investigator Colm Meaney poke around, they find out Butler’s dark secret…a secret imbedded deep within the covert operations and governmental engineering realms. Seemingly unstoppable, Butler continues planning kill after kill when he feels the justice for his family isn’t speeding up enough. From a brutal killing of his wise-mouthed cellmate to plots of offing high-ranking Philadelphia officials including the mayor, Butler’s surgical hits – carried out on the outside of prison – are graphically effective and are at the heart of Law Abiding Citizen’s plot pulse.

This is definitely worth a rental. The idea was effective, but I just don’t think it was executed or conceptualized well – these heavy-handed revenge stories, if not handled in the right manner, can be more of a disappointment than an entertaining action piece. It’s not that Law Abiding Citizen was disappointing – it had its moments of hair-raising tension and atmosphere – but something about it didn’t make for a great piece of cinema at the end of the day. I didn’t like Foxx’s performance in this, as he was still coming across as that “bad-**** brotha from the ‘hood” that listens to no one and goes off half-cocked at every turn, and aside from a co-starring role by the sexy Leslie Bibb of Iron-Man, there was no eye candy to speak of.

But – as I said, give this a rental.


VIDEO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC LOOK?

Surprisingly, Law Abiding Citizen was released by fairly small-time studio conglomerates Anchor Bay/Overture Films/The Film Department. The 1080p 2.40:1 transfer on the Blu-ray redefines the term “mixed bag;” some shots looked grainy and horribly soft, and then outdoor shots would return to gobs of detail and texture. This goes back and forth throughout the disc’s 109-minute running time, and it got disheartening after awhile.

AUDIO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC SOUND?

Law Abiding Citizen comes equipped with one English audio track which defaulted upon playback, a 5.1 TrueHD mix that wasn’t really a standout in any particular way. Dialogue and center channel delivery was a bit on the weak side, requiring volume hikes beyond the norm, while action sequences didn’t quite utilize all channels in the soundstage. To be honest, this track seemed like a decent-effort Dolby Digital mix that was simply dropped on a Blu-ray encode; as if the listener gets the feeling that this may have been an audio track which accompanied a DVD version from this relatively small-time studio group, and it was an average Dolby Digital track at that.

Still, to be fair, the track had moments of hectic energy during gunfire shootouts and such; just nothing demo-worthy here.

Do yourself a favor and give this a rental spin; I don’t have any recommendations either way for a buy, but if you enjoy it, by all means put it on your shelf. There are worse films out there.

leroyjr1

Good movie.

Mike LoManaco

leroyjr1 wrote: »

Good movie.

I take it you liked it, Leroy.

Did you rent it on Blu or DVD, or did you see it in theaters?

danz1906

Good sound on Blu-Ray!

muncybob

Received this from Netflix and watched it last night...actually was a better film than I anticipated. I normally stop my dvd's as soon as the movie is over but the initial song in the closing credits brought back memories....long time since I listened to Grand Funk Railroad...just ordered this remaster cd (Closer To Home) and am looking forward to hearing it since my rig is much better now than back in the early 70's!

kuntasensei

Since Patrick saw fit to remove reference to it, anyone who wants to discuss the movie itself and not Mike's review should go to the existing thread:
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91226

You know... so we don't have multiple threads on the same movie just to feed someone's ego.

Willow

kuntasensei wrote: »

Since Patrick saw fit to remove reference to it, anyone who wants to discuss the movie itself and not Mike's review should go to the existing thread:
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91226

You know... so we don't have multiple threads on the same movie just to feed someone's ego.

I know...maybe 3rd time's a charm...

Knucklehead

Frickin' ridiculous.

Ricardo

Patrick, I know some of us sometimes behave like children.
Ok. With that out of the way, let me say that I do not think it's right to ask people not to post on Mike's threads. Many of us think that if there's a thread already for a given movie, he should post his reviews in those threads.
I know, not big deal, but expressing this is not a big deal either. If he doesn't like it, well, that's too bad. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. And when you post in an internet forum, you should know that you might not like what everyone says. Again, as long as there are no offenses, there's no reason to complain.
This whole subject is really stupid, but the fact is that if Mike wanted to be accepted, he could easily follow the recommendations that have been given to him since he started with his reviews. But no, he acts like he is special (just my opinion).
Of course we could all just ignore him...but why? In my opinion what we are asking is pretty fair. No, not important at all, but fair.

So, if I happen to come up with one of these threads, I might post saying that there is another thread already on the same movie. I would appreciate if you didn't remove those posts.

Thanks!!

dorokusai

Ricardo wrote: »

Patrick, I know some of us sometimes behave like children.
Ok. With that out of the way, let me say that I do not think it's right to ask people not to post on Mike's threads. Many of us think that if there's a thread already for a given movie, he should post his reviews in those threads.
I know, not big deal, but expressing this is not a big deal either. If he doesn't like it, well, that's too bad. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. And when you post in an internet forum, you should know that you might not like what everyone says. Again, as long as there are no offenses, there's no reason to complain.
This whole subject is really stupid, but the fact is that if Mike wanted to be accepted, he could easily follow the recommendations that have been given to him since he started with his reviews. But no, he acts like he is special (just my opinion).
Of course we could all just ignore him...but why? In my opinion what we are asking is pretty fair. No, not important at all, but fair.

So, if I happen to come up with one of these threads, I might post saying that there is another thread already on the same movie. I would appreciate if you didn't remove those posts.

Thanks!!

Who has removed posts recently? I understand the uneccesary need for multiple movie threads and perhaps it should be date based. The problem is that each member is allowed to post at will and before he showed up, there were still multiple movie threads because the effort of the individual is low when it comes to the search function.

I've identified an overall dislike of Mike LoMonoco or whatever his name is, as it's not to hard to see but I would encourage the Ignore function since he doesn't really post anywhere else anyways....it should be fairly easy.

Cmon guys, you're killing me here.

Ricardo

dorokusai wrote: »

Who has removed posts recently?

I don't know. Probably a moderator

Cmon guys, you're killing me here.

Why? Let him have his own threads, and let others tell him that he should use existing threads. I don't see the big deal (Unless of course someone is complaining/reporting. I know I am not. And if no rules have been broken, no one should be complaining/reporting).

dorokusai

Well, I haven't removed posts recently and really don't recall doing so at all. I understand but the same thing happened previously and the hints were taken and most of the threads moved on. Maybe he only reads in Russian but types in English...I dunno. Try that approach.

Ricardo

Вы смотрите горячей, когда вы получаете с ума.

concealer404

нαι gυιѕє ι'м туριηg тнιѕ ιη ƒαкє яυѕѕιαη. уσυ ℓιкє؟

dorokusai

Lmao

Demiurge

Я ВЫИГРАЛ МЕДАЛЬ ПЛАТИНЫ. Я ЛУЧШЕ ВСЕГО ВРЕМЯ!

Ricardo

Вам необходимо улучшить правописание Demi.

Demiurge

ВЫ ВЕРОЯТНО ПРАВЫ

concealer404

Время существенно.

Demiurge

hahaha

I WON THE MEDAL OF PLATINUM. I IS BEST ANYTHING TIME!

Demiurge

In Soviet Russia, Russian spells you. :eek:

concealer404

Demiurge wrote: »

hahaha

Funny, when i translated it, it sounded like something from that icanhascheezburger site.

Demiurge wrote:

I HAVE won the MEDAL of PLATINUM. I is BETTER TIME!

concealer404

Demiurge wrote: »

In Soviet Russia, Russian spells you. :eek:

In the Soviet Russia, Russian writes down you

Demiurge

concealer404 wrote: »

Funny, when i translated it, it sounded like something from that icanhascheezburger site.

haha.

Was making fun of this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeni_Plushenko

What made it funny (to me) is his English sounds just like the way it translated.

Ricardo

Так что же, ребята, как летом этого фильма или нет?

Demiurge

Ricardo wrote: »

Так что же, ребята, как летом этого фильма или нет?

Translated:

But so that, children, as in summer this film or not?

Ricardo

Not really.....

"So, did you guys like this movie or not?"

Your translator is not working right.

Edit: He he. backwards it gave me this:

"So, guys in the summer of this film or not?"

concealer404

Я занимался любовью с этим кино, и это ответило подобным способом

Ricardo

Хорошо. Мне нужно проделать определенную работу сейчас.

Demiurge

concealer404 wrote: »

Я занимался любовью с этим кино, и это ответило подобным способом

....

I fornicated love for this cinema, and this answered by a similar method.

concealer404

That was way funnier on mine...

I made love to it cinema, and it has answered with similar way