Gerard Butler doesn’t actually shout ‘Nooooooo!’ during every scene of Law Abiding Citizen. But he could have fooled us. Playing the victim of a violent crime – wife and daughter are graphically dispatched in the film’s gratuitous overture – Mr. Butler charges around Law Abiding Citizen like its 300: The House Husband Saga.
Little do the perpetrators know that they’re messing with the wrong guy. An expert in firearms, explosives, escaping from jail, breaking and entering, murderous gadgets, building Labyrinthine secret tunnels beneath the city, Mr. Butler may even be endowed with superpowers if the preposterous plot is to be believed.
Bringing all his Spidey senses to bear, our vigilante antihero chases down the men who done him wrong, plus the judge, jury, executioner and city that allowed one of them to walk free. Ah ha. Little does he know that he’s also messing with the wrong guy. Jamie Foxx, the DA who took a plea bargain on the case is one of those movie lawyers who tears about in helicopters and busts down doors with Colm Meaney, an old-school loose cannon cop, riding shotgun. Less Perry Mason, more Judge Dredd, the Oscar-winning actor doesn’t take too kindly to the dispatching of his colleagues and friends. Let’s ride ‘em out, boys.
F. Gary Gray, a director who once promised great things on the back of Friday, Set It Off and The Negotiator, has been churning out faux-eighties rubbish like this since 1998. Arriving on the back of such misfires as Be Cool and A Man Apart, the plainly ludicrous Law Abiding Citizen does at least weave a spell around the viewer. It’s big, loud, dumb charms are more likely to have you laughing at, not with the material, but you couldn’t say there was a dull moment.