Shock to the System

First things first. Halagan will hate this movie, I'm sure of it. I think he should stay away from this film and just assume the worst. I have a feeling he would deride the script and ridicule every single development in the story. He would feel he just wasted both his money and an hour and forty-eight minutes of his life that will never return. That said, I will confess that I loved this movie.

Law Abiding Citizen stars Gerard Butler as Clyde Shelton, a man whose wife and daughter are murdered right in front of him. Jamie Foxx, the attorney who is assigned to this case, plays it safe so he can score another conviction and lets one of the two killers walk away in exchange for his testimony incriminating the other guy. As you might imagine, the one that walks away is the one who actually murdered Shelton's family, and the one who is sentenced to death was "only" his accomplice. Needless to say, Butler's character isn't exactly thrilled with a system that lets killers get away with murder, and his vicious retribution will know no limits. The twist? He lets himself get captured and thrown in jail, and that's where he is orchestrating everything from. How is he doing it? Who's helping him? And why can't the DA and the cops stop him?

You can argue the movie is dumb, unoriginal, gratuitously violent, and that it tries to portray a killer as the good guy, but I disagree. For a vigilante movie, I thought it was pretty original, and the brutality of Shelton's actions is comparable to his heartrending loss. I totally sympathized with him, and I was gleefully clapping my hands every time one of the bad guys got what they deserved. Sure, sure, Shelton is a killer and no better than the ones who murdered his family, and blah, blah, blah, but hey: they did murder his wife and his five-year-old daughter, and justice was not served. I can picture myself in his situation, and I can completely understand what he does. What if somebody killed your family and leisurely walked away? Wouldn't you want to hunt them down and kill them? I know I would. Does that make me a bad person? I don't think so. I think I am just willing to admit what most people wouldn't because they know it's "wrong".

I think the best part in the movie is Clyde Shelton proving how the system is broken, and how eloquently he makes his point. Early in the film, there is a hearing regarding his being kept in prison without bail, and he argues that the DA didn't offer a shred of evidence incriminating him. Then he cites a couple of precedents and talks about how his civil rights are being trampled, and the judge agrees that he should be allowed to leave prison if bail is posted. And that is when Shelton, to the judge's shock, points out how stupid the system is, and how after he fed the judge "some bullshit precedents" he can literally get away with murder. He keeps pointing out what he sees as horrible flaws in the system throughout the movie, and his examples are so devastating that I couldn't help but side with him. It was just so much fun!

So yeah. The critics panned it, and Halagan would probably want to hit me with a crowbar, but I have to be honest with you: Law Abiding Citizen was great fun, and I will definitely get it on DVD when it comes out and goes cheap. A good time at the movies!