One of the more repugnant examples of Hollywood’s cheap-thrill approach to violence, its voyeuristic brutality is matched only by its innate stupidity.
CommentAug 9, 2010
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
25
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:150
Fresh:37
Rotten:113
Average Rating:4.3/10
Consensus: Unnecessarily violent and unflinchingly absurd, Law Abiding Citizen is plagued by subpar acting and a story that defies reason.
Theatrical Release: Oct 16, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $73.3M
Synopsis: An everyday guy decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets his family's killers free. His target: The district attorney who... [More]
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meaney, Bruce McGill
Director: F. Gary Gray
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REVIEWS FOR LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
The film can't seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be an audience pleasing popcorn treat or a serious, political thriller. It ends up being partly both... with varying degrees of success.
Apr 15, 2010
Putting aside the ideological posturing, this hyper-violent fantasy about a seemingly unstoppable killer who continues his murder spree behind bars delivers on its promise of an intriguing mystery, however far-fetched.
Feb 16, 2010
While one man's terrorist may be another's freedom fighter, it's not quite as simple when it comes to CIA operatives and your basic serial killer. Or rather, a CIA psycho family man that might make Jack The Ripper envious.
Feb 5, 2010
The diverting garbage that is Law Abiding Citizen would be more deplorable if it were possible to take this wholly implausible film seriously.
Jan 31, 2010
For large portions of Law Abiding Citizen we're not sure who is going to be the winner here, nor who we want to be, and though it won't make for much of a date flick, as far as intelligent action flicks go, it gets two big burly thumbs up.
Jan 30, 2010
While Law Abiding Citizen is in no sense a successful work of art, a film that offers the illicit thrill of cheering on an all-American terrorist is at least pursuing something more complex than ''moral clarity''.
Jan 28, 2010
A high-octane, high body-count thriller posing the question, how do you stop a psycho vigilante on a killing spree? Apparently, by any means necessary."
Jan 28, 2010
Bloodshed and torture abound in this sadistic thriller with pretensions.
Jan 26, 2010
An entertaining thrill ride but not much more.
Jan 26, 2010
The screenplay mashes up its elements and develops as a hairbrained plot without enough character substanc
Jan 21, 2010
On a side note, can you believe the Oscar-winning star of RAY made a crack about Helen Keller?
Dec 6, 2009
What sours F Gary Gray’s film is the drawn-out sadism of its violence — a depressing case of torture-porn methods infecting another genre.
Dec 4, 2009
[It's] pretending to examine the nature of justice, test the parameters of law and probe the relationship between good and evil. But really it's just intent on blowing shit up.
Dec 4, 2009
Law Abiding Citizen tries to be two kinds of exploitation film at once, and it ends up as neither.
Dec 4, 2009
The film's entertainment value resides almost entirely in the ingenuity of Butler's modus operandi; but this is cancelled out by the film's underlying stupidity.
Nov 27, 2009
Relentlessly ugly, preposterous and hackneyed of dialogue: guilty on all counts. It will do well, then.
Nov 27, 2009
Sadly, there’s nothing here but bloody off-cuts from ‘Death Wish’, ‘Saw’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, in roughly that order.
Nov 27, 2009
Put simply, this writer would take any number of bad movies over one nasty film. And make no mistake about it, Law Abiding Citizen is a very nasty movie indeed.
Nov 27, 2009
Full of incoherent, spitting rage, ignorant, paranoid violence and a complete lack of internal logic.
Nov 27, 2009
LATEST NEWS FOR LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
February 15, 2010:
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Law Abiding Citizen and Black Dynamite
Welcome to another week in home video. Many of the films that made big impacts before the winter movie season of 2009 have already found their way to DVD, so there isn't as much out there as one...
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October 15, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Where the Wild Things Are Is A Wild Rumpus
This week, we've got a wild rumpus (Where the Wild Things Are, starring Max Records and Catherine Keener), a legal skirmish (Law Abiding Citizen, starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler), and some...
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October 14, 2009:
Five Favorite Films with F. Gary Gray
Director F. Gary Gray began his career creating music videos for several big name R&B and hip-hop artists in the early 90s, including Ice Cube, TLC, and OutKast. In 1995, Gray made a big screen...
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October 6, 2009:
Win a $300 Apple Store Gift Card from Rotten Tomatoes and F. Gary Gray
The iPhone is cool, but it's even cooler to get one for free!
You could be the lucky winner of a $300 Apple Store gift card, if you enter the Law Abiding Citizen Re-Tweet contest. Here's what you...
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June 3, 2009:
Kurt Wimmer Has Total Recall
The "Total Recall" remake being produced by Neal H. Moritz has got itself a writer: "Law Abiding Citizen" scribe Kurt Wimmer.
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