RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
Trending Searches: The American Machete The Last Exorcism Piranha 3-D
Movies / On DVD / Law Abiding Citizen
Law Abiding Citizen
  • Showtimes & Tickets
  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Visit Official Site External Icon

Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
25 %
Tomatometer
Template Image Template Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

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.

Share |

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong bloody brutal violence and torture, a scene of rape, and pervasive language

Runtime: 1 hr. 48 min.

Genre: Drama, Mystery & Suspense

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... 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 orchestrated the deal. [More]

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meaney, Bruce McGill

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meaney, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Michael Irby, Gregory Itzin, Regina Hall, Emerald Angel Young, Christian Stolte, Annie Corley, Richard Portnow, Viola Davis, Michael Kelly, Josh Stewart, Roger Bart, Dan Bittner, Evan Hart, Reno Laquintano, Jason Babinsky, Richard Barlow, Greg Young, Jim Gushue, Charlie Edward Alston, Anthony Lawton, Julian Marzal, David Villalobos, Ksenia Hulayev, Brooke Mills, Todd Lewis, Bijean Ngo, Cecelia Birt, Lamont Clayton, Lynn Boianelli, Dave Huddleston, Gabra Zackman, Brian Anthony Wilson, Stephanie Humphrey, Tracy Toth, Patrick F. McDade, Jim Fitzpatrick, Lawrence Laravela, Barbara Lambert, Timothy Whiteside, Nakia Dillard

Director: F. Gary Gray

Director: F. Gary Gray
Screenwriter: Kurt Wimmer
Producer: Gerard Butler , Lucas Foster , Mark Gill , Alan Siegel , Kurt Wimmer
Studio: Overture Films

[See More Credits]

  • Trailers
  • Pictures
  • Law Abiding Citizen
    >
    LAW ABIDING CITIZEN THANK YOU EXCLUSIVE CLIP
    >
    LAW ABIDING CITIZEN DONT EVEN TWITCH
    >
    LAW ABIDING CITIZEN WHERES REYNOLDS
    >
  • LAW ABIDING CITIZEN THE MAYORS PLAN
    >
    LAW ABIDING CITIZEN ITS WHAT YOU CAN PROVE IN COURT
    >
    LAW ABIDING CITIZEN HOWS CHIP
    >
    LAW ABIDING CITIZEN GET THIS SITUATION UNDER CONTROL
    >
  • LAW ABIDING CITIZEN GET SOME REST
    >
    LAW ABIDING CITIZEN GET DOWN
    >
    LAW ABIDING CITIZEN CONFESSION
    >
    LAW ABIDING CITIZEN BIBLICAL
    >
1 - 4 of 12

See More Movie Trailers & Pictures

GET THIS MOVIE

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 

REVIEWS FOR LAW ABIDING CITIZEN

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 of 150 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
Arrange By: Fresh | Rotten | Name | Source | Date
 
 

One of the more repugnant examples of Hollywood’s cheap-thrill approach to violence, its voyeuristic brutality is matched only by its innate stupidity.

Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | comment Comment
Aug 9, 2010
Simon Foster
Simon Foster
sbs.com.au

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.

Full Review Source: Fan The Fire | comment 1 Comment
Apr 15, 2010
Martin Roberts
Martin Roberts
Fan The Fire

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.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
Feb 16, 2010
Rossiter Drake
Rossiter Drake
San Francisco Examiner

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.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment Comment
Feb 5, 2010
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze

The diverting garbage that is Law Abiding Citizen would be more deplorable if it were possible to take this wholly implausible film seriously.

Full Review Source: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema | comment 2 Comments
Jan 31, 2010
Mark Pfeiffer
Mark Pfeiffer
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

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.

Full Review Source: smh.com.au | comment Comment
Jan 30, 2010
Giles Hardie
Giles Hardie
smh.com.au

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''.

Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | comment Comment
Jan 28, 2010
Jake Wilson
Jake Wilson
The Age (Australia)

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."

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment Comment
Jan 28, 2010
Kam Williams
Kam Williams
NewsBlaze

Bloodshed and torture abound in this sadistic thriller with pretensions.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
Jan 26, 2010
Sandra Hall
Sandra Hall
Sydney Morning Herald

An entertaining thrill ride but not much more.

Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | comment Comment
Jan 26, 2010
Julian Shaw
Julian Shaw
FILMINK (Australia)

The screenplay mashes up its elements and develops as a hairbrained plot without enough character substanc

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment 1 Comment
Jan 21, 2010
Andrew L. Urban
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile

On a side note, can you believe the Oscar-winning star of RAY made a crack about Helen Keller?

Full Review Source: Cinemalogue.com | comment Comment
Dec 6, 2009
Rubin Safaya
Rubin Safaya
Cinemalogue.com

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.

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | comment 7 Comments
Dec 4, 2009
Edward Porter
Edward Porter
Sunday Times (UK)

[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.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment 2 Comments
Dec 4, 2009
Jason Solomons
Jason Solomons
Observer [UK]

Law Abiding Citizen tries to be two kinds of exploitation film at once, and it ends up as neither.

Full Review Source: Independent on Sunday | comment Comment
Dec 4, 2009
Nicholas Barber
Nicholas Barber
Independent on Sunday

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.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
Nov 27, 2009
Robert Hanks
Robert Hanks
Independent

Relentlessly ugly, preposterous and hackneyed of dialogue: guilty on all counts. It will do well, then.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment 1 Comment
Nov 27, 2009
Angie Errigo
Angie Errigo
Empire Magazine

Sadly, there’s nothing here but bloody off-cuts from ‘Death Wish’, ‘Saw’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, in roughly that order.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment 1 Comment
Nov 27, 2009
Nigel Floyd
Nigel Floyd
Time Out

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.

Full Review Source: Film4 | comment Comment
Nov 27, 2009
Richard Luck
Richard Luck
Film4

Full of incoherent, spitting rage, ignorant, paranoid violence and a complete lack of internal logic.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
Nov 27, 2009
Wendy Ide
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]
 
 
1 - 20 of 150 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|

LATEST NEWS FOR LAW ABIDING CITIZEN

all

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... More...

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... More...

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... More...

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... More...

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. More...

DVD

Close
More DVDs
Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
19% 19% Cop Out
28% 28% Clash of the Titans
67% 67% Date Night
7% 7% The Bounty Hunter
50% 50% Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

More…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
30% 30% Why Did I Get Married Too
10% 10% Marmaduke
67% 67% Harry Brown
71% 71% Tormented
65% 65% Bent

More…

RT ON CURRENT TV

See All

The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV

DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...

Learn how you can be part of the show

More...

About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Press| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter
Copyright © 2010 Flixster, Inc. All rights reserved. | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy
Certain product data © 1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.
/movies/movie.old.jsp - web169.flixster.com (us)