Law Abiding Citizen
Time Out New York Project: Issue #734, October 22-28, 2009
★★☆☆☆
Dir. F. Gary Gray. 2009. R. 108mins. Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Colm Meaney.
It’s basically Saw with Gerard Butler as Jigsaw, which means he’s as righteous of body as he is of mind. His character, Clyde Shelton, goes on a ten-years-in-the-planning revenge spree after a Philadelphia lawman (Foxx) cuts a deal with one of the psychos who murdered his family. But how can this piety-spouting killer be stopped…when he’s already in jail? You could truly get high off the concept, but at least director F. Gary Gray casts an appreciably artistic eye over the sanctimonious bloodletting.—Keith Uhlich