---

Law Abiding Citizen

**

Stars: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Christian Stolte, Viola Davis.

Director: F. Gary Gray

Rated: R

Showing: Speciality Cinema, daily at 9:15pm

Runtime: 109 minutes

Crime/drama/thriller

With Oscar winner Jamie Foxx heading the cast you expect this revenge thriller to pack a punch - but it's a knock-out dud.

It aims to be a scathing critique of the failings of the U.S. legal system but the message is lost amid an onslaught of explosions, bullets and bodies.

The story centres on Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) whose wife and daughter are raped and murdered.

He is distraught to learn one of the duo responsible will not be prosecuted because the evidence was comprised by a bungled forensic investigation.

Shelton begs assistant district attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) to take the case to court but he declines as he cannot prove it.

Instead, to maintain his high conviction rate, he makes a deal that sees one of the perpetrators, Clarence Darby (Christian Stolte), charged with third degree murder and the other, Rupert Ames (Josh Stewart) with theft.

Fast-forward 10 years and Shelton returns seeking revenge and exact his own version of vigilante justice on the crooks and legal eagles who let him down.

He gets himself arrested but the hyper-intelligent sociopath manages to arrange a string of murders from his cell.

The bad guys get what they deserve in increasingly gruesome ways, including dismemberment and being buried alive.

The movie lurches from being an interesting commentary on justice to a rip-off of Saw thanks to Shelton's sadistic revenge kills.

And you soon lose empathy for Shelton as he goes from grieving to grevious.

Jamie Foxx is as reliable as ever but looks bored, while Butler must be kicking himself for being tied to yet another stinker after the appalling Gamer and schmaltzy PS I Love You.

If you want a great revenge tale, stick with The Count Of Monte Cristo.

Watch if you liked: Saw.

[[In-content Ad]]

---