In-theaters “Law-Abiding Citizen” good fun, not too deep
November 15, 2009
Who wouldn’t want to see Gerard Butler getting really pissed and wreaking havoc like Leonidas in 300? So I felt a little predisposed to enjoy in-theaters Law Abiding Citizen, and a solid 7.3 out of 10 stars on IMDb didn’t hurt, either.
And – for the most part – I am not disappointed. Citizen is smart, original, and full of emotion. Directory F. Gary Gray of The Italian Job and A Man Apart knows a bit about shooting payback, fusing enough emotion and heart into it to get the audience buy-in.
But there are a couple of drawbacks in case anyone was hoping for the perfect “falling down” flick. Foremost, it’s a little predictable. For some reason, directors tend to use sound (or the absence of it) to cue in viewers when something’s about to happen. The result is that you know what’s going to blow up before it does, who’s about to die, and often how. I think it would have proved far more potent to leave the surprises as surprises instead of preceding them with wide-angle shots and pregnant pauses (a dead giveaway – pun intended).
Too, I felt like this shaped up to be another Seven, where intricate plans wove together in such a macabre fashion that there was no way to guess the ending, and it would keep you up that night still putting the pieces together. In this respect, however, Citizen falls a little short.
All told, though, Citizen is worth watching in theaters and definitely worth a rental if you’d rather wait. There’s really nothing eye-popping, so waiting for it to hit DVD might be a good call if you’re not crazy excited to see it.
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