A review by Brooks Rich
Let's talk about Gerard Butler. I think the guy gets a bad rap because of some choices he has made. Yes Geostorm and some of his romantic films are bad movies. But Butler has real charisma and can be a good leading man. Look at his performance as Mike Banning in Olympus Has Fallen. He's a good John McClane esque action hero. 300 might be a joke at this point but he is a total badass in that film. But today I want to talk about the film I think has his most interesting performance. This is a film that is perfectly entertaining and tells a good morality tale. It has a sympathetic villain, played by Butler, who might go a little extreme in his methods but you can see where he is coming from.
Butler is Clyde Shelton, a family man who survives a brutal home invasion but witnesses the murders of his wife and daughter. He is devastated when the prosecutor Nick Rice, played by Jamie Foxx, accepts a deal from the worst of the two criminals for a conviction of the other criminal. Ten years later the execution of the convicted criminal goes horribly wrong and the other criminal is find brutally murdered. Shelton is arrested for the crimes but his act of vengeance is far from over as he feels those in the legal system who failed his family must be punished.
Butler is fantastic in this film. This is a complicated role and he does a great job in it. Again I think the man is talented. It's a shame he has picked some duds in the past. The Bounty Hunter anyone. But this film shows he can really shine if given the right material. He manages to bring Shelton from a sympathetic villain to just a flat out sociopath by the end of the film. I also really like Jamie Foxx as the cocky prosecutor in this film. Foxx doesn't always work for me but when he does he's fantastic. This is a great role for him. I love when actors who usually play cool and in charge characters are given a role where everything goes wrong around them and they aren't able to be that wise cracking coolest guy in the room. The best scenes in the movie are him and Butler together and the evolution of their relationship with each other. Butler is almost a hero to the prosecutors when he's first arrested for the two murders of the killers.
This film is directed by F. Gary Gray, a director everyone should check out. If you like Antoine Fuqua, you'll like F. Gary Gray. He recently did Straight Outta Compton and later this year Men in Black International will be released. He's a slick director and he gives Law Abiding Citizen a great look.
This is one to check out if you missed it. It's a fun ride and clocks in at a nice hour and fifty eight minutes. Give Gerard Butler a chance. Sometimes.
Let's talk about Gerard Butler. I think the guy gets a bad rap because of some choices he has made. Yes Geostorm and some of his romantic films are bad movies. But Butler has real charisma and can be a good leading man. Look at his performance as Mike Banning in Olympus Has Fallen. He's a good John McClane esque action hero. 300 might be a joke at this point but he is a total badass in that film. But today I want to talk about the film I think has his most interesting performance. This is a film that is perfectly entertaining and tells a good morality tale. It has a sympathetic villain, played by Butler, who might go a little extreme in his methods but you can see where he is coming from.
Butler is Clyde Shelton, a family man who survives a brutal home invasion but witnesses the murders of his wife and daughter. He is devastated when the prosecutor Nick Rice, played by Jamie Foxx, accepts a deal from the worst of the two criminals for a conviction of the other criminal. Ten years later the execution of the convicted criminal goes horribly wrong and the other criminal is find brutally murdered. Shelton is arrested for the crimes but his act of vengeance is far from over as he feels those in the legal system who failed his family must be punished.
Butler is fantastic in this film. This is a complicated role and he does a great job in it. Again I think the man is talented. It's a shame he has picked some duds in the past. The Bounty Hunter anyone. But this film shows he can really shine if given the right material. He manages to bring Shelton from a sympathetic villain to just a flat out sociopath by the end of the film. I also really like Jamie Foxx as the cocky prosecutor in this film. Foxx doesn't always work for me but when he does he's fantastic. This is a great role for him. I love when actors who usually play cool and in charge characters are given a role where everything goes wrong around them and they aren't able to be that wise cracking coolest guy in the room. The best scenes in the movie are him and Butler together and the evolution of their relationship with each other. Butler is almost a hero to the prosecutors when he's first arrested for the two murders of the killers.
This film is directed by F. Gary Gray, a director everyone should check out. If you like Antoine Fuqua, you'll like F. Gary Gray. He recently did Straight Outta Compton and later this year Men in Black International will be released. He's a slick director and he gives Law Abiding Citizen a great look.
This is one to check out if you missed it. It's a fun ride and clocks in at a nice hour and fifty eight minutes. Give Gerard Butler a chance. Sometimes.
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