Movie · 2009 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · 1h 49m · R · English
Curator score: 2.3/10 (506.3K ratings)
Justice at any cost.
Overview
A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.3/10
IMDb: 7.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.40/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 26%
Metacritic: 34
TMDB: 7.4/10
Director
F. Gary Gray
Production
The Film Department, Evil Twins, Warp Films, Overture Films, G-BASE
Cast
Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meaney, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Michael Irby, Gregory Itzin, Regina Hall, Emerald-Angel Young, Brooke Stacy Mills, Christian Stolte, Annie Corley, Richard Portnow, Viola Davis, Michael Kelly, Josh Stewart, Roger Bart, Dan Bittner, Patrick McDade, Richard Barlow
Where to watch
Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus
Curator Review
Verdict
A slick, high-concept revenge thriller with a strong hook, propulsive pacing, and a gleefully unhinged central performance. It’s worth watching if you enjoy morally charged cat-and-mouse stories, but the film’s logic and ending are divisive enough that it lands more as an entertaining provocation than a fully satisfying thriller.
Best for
fans of revenge thrillers
viewers who like antihero vigilante stories
people who enjoy twisty legal-cat-and-mouse plots
audiences looking for a pulpy, high-energy crime movie
Skip if
you need airtight plotting
you dislike nihilistic or reactionary violence
you want a nuanced courtroom drama
you’re turned off by an ending that many viewers find frustrating
Overview
Law Abiding Citizen is built on a killer premise: what happens when grief, rage, and procedural failure curdle into a private war on the justice system? The movie moves fast, stages its set pieces with nasty confidence, and gives Gerard Butler a role that lets him lean into theatrical menace with real commitment.
Worth noting
The appeal is less about realism than escalation. It’s a glossy, aggressively engineered revenge fantasy that keeps trying to outdo itself, which makes it easy to watch even when the script starts stretching credibility. The film’s tone sits somewhere between grim thriller and pulp spectacle, and that tension is part of its draw.
Bottom line
Its biggest problem is also its most discussed feature: the ending undercuts a lot of the momentum that comes before it. If you’re in the mood for a smart, morally thorny thriller, this may frustrate you. If you want a loud, cynical, crowd-pleasing descent into vengeance, it delivers enough to justify the ride.
Top Letterboxd reviews
DirkH (2★) · 1011 likes
While you are reading this review, a man will knock on your door giving you an envelope with a key in it. Tomorrow you will go to a train station and use this key to open the empty locker it belongs to at exactly 13.02, after which you will be bothered by six aggressive mimes and a small monkey. After this, you will go home, call your mother at 14.23 and cry about it. How do I know this? I… more While you are reading this review, a man will knock on your door giving you an envelope with a key in it. Tomorrow you will go to a train station and use this key to open the empty locker it belongs to at exactly 13.02, after which you will be bothered by six aggressive mimes and a small monkey. After this, you will go home, call your mother at 14.23 and cry about it. How do I know this? I… more
SonnyBubba (2.5★) · 778 likes
Spoiler: he isn’t a law abiding citizen
Marcissus (3★) · 737 likes
every time a movie reveals that the villain getting caught was part of the plan i start hooting and hollering like an ape being electrocuted
1999 · Action, Drama, Crime · 1h 40m · R · Curator 1.3/10 (154.8K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
A hard-edged, revenge-forward crime film that embraces pulp energy and a cold, transactional worldview.