The film's entertainment value resides almost entirely in the ingenuity of Butler's modus operandi; but this is cancelled out by the film's underlying stupidity.
Comment
11/27/09
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
25
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:127
Fresh:32
Rotten:95
Average Rating:4.3/10
Consensus: Unnecessarily violent and unflinchingly absurd, Law Abiding Citizen is plagued by subpar acting and a story that defies reason.
Rated: 18 [See Full Rating]
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:27-11-2009
Synopsis: In LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, a prisoner's incredible reign over the city outside his cell is interrupted by an assistant district attorney. Gerard Butler (300) stars.
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Viola Davis, Bruce McGill
Director: F. Gary Gray
Reviews for Law Abiding Citizen
Relentlessly ugly, preposterous and hackneyed of dialogue: guilty on all counts. It will do well, then.
11/27/09
Top CriticSadly, there’s nothing here but bloody off-cuts from ‘Death Wish’, ‘Saw’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, in roughly that order.
11/27/09
Top CriticPut simply, this writer would take any number of bad movies over one nasty film. And make no mistake about it, Law Abiding Citizen is a very nasty movie indeed.
11/27/09
Top CriticFull of incoherent, spitting rage, ignorant, paranoid violence and a complete lack of internal logic.
11/27/09
Top CriticIt's silly and nasty at the same time: not a good combination.
11/27/09
Top CriticThe motto of Law Abiding Citizen, endlessly repeated by Shelton, is that everyone must account for their actions. Does that apply to the people who made and star in this truly dire film?
11/27/09
Top CriticThe film doesn’t take itself too seriously and there are enough cool deaths and thrills to entertain despite the ridiculous premise.
11/27/09
Hollywood hokum of the tallest order. Riddled with supernova-sized plot holes and soaked in clichés, it's that rare breed of film that succeeds despite its credibility-straining premise and black and white morality.
11/27/09
Wildly implausible tosh.
11/27/09
Could have made for a decent enough B-movie renter if it had just aimed a bit lower, but the moral drum-banging only serves to throw its failings into even sharper relief.
11/27/09
Foxx is perfectly cast as the moral compass of the film, but it's Butler's edgy portrayal, walking a thin line between madness and genius, which leaves a lasting impression.
11/27/09
Arguably the most preposterous picture of the year.
11/27/09
A piece of big, brash, brains-out popcorn fodder best savoured after last orders.
11/27/09
When reality melts and major US cities become porous, we need some of the mad panache recently demonstrated by Roland Emmerich in 2012.
11/27/09
With film, the question is not always, “Do I believe it?”; more often, it is “Do they believe it?” And in the case of Law Abiding Citizen they believe it so much that revenge becomes a thing you can taste.
11/27/09
Dodgy politics aside, Law Abiding Citizen is a slickly made, trashily entertaining thriller that builds to a suitably explosive climax.
11/27/09
Super-slick filmmaking masks this thriller's reprehensible message that violence can solve any problem. It's so beautifully shot and nicely underplayed by the cast that viewers could be fooled into believing that it's coherent or acceptable.
11/27/09
If you want a crazy mix of Saw and Shawshank, where a lot of people get killed in nasty ways and Gerard Butler gets his bum out, then this is a decent bet.
11/27/09
A morally dubious, deliriously demented thriller.
11/27/09
Latest News for Law Abiding Citizen
October 15, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Where the Wild Things Are Is A Wild Rumpus
This week, we've got a wild rumpus (Where the Wild Things Are, starring Max Records and Catherine Keener), a legal skirmish (Law Abiding Citizen, starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard... More...
October 14, 2009:
Five Favorite Films with F. Gary Gray
Director F. Gary Gray began his career creating music videos for several big name R&B and hip-hop artists in the early 90s, including Ice Cube, TLC, and OutKast. In 1995, Gray... More...
October 06, 2009:
Win a $300 Apple Store Gift Card from Rotten Tomatoes and F. Gary Gray
The iPhone is cool, but it's even cooler to get one for free!
You could be the lucky winner of a $300 Apple Store gift card, if you enter the Law Abiding Citizen Re-Tweet... More...
September 28, 2009:
New: Brand New Trailer/Poster. 
More...
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