If you're reading this review, then you're probably not a member of the target audience for "Law Abiding Citizen."
People who read aren't likely to buy into the movie's central ploy: that we should root for a killer who thinks that one legal mistake justifies the systematic killings of everyone associated with the judicial system, from the district attorney to the judges, the lawyers and even the mayor.
 Courtesy photo: Overture Films
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Then again, maybe I'm giving folks too much credit. This new $50 million movie from director F. Gary Gray clearly has aspirations of being a box-office hit. Good luck with that, Overture Films.
An over-the-top Gerard Butler stars as Clyde Shelton, a loving father and husband who spends 10 years plotting vengeance after the murders of his daughter and wife during a home invasion by two men. One of the criminals is sentenced to lethal injection, but the other — the one who actually committed the murders — gets away with a reduced sentence. So Shelton reasons that everyone associated with the case should die.
Shelton quickly ends up in prison, but the killings continue. And the big question is: How can this guy mastermind murders while in solitary confinement?
Jamie Foxx plays prosecutor Nick Rice, who originally cut the deal with the worst criminal in exchange for his testimony against the other one. It's sad to watch as Foxx slogs through his role. And it has to be said that the Oscar winner for "Ray" should pick his movies more carefully. His character in unlikable, and his range in this movie is one-note.
Viola Davis, another fine actor and an Oscar nominee for "Doubt," is criminally underused as the mayor of Philadelphia. And the rest of the cast is just meat for the ensuing murders — as well as the occasional spouting of hyperbolic dialogue.
"Law Abiding Citizen" has a few cinematically interesting moments. One of the opening scenes jumps from the lethal injection of a criminal to a similarly framed shot of little girl giving a cello concert — a chilling juxtaposition. But the tension doesn't last.
The climax is utterly predictable, the details nonsensical.
Long before then, you'll begin to wonder how long it will be till the audience is put out its misery. For the record, it will be one hour and 48 minutes.
