Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

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.

Director:

F. Gary Gray

Writer:

Kurt Wimmer

Stars:

Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meaney

2 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jamie Foxx	...	Nick Rice
Gerard Butler	...	Clyde Shelton
Colm Meaney	...	Detective Dunnigan
Bruce McGill	...	Jonas Cantrell
Leslie Bibb	...	Sarah Lowell
Michael Irby	...	Detective Garza
Gregory Itzin	...	Warden Iger
Regina Hall	...	Kelly Rice
Emerald-Angel Young	...	Denise Rice (as Emerald Angel Young)
Christian Stolte	...	Clarence Darby
Annie Corley	...	Judge Laura Burch
Richard Portnow	...	Bill Reynolds
Viola Davis	...	Mayor
Michael Kelly	...	Bray
Josh Stewart	...	Rupert Ames (as Joshua Stewart)

Storyline

Clyde Shelton's family is brutally murdered. The ones responsible are caught. However, because of improper procedure, the D.A., Nick Rice only has circumstantial evidence. So he decides to get one of them to testify against the other. When Shelton learns of this, he is not happy. Ten years later, the one who was convicted is being executed but something goes wrong; his execution goes awry and he suffers. They learn that someone tampered with the machine. And the other one is found dead, killed in a gruesome manner. Rice suspects Shelton, so he has him picked up. At first, Shelton agrees to a plea agreement with Rice but changes his mind. It appears that Shelton is not done, it appears he blames the whole system and is declaring war on it going after everyone involved with his family's case. So Rice has to stop him but Shelton is way ahead of him.

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Plot Keywords:

justice | district attorney | deal | unjust system | shot in the head | 

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Taglines:

The System Must Pay

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody brutal violence and torture, a scene of rape, and pervasive language

Details

Official Sites:

Constantin Film [de] Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 October 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Días de ira

Filming Locations:

500 Cheyney Rd, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,488,143 (UK) (27 November 2009)

Gross:

$73,343,413 (USA) (29 January 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Film Department, The, Warp Film, Evil Twins (I)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min 118 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

F. Gary Gray:  The detective who hands Garza the evidence bag after the execution scene.

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Goofs

Nick calls Clyde "Clive" at one point.

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Quotes

Jonas Cantrell: Clyde's government contract payments were bothering me, so I pulled some ancient strings. We're meeting someone.
Nick Rice: Who might that be?
Jonas Cantrell: Someone who does some really nasty shit so we can live the American Dream.

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Connections

Featured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #18.17 (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Mr. Tambourine Man"
Written by Bob Dylan
Performed by The Studio Sound Ensemble
Courtesy of Countdown Media GmbH

User Reviews

Action packed movie with less content

Movie starts off strong. Gerald Butler is the new Russell Crowe/Mel Gibson type lead guy. The movie plays out like the first SAW movie when it should have been more like a remake of DeathWish.Jamie Fox was a good rival for him. A very entertaining movie and was a fun roller-coaster. By the way, nobody walked out when I was there. Too stiff, no emotion not even toward his own family. The ending ruined it for me with its formula Hollywood cliché. It was an unnecessary way to take the cheap way out. Again the end could have been better though the movie was perfect till then.Has a very original plot. Go for the action junkie in you not the devil critic