Law Abiding Citizen (2009) * * 1/2

Directed by:  F. Gary Gray

Starring:  Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Viola Davis, Colm Meaney

Clyde Shelton (Butler) is a Philadelphia family man driven to extreme measures for vengeance after his wife and daughter are killed in a home invasion and only one of the perpetrators is executed.    The other does jail time, thanks to a plea deal orchestrated by attorney Nick Rice (Foxx), but is not sentenced to death.     This does not sit well with Clyde, who years later returns to knock off not only his family's killers, but the attorneys involved in what he perceives to be a miscarriage of justice.   

Directed by F. Gary Gray (Friday, The Negotiator, The Italian Job), Law-Abiding Citizen delivers the goods on the action and suspense at the expense of plot holes two miles wide.     I will leave you to discover how Clyde, imprisoned for killing the two men who offed his family, somehow manages to kill his other targets while in a jail cell.     Is he acting with an accomplice?    Is he Houdini's grandson?   Is he a supernatural being?    I'll never tell.  

Clyde surely manipulates Nick and the rest of the Philadelphia legal system with his stunts and exposing loopholes in the law.    His mission is not simply to kill, but to show the legal system how easily it can be duped and how laws seem to benefit killers more than victims.     He is likely correct, but since he is the villain, he must be stopped by Nick and his staff which always is one step behind Clyde.    It would've been more interesting to have Clyde behave as not simply a villain, but as a wronged man with whom we can sympathize with a little.     Because he behaves so viciously, we forget what brought him to these actions, and thus Law Abiding Citizen is simply a good vs. evil cat and mouse movie.

On that level, Law Abiding Citizen gets the job done, but try not to let these questions bother you while watching it and you will enjoy it gleefully:

*  When one or more of the murders occurs in which Clyde is a suspect in at least planning even though he is in jail, wouldn't the first order of business be to retrieve Clyde right away and question him?    Maybe this would've ruined the surprise ending, but oh well.

*   How does the explosion which Nick walks away from know to have its flames and debris stop just short of him and not hit him?

*   If a building is on lockdown because a mad bomber is on the loose in the city, why would they allow an office cleaner by to have unfettered access to the place?    The place is on lockdown.    Can't the building's cleanliness wait at least one night?    Did you ever notice how easily a hero or villain can pose as an office cleaner to gain access to the building or office they need to investigate?   (See The Fugitive or Wall Street)  

*  How do they gain access to the cleaning supplies cart by the way?  

Logic flies out the window often in Law Abiding Citizen, but on its intended level it is effectively made.     My curse in life is letting plot logic deter my enjoyment sometimes.     It's an occupational hazard.