BOTTOM LINE: “Law Abiding Citizen” is a solid thriller that will grip you until its conclusion, but the chief villain is more sympathetic than the hero, which makes the hunt to stop the villain and the obligatory ending far from satisfying.

THE GOOD: Director F. Gary Gray has delivered some solid thrillers in the past, and he does so again with “Law Abiding Citizen”, largely thanks to the solid performances he engenders out of Gerard Butler and Jaime Foxx, and the dramatic underpinning of each sequence and the narrative as a whole. Gerard Butler plays Clyde Shelton, a man who watches his family be brutally murdered in front of him, and then later sees the prosecutor Nick Rice (Jaime Foxx) strike a plea bargain to ensure at least one of the perpetrators gets the death penalty, while the other, and more guilty party, only gets five years in prison. This starting point in the story is imminently relatable, and immediately puts you on Shelton’s side. Shelton however takes matters in to his own hands, and in a diabolical scheme, he captures the man who murdered his family and brutally tortures him to death. Shelton allows himself to be caught and held in prison by Rice, but this is just the beginning of his plans to bring down the justice system itself which had wronged him. The film deals with the morally questionable issues of justice in our legal system, and juxtaposes a thrilling cat and mouse game of wits between Rice and Shelton, with the former’s arrogance turning to humility as he realises that Shelton is much more than just a man that was wronged. Gerard Butler performs strongly as Shelton, mixing a certain amount of vulnerability and pure lethalness in to his performance. Jaime Foxx plays the arrogant, yet good lawyer quite effectively. “Law Abiding Citizen” twists and turns like any good thriller should, leaving you hooked until its last moments.

THE BAD: The main problem with this film is that the villain Clyde Shelton is the guy you want to see win. Sure, he takes his revenge and diabolical plot too far, but he has an excellent and more than understandable reason to do so. Meanwhile, the Nick Rice character oozes the kind of smugness from the outset that automatically does not make you like him, coupled with the fact that despite a decent performance by Foxx, you never really feel or see the character transform from smug lawyer to moral and ethical enforcer (aside from him going through the motions by saying the words). Rice sees friends and colleagues killed by Shelton’s schemes, but you never really see Rice feel it. So each time Shelton ups the ante and shows how far ahead he is of Rice, you go for him; by the climax, you do not want to see him lose, which of course has to happen in a film like this. In the final scene, you see some emotion from Rice, but by then, it has no impact. “Law Abiding Citizen” is great until its ending.