Suspension of disbelief is a funny thing. I know lots of people who are able to buy into a movies premise with no thought whatsoever and don't care about realism at all. I also know lots of people who want everything in films to be ultra realistic. I fall somewhere in between and my ability to suspend disbelief varies, depending on a movies subject matter and tone. Law Abiding Citizen starts off presenting itself as a realistic legal thriller but it quickly explodes into a series of wholeheartedly amazing events.
Gerard Butler plays Clyde Shelton an engineer who's family suffers a horrible tragedy. Jamie Foxx plays Nick Rice the lawyer in charge of his case. Things don't go Clyde's way in a legal sense and from there things start to get really crazy. I won't give away any of the plot twists but suffice it to say you probably don't want to think too much.
Both lead actors give perfectly acceptable performances with Butler in particular showing more range than he previously has, Director F. Gary Gray (Friday, The Negotiator, The Italian Job) does his best to keep things interesting with stylish direction involving interesting camera movements and angles but ultimately the implausibility of the script is just too much to overcome. Things happen that are so far fetched it's impossible to take it seriously but the tone of the movie doesn't allow for any humor to come through intentionally.
The Blu-ray is solid but not spectacular. The film visual design is intentionally murky and while the video transfer is a accurate representation it isn't the type that will make you want to show off your HT as well. Detail is excellent and so are black levels but there is really no color to show off. The audio track is solid as well. Dialogue is always clear and there are plenty of explosive action pieces throughout to give your surround sound a workout all with ample bass effect.
Your enjoyment of Law Abiding Citizen will likely depend on your ability to suspend disbelief. Thinking about it too much will probably give you a headache but if you want to sit back and enjoy the things happening purely on a surface level, you'll get more enjoyment out of it than I did.
Ratings:
Movie: 2.5/5
Blu-ray 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment