Law Abiding Citizen

"Justice at any cost."

2009 1h 49m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 5,882

DramaCrimeThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“Justice at any cost.”

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Cast

Jamie Foxx
Nick Rice
Gerard Butler
Clyde Alexander 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

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: F. Gary Gray
Writers: Kurt Wimmer
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $53M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 17 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by F. Gary Gray, shot by Jonathan Sela. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Brian Tyler. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Tariq Anwar shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler and Colm Meaney carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Justice at any cost.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

F. Gary Gray directs. Jonathan Sela behind the camera. Brian Tyler scores. Tariq Anwar cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $53M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Released 17 years ago.
3International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
4Directed by F. Gary Gray, shot by Jonathan Sela. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Brian Tyler. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Tariq Anwar shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler and Colm Meaney carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Justice at any cost.".
9IMDB entry: tt1197624 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 17 themes, including "prison", "assassin", "philadelphia, pennsylvania", "bomb".
11Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Jonathan Sela
Original score: Brian Tyler
Editing: Tariq Anwar
Production design: Alex Hajdu
Costume design: Jeffrey Kurland
Makeup / hair: Diane Dixon
Sound: Adam Jenkins
Stunt coordinator: Artie Malesci
Runtime: 109 min · 1h 49m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $53,000,000
Box office: $127,900,000
Return: 241% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

Also by

F. Gary Gray

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2014-06-06
★ 8/10
You can’t fight fate. Right? Gerard Butler stars as Clyde Shelton, a man forced to not only watch his wife and daughter be raped and murdered in his own home, but to also have to sit there and watch the justice system fail him. So he wages a one man war against pretty much everyone involved. Hoo-Hah! The big hitting critics hated it, with comments ranging from it being sub-normal, preposterous, ugly and morally corrupt, to it being a comic book film of moral hectoring! Naturally, as the critics were at pains to point out that it would, it made a pot load at the box office and is generally well liked by a good portion of the action/revenge/thriller loving populace. There’s always a big grey area with revenge/vigilante movies that really brings out the debate crowd, but what rarely gets said is that through the actions of these cinematic waste layers is the chance for many, many, folk to live vicariously. Yes! 99% of the common man and woman do indeed sit back and trust our respective legal systems to do what’s right and just, but oh how we feel that given similar circumstances we would want to vent spleen with furious anger. Law Abiding Citizen is a riot, at its heart it does have something to say, even asking some pertinent questions. Do these social smarts come bursting through the bloody haze to make a point? No, they get submerged in a whirl of kinetic fury and socko violence, but they are there, caustically so. But hey! For shocks, twists and outrageous set-pieces, this picture rocks the big one. Vicarious living through cinema – wonderful. 8/10
vylmen2024-11-27
★ 6/10
Not the ending I wanted Some movies you want the bad guy to win and this is one of them. There's a few things missing here, like the setup that Clyde is really this smart inventor guy leading a double life. That could've used some secret door behind a front working in a lab kind of shots. And that Nick Rice is actually smarter, cause he wasn't. Other than that, it does keep you on your toes, mostly to see what Clyde comes up with and how he's going to fix the broken justice system.