Law Abiding Citizen

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

One of those movies you like more at the time than in retrospect.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The script does create sufficient tension and intrigue to hook viewers along with a photogenic, hardworking cast.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

That the film, directed in swift strokes by F. Gary Gray from a screenplay credited to Kurt Wimmer, doesn't really work - unrelentingly grim, unintentionally funny - is almost beside the point. It's a wild concept.

Variety Justin Chang

True torture-porn aficionados will be disappointed, as editor Tariq Anwar cuts away right before blade meets flesh -- a move that feels a tad, well, gutless under the circumstances. But elsewhere, "Citizen" proves startlingly graphic, even by R-rated standards.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Deep within Law Abiding Citizen lurks a thought-provoking movie. But most of what we see on the screen is implausible, superficial and only marginally involving.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The payback in Law Abiding Citizen doesn't have a cathartic kick, because the revenge is so extreme it's horrifying.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The biggest problem with Law Abiding Citizen, however, is that the plot is just plain dumb.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

LawAbiding Citizen smells a bit musty these days. Indeed, in an era when the debate has shifted from too little state vigilance to too damn much, this thing seems almost quaint.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

The movie starts out as a potboiler with a troubling character arc; unfortunately, it ends up becoming a goofy, story-overwhelming Rube Goldberg contraption that would make the producers of the "Saw" series blush.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Clyde is meant to be nuts, but too often it's Law Abiding Citizen that checks rationality at the door.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Law Abiding Citizen, ultimately and inappropriately, tips the scales in favor of the Man over mankind. Somebody call Charles Bronson.

NPR Mark Jenkins

We're supposed to be awed, but a more reasonable response is to giggle. How does a Kevlar tie kill? And if it can, why hasn't the CIA sent a Kevlar scarf to Osama bin Laden?

Los Angeles Times Glenn Whipp

The film's greatest sin isn't its cynical moral posturing but its complete failure to engage audiences on even a visceral level.

Empire Angie Errigo

Relentlessly ugly, preposterous and hackneyed of dialogue: guilty on all counts. It will do well, then.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Jeez, did the "surprise" climax have to be this eye-rollingly stupid?

Washington Post Dan Kois

A movie devoted to baroque revenge would be, on its own terms, acceptable; what makes Law Abiding Citizen so risible is its humorless conviction that it's got Big Ideas at its core.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Wears its preposterousness with a certain pride. It’s about the cat-and-mouse game between two very smart guys, and it’s perfectly happy to be as dumb as it wants.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Such a lazy action-drama underachiever, it seems unfair to target stars Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler for bringing their C game.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

If the filmmakers meant a word of it, they'd quit making films and do something more useful. "Saw" with a conscience is not what the world needs.

Time Richard Corliss

Butler has the showier part, but his impersonation of the tragic hero is undercut by his weird resemblance to Soupy Sales. You start hoping that Shelton will kill somebody with a custard (or puffer-fish) pie to the face.

Chicago Reader Cliff Doerksen

Generally I don’t mind a little recreational fascism as long as it’s deep-fried in savory violent vengeance, but this overwrought mess gives vigilantism a bad name.

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Biancolli

Vigilante movies hold a firm place in cinematic history, but for them to work, the vigilante needs to be a sympathetic anti-hero.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

A flagrantly ridiculous thriller that tries to retrofit "Saw" to function as a mainstream, semi-respectable vigilante picture

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Like a lot of action-movie directors, Gray lacks the imagination to view the art of cat-and-mouse as more than a chance to play with state-of-the-art war technology.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

A vigilante/torture-porn potpourri, is particularly toxic because it's scented with phony importance.

New York Post Kyle Smith

At last, the missing link be tween "Phantom of the Opera" and "Saw." Welcome to the gonzo revenge saga Law Abiding Citizen.