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Upon first catching reviews for this movie I knew I was in for a nice early fall treat when Law Abiding Citizen finally hit movie theaters. For one, Gerard Butler is in it, and since his rise to stardom in 300, he's become one of the more sought after actors it would seem. Jamie Foxx is in it also but one can argue he's very hit or miss, at least in my opinion, but he did tear it down in Ray. So going into this movie I had high expectations already with the amount of buzz the internet had been giving along with the quality of actors it had cast.. needless to say, I was on the edge of my seat the entire movie and had my expectations exceeded.

So you're given the premise, which kicks right off the bat, that Clide (Gerard Butler) had his house broken into by two bandits and his wife and daughter killed in front of his eyes. As the two men goto trial one of the two cuts a deal to get off with only a third degree charge thus the other man would get the death penalty while he would only serve five years. The movie jumps right into the suspense and does a very solid job with developing the characters without much lovey dovey type stuff. You can really grasp the angst and anger Clide possesses when he finds out they cut a deal and that the main killer out of the two men was going to go free in such little time. The movie immediately cuts to the trial, shows some pretty endearing scenes and really leaves you with a solid remorse sense for Clide.

Without giving away too much, the movie was paced very well. You suddenly flash forward ten years to the execution of the man sent to death row and this is where things start to take a turn in a very impressive fashion. Before long Clide has killed both of his familys killers and set to seek revenge on all those involved with putting the one killer back on the street. As the movie continues to unfold more and more mysteries come out and well as people are starting to be killed you can't help but think, "Holy Shit!" Gerard Butler delivers one of the best performances I've seen in a movie this entire year and his screen time with Jamie Foxx really capitvated myself as well as the rest of the audience as it left you wanting to know the next move and had me anticipating every next moment of the movie.

I must say I went into Law Abiding Citizen fairly drowsy, it may have been me weeding off the caffeine as of late but I never once found myself wanting to close my eyes. The one time I looked down to check my phone one of the more startling moments happened with the judge. Just when you started to think you had it all figured out new components were set forth furthering your mind wondering how the hell are all these things happening and who is doing them.

When the movie finally starts wrapping up you almost feel as if you could have endured another hour of the sags of Gerard Butler vs Jamie Foxx and their chemistry worked so well together. By the end I left the movie feeling emensly satisfied and I would highly recommend this movie to those of you who love smart thrillers that leave you guessing every minute and just when you think you have it figured out you're shocked once again. Definitely one of the better movies to come out after a fairly lackluster Summer. The critics don't agree, rotten tomatoes hated it, but I thought it was very entertaining.

-Aaron Yarborough