Law Abiding Citizen / This is It: Two Movie Reviews

I've been trying my muscle at more precise, thoughtful movie reviews. Someone, somewhere, may one day give a fuck.

This Is It starts with tears. It’s the story of Michael Jackson’s months of rehearsal planned for his last world-tour. Unfortunately, as we all know, Jackson died eight days before the tour launched. Here we have a tragic behind-the-scenes glance at what that concert may have looked like.

The final result melts the eyes. Jackson has never looked so bad, almost needing no make-up to play a “Thriller” zombie. Claiming he was doing the whole rehashed shtick “for the fans” (also the intended audience of the movie), Jackson reimagines his classic tunes alongside a line-up of break dancers, a cover band and bikini dancers. This Is It blends between live and rehearsed acts with jarring levity, stopping and going with unending schizophrenia.

Jackson’s new tracks, yelping for world peace and environmental justice are preachy, sappy and overshadowed by the violence, sex and glamour, perhaps as it should be.

But all this asks, is this really a proper tribute to the King of Pop? Will fans really enjoy the surrealist manufactured feel throughout this unending outtake reel? Something always feels missing here and it isn’t just the eerie feeling of watching a dead man prance about again. It plays more like a DVD featurette than a biopic.

This Is It really isn’t it. It comes off as a way to make money on a dead man’s ticket, not a reminder of how great that man was.

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Law Abiding Citizen at first bows to America's love of brilliant killers, the typical genius murderer one step ahead of the authorities, but it soon lends to the ridiculous and trite.

Gerald Butler plays Clyde Shelton, a victim of a home invasion that resulted in his family slaughtered by two thugs. When Shelton's power-hungry lawyer, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) refuses to take the case to court, our victim turns vigilante not only against his aggressors but the entire court system of Philadelphia.

He's got valid reasons, as the holes he pokes in America's justice system actually exist. Many guilty criminals are let off with lesser sentences through plea bargaining or the like, so the idea of taking law into his own hands is fresh and gripping.

Immediately, Citizen grabs viewers by the balls, playing out like a cross between Se7en and Fracture with the pacing to match, but the treads in the story wear out midway.

The first half is acceptable and there isn't a moment you don't feel caught in the grasp of Shelton's antics yourself. Shelton utilizes Saw-like torture to kill the thugs responsible for his family's death, setting off a cat-and-mouse game with the District Attorney's office. Shelton admits guilt (sort of) in return for some petty favors, but even within prison he's right where he wants to be. With chess-like precision, he manipulates and threatens the D.A.'s office and commits several more gruesome murders remotely from his prison cell.

Plot isn't weakened by pacing but by plausibility. By the second half, it's difficult to believe anyone can procure military grade missiles that can be launched at a carefully chosen cemetery just to threaten one lawyer. Some of Shelton's actions (such as mailing a DVD of a man being chainsawed in half to a ten-year old)

become so bizarre, brazen and out-of-line with his original intent that the concept is almost lost.

Citizen is finally toppled by an anti-climatic, clichéd ending. Justice (or Shelton's view of it) is served to a select few and everyone else gets off with a saturated warning. But it all goes back to Law Abiding Citizen's real intent -- to be a crowd pleaser.

The constant, building tension; the gut-wrenching violence; the ingenious killer whose stand is his downfall -- it all equals a formulaic story-line with few rewarding plot twists or meaningful character development. But if the popcorn is fresh and buttery, it'd be worth a sit through.