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I generally avoid movies that are getting as much buzz as this one. This is the movie they made with no money on a camcorder, I am sure you have heard of it. They have made like a zillion dollars now, no television trailers, let the viral rumble push it forward. Very intriguing and mysterious..I had to go, they got me, I should have known better.

This movie looks and feels like a documentary, sort of. It follows the main characters, a young couple Katie and Micah who are being bothered by an unseen entity that seems to have been following the female lead Katie around her whole life. The mocumentary takes place over 20+ days as they set up a video recording device to attempt to capture some of this “paranormal activity” on video and find out what is the cause of all of these frightening occurances.

Every ten years or so someone makes a movie with no budget and no studio that absolutely catches fire. By no budget, I am not talking about a 2 million dollar “low budget” indy. I am talking about a couple of people maxing out their credit cards to create their masterpiece. Clerks, The Blair Witch Project and Texas Chainsaw Massacre all immediately spring to mind. This movie definitely fall into this category. I know I am going to get hate mail for saying this but here it is, unlike the movies mentioned in the last sentence which were all very original, this movie completely stole the formula from Blair Witch. They have had 10 years to figure out how to stylize it so it looks smoother and they have better equipment, but it is a complete rip off. This movie has the luxury of the current, Saw VI, Twilight, Pirates of the Caribbean audience of lemmings who seem to be impressed with anything to push it forward. Lucky for them or they would never get those credit cards paid off.

Director: Gary Gray

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meany

The worst complaints I have about Law Abiding citizen are not the ridiculous plot or the tired, overdone evil genius character. The worst part of this project is that it has made alot of money and will encourage more crap to shoot out of Hollywood’s crap machine. Director Gary Gray has put out other weak action efforts like The Negotiator and The Italian Job remake where he wasted so much great talent that he should have been arrested for impersonating a filmmaker. Gerard Butler brings his considerable presence to the project and Foxx is solid enough.

Gerard Butler is Clyde Shelton, an ingenius inventor whose idyllic family-filled life is shattered when a couple of criminal misfits force their way into his home apparently for the main intention of killing everyone there and maybe grabbing a bit of jewellry. When they are caught, prosecutor nick Rice, played by Jamie Foxx, makes a plea bargain that allows the worst of the two criminals to be released in a mere ten years. It appears that Mr Shelton is a resourceful and patient man. He uses those then years to plan elaborate revenge on everyone he sees as being involved in this miscarriage of justice.

This film has found a following of non-discriminating viewers who will doubtlessly defend its glaring flaws with the “it’s only a movie” defense. It is only a movie. It is a bad movie that plays like Death Wish crossed with Saw. It’s unoriginal, over the top result is suitable viewing for fanas of the genre, but likely to be somewhere between nap-worthy and reactionary junk for others.