Whether you’re stuck inside or out getting pelted by rain, odds are you need a suggestion for your next Netflix binge…
And we’ve got the answer for you, neatly packed up in the first Executive Decision of the year. You know, the weekly article where we hit you hard and fast with five, impossible-to-argue-against reasons as to why you should rewatch a certain movie on a certain streaming platform? We ended 2021 with a Chrissy classic in Will Ferrell’s Elf (naturally) and we’re starting 2022 on a slightly darker note (which, let’s face it, seems appropriate), with the cult-classic Law Abiding Citizen.
Centred around Gerrard Buttler’s Clyde Shelton whose family is viciously murdered in front of him, the film follows him as he goes to the absolute extremes to get revenge. Not only against the murder himself but also the judicial system that subsequently let the injustice go unpunished. It’s a cult classic, and despite that controversial ending (that Jamie Foxx allegedly demanded be written into the script), it’s a cult classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX6kVRsdXW4
And so, we’ve made the executive decision for you. You’re switching on Netflix and chucking on the Gerrard Buttler classic Law Abiding Citizen tonight. No ifs, no buts.
Gerard Buttler’s trolling levels
Aside from being a maniacal, hell-destined psychopath that’s got some ridiculous anger management issues, old mate Buttler is a right comedian in this flick. Most well shown during his trolling the hell out of Jamie Foxx’s Nick Rice along with his iconic line “That’s what wrenches are for dumbass,” well, he manages to make us actually like him for a brief moment or two.
FOOD
I’m a simple man. I see macaroni, steak and what sounds like a very undercooked asparagus in a film, I get hungry. Probably don’t watch the part where Buttler stabs the absolute shit out of his cellmate who’s halfway through digesting his macaroni; it might just well put you off the cheese-drenched delicacy for good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKz3O2il_rA
The court scene
This courtroom scene right here might well be the best representation of how cooked the legal system can be. You’ve got to hand it to Buttler’s Clyde Shelton though, it takes a hell of a lot of brains (and badassery) to double-cross a lawyer, talk circles around a judge to freedom and subsequently throw it all back in their faces. We’re guessing real court never goes down like this, but still, what a scene man.
Creative destruction
Okay, without sounding too much like a sociopath, the levels of destruction and the methods with which Clyde Shelton carries out his murders are straight up outside of the box on this one. I mean, he makes each move to bring about terror look like a beautifully crafted, insanely calculated artwork. It’s most notably (and heartbreakingly) shown here when he kills a bunch of Foxx’s co-workers, leaving his beloved assistant for last.
The message
Well, this is the obvious one. The message that the judicial system is unequivocally broken stuck out like a broke nail in this bad boy, Buttler’s Clyde Shelton going to some ridiculously cooked lengths to remind us that you can’t put a price on life, and that human beings are too often lost in the web of sentencing, court proceedings and so forth that define Law Abiding Citizen.
