Gesetz der Rache

Clyde Shelton's ( Gerard Butler ) wife gets murdered in the beginning of the movie and justice doesn't prevail because one of the killers is only sentenced for 10 years. Clyde is angry as hell and will make sure the people responsible for the horrible trial of the killers will all suffer and die. So basically you got yourself a revenge movie here. Clyde is killing them and isn't even hiding it, he admits it. Nick Rice ( Jamie Foxx ) is the DA on the case and needs to find out what the hell is going on. Now the fun part is that Clyde is performing the kills from within his prison cell, he even has to sit out in solitary and is still killing people, now how cool is that.

I totally dig the idea of a highly intelligent man orchestrating kills on specific times and places from his prison cell, all planned ahead of time. If you're a smart ass while watching this movie you'll find out there are a lot of plot holes so I recommend you not to think it all through. Heads up for Gerard Butler, this guy is making some mayor progress on this one after some sh!tty movies last year. I think we'll be seeing more of King Leonidas in the future so hurray to that. On the opposite, Jamie Foxx is on a decline. Ray was an excellent movie but after that it's just bad. As Nick Rice the DA he is just one stone face mofo, no emotion no nothing. Jamie and the ending of the movie are the only 2 things that suck. The movie is just handing out it's surprises like candy, like spoiling your daughter's birthday present a week before her actual birthday. Watch it with a time progress bar and stop the movie before the last 15 minutes, then close your eyes and make up your own ending and I promise you it will be way better then the awful piece of movie you just skipped...

Let's face it. Because a person is capable of pulling off the kinds of things done here, doesn't make the likelihood any greater. There is so much precision and luck involved in making things work that it would take a god pulling strings to allow these things to fall so easily into place. Even a silent partner is not going to do the job. I enjoyed the setup but the lengths gone through for revenge really pull it apart for me. The guy has so much power that he is completely in control. There would be a point in law enforcement where they would finally say, "Screw you!" The technology would have taken a fortune beyond imagination to work out. While I like the actors in this film, I can't recommend it's far fetched totality. Done in a more controlled and believable way, you have a stunner. It's just too much. And the ending is a real weakness.

This is a movie that's extremely fun to watch in the theaters because you get to hear and see everyone's reaction to each of his killings. The best one had people actually saying loudly "wow" and "oh my god!".

What drew me to the movie was the fact that the hero wasn't going around killing people with his bare hands or face to face. He was doing it with his mind, with careful planning, and deft precision. That was something refreshing to see. I can totally relate to his feelings of anger over the flaws in the justice system and his desire to take matters into his own hands - to make things right.

The ending was disappointing but the rest of the film was not and I liked it overall.

This reminds me of the start of a great relationship, starts out wonderful, continues to grow, and then out of nowhere, BAM, it ends and you are left wondering what just happened.

As so many other reviewers have stated, it starts out with great suspense, originality, and creativity, and somewhere in the last 20 minutes, you are left wondering, did it really just end that way? Ouch! I found myself incredibly disappointed.

We all love Jaime Foxx's funny side, but really wanted to see something else happen to him in this film. I get the idea of the end, that he learned his lesson so to speak, but it was still really weak for what it could have been.

However, I'll still give it an 8 as it kept me quite intrigued throughout...so hard to find these days in a quality film.

I am just not sure which is which.

I am trying to avoid spoilers here, because it is a definite film you must check out because it is a great new take on the prison based thriller genre, which provides 90 odd minutes of great entertainment with lots of twists and turns to keep the story fresh.

My main criticism is that the story seems to twist and turn so much it gets itself into a nasty tangle. The base of any thriller for an audience, is to want the protagonist to prosper at the downfall of the antagonist, but at the end, i was unsure which of one of the two mains, Nick Rice (foxx) or Clyde Shelton (butler) i should be 'cheering' for.

Each Character has their fair amount of being the good guy, but both were more of the bad guy, a very confusing aspect to a thriller.

Never-the-less, there are some brilliant performances and a very entertaining fresh story kept me glued to the screen for the entirety of the movie.

****/5