did anyone else piss money away on law abiding citizen?

[DGMacphee]

wacky black guy is wacky lol now he has diabeetus ;_;

[Just!n]

There is just no way this section of the movie happens the way I am imagining it.

its a big remote controlled robot deployed to the graveyard where jamie foxx is attending the funeral for his assistant. it unloads a billion rounds from a chaingun and fires a missile at the car the DA (and mentor to jamie foxx) is inside, after releasing an EMP and stalling the car.

just to recap: here is a list of the events incurred before jamie foxx doesn't really start doing the right thing so much as finds a way to outsmart butler:

butler's family is murdered
butler interferes with one of the assailant's lethal injection serum
butler abducts the other killer and tortures him with a bandsaw
butler sends the torture tape to a 10-year-old
butler asphyxiates the other lawyer who got the second killer off by brokering a deal
butler shivs his cellmate repeatedly in the neck
butler activates a bomb located in the judge who delivered the verdict's cell phone, blowing her head open in front of jamiee foxx
butler plants explosives in the cars of everyone jamie foxx works with, killing his morally conflicted assistant
butler's robot blows up the DA's car at a funeral

also, at no point during the film does jamie foxx express the slightest bit of concern for his own safety. like, as dudes are just exploding for no reason around him he's all "RRRARGH I HAVE A 96% SUCCESS RATE! SOMETIMES JUSTICE ISN'T FAIR!"

[DGMacphee]

its a big remote controlled robot deployed to the graveyard where jamie foxx is attending the funeral for his assistant. it unloads a billion rounds from a chaingun and fires a missile at the car the DA (and mentor to jamie foxx) is inside, after releasing an EMP and stalling the car.

I had to look this up on a spoiler site because this sounded way too silly to be an actual scene in a revenge film, but you're 100 per cent telling the truth! I now have an urge to watch this movie just so I can see how there's that word again that scene actually is.

"Gerald Butler is fighting an unjust system... WITH ROBOTS!!!"

[Rusty Cooledge]

aha i kinda wanna see this now

[David]

its a big remote controlled robot deployed to the graveyard where jamie foxx is attending the funeral for his assistant. it unloads a billion rounds from a chaingun and fires a missile at the car the DA (and mentor to jamie foxx) is inside, after releasing an EMP and stalling the car.

looooooooool

SPOILERZ Justin confirm/deny. Someone told me that Gerard Butler is able to do all this from prison because he has an intricate series of tunnels leading all over from the prison that no one has noticed.

[Just!n]

yes he intentionally gets sent to prison and then intentionally get put into solitary confinement so that he can come and go freely (he has tunnels going to every solitary cell)

[A Link To The Matt]

So if Andy Dufrense took about 30 years to tunnel out of Shawshank, then I assume Gerard Butler's character is 140?

[Bismark]

Do they ever describe any other reason for these guys violently murdering the wife and child of a man that just happens to be fucking Solid Snake? I was imagining that they'd uncover some conspiracy against him underneath it all, which is why his family is targeted, but it sounds like Foxx just became the DA of Unfortunatecoincidencetown.

[Just!n]

Do they ever describe any other reason for these guys violently murdering the wife and child of a man that just happens to be fucking Solid Snake? I was imagining that they'd uncover some conspiracy against him underneath it all, which is why his family is targeted, but it sounds like Foxx just became the DA of Unfortunatecoincidencetown.

no they were just robbing people and one of the criminals was like "oh hey i'm gonna butcher this family for some reason."

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

a good example of a movie with a protagonist you aren't supposed to root for (and isn't an anti-hero, or a villain or anything like that) is The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, which is basically a character study of a delusional, stupid guy. you aren't supposed to like him or dislike him, he's just pitiful.

i know law abiding citizen is there's that word again and probably has a crappy main character but it doesn't look like that's because of some inherent problem with script theory, just because it's there's that word again.

[Andy]

Mark Harmon on whatever one of those shows Mark Harmon is on (NCIS I think), Dr. House, and the mean doctor guy from Scrubs are all great examples of this. dick dick dick dick dick dick dick HAS COMPASSION FOR SPECIAL PATIENT dick dick dick dick dick dick dick MAD BECAUSE HE CARES ABOUT HIS JOB dick dick dick dick dick DEAD SON etc.

I think you are shortchanging yourself by preferring a character with no perceivable depth than a character who has at least a little. It doesn't always mean you are supposed to like them, it often just means "hey look, a person has more than one facet beyond what they show to the casual observer, how about that!!"

The only example you gave that I'm too familiar with is Dr Cox, so to follow that thought: he is a dick, and consistently so. but he is also a major character in a TV show, which means we will eventually get to know him pretty intimately. And if it turns out he is NOTHING BUT AN ASSHOLE that is a pretty unbelievable character (unbelievable as in "I dont believe this bullshit," not unbelievable "good"). Yeah, maybe it is fun to occasionally see a purely one dimensional character but if you are going to spend upwards of eight seasons on a character, or any decent length of time, it's pretty rare that that one dimension will sustain him or her forever. How boring would the Office be if we were faced with Jim silently pining for Pam STILL in the FIFTH SEASON.

[B]

Developing a character isn't the problem. Remember on Futurama where they had the MASH robot, and he had the switch that made him go from 'Irreverent' to 'maudlin?' That's what I mean. When a character is always a jerk, and then they shoehorn in something every now and then and call it character development. Scrubs isn't really a fair example because I hate Scrubs and am biased against it, but that type of writing is what I mean.

Joss Whedon did the exact opposite of this on Buffy. He had everyone be quippy, nice, and well-meaning, and then by the end of the show everyone was a super three dimensional shithead. Rapists, murderers, etc. I think (and hope) that there is a happy medium. Shows like The Wire know how to make unlikable characters identifiable by making them human (Avon at the basketball game, for example... he's having fun and palling around, and then he starts taking it too far and everything gets scary serious) but not necessarily "likable." You don't LIKE Avon, you just understand how he works. He's still compelling and you're interested in what he's doing, but he's certainly not someone to look up to. Well, I guess that's up for debate.

Obviously not expecting every show to be The Wire, I just think that consistent character writing should be important instead of random against-character actions every now and then. Speaking of The Office, one of my favorite moments ever is Dwight comforting Pam, because it kicked that convention in its ass. You keep expecting Dwight to do something nice, and he just keeps being Dwight. It rules.

[Andy]

Developing a character isn't the problem. Remember on Futurama where they had the MASH robot, and he had the switch that made him go from 'Irreverent' to 'maudlin?' That's what I mean. When a character is always a jerk, and then they shoehorn in something every now and then and call it character development. Scrubs isn't really a fair example because I hate Scrubs and am biased against it, but that type of writing is what I mean.

Okay well in this case you still have to keep in mind what a program is. Scrubs is a sitcom at it's core, and as such the characters need to be the character they were made to be most of the time. The rare break from that is what makes them more interesting than the average sitcom. Archie Bunker never fundamentally changes, but you get to see him break down to rubble when Edith dies. I think its better to see a character experience something of a departure from the normative stasis, even if it is few and far between. Hell, most people live their life that way anyway.

Obviously not expecting every show to be The Wire, I just think that consistent character writing should be important instead of random against-character actions every now and then. Speaking of The Office, one of my favorite moments ever is Dwight comforting Pam, because it kicked that convention in its ass. You keep expecting Dwight to do something nice, and he just keeps being Dwight. It rules.

That is awesome, but even Dwight broke down in the stairwell that one time after being dumped, and it was one of the more excellent moments on the show I think.

[AudeSapere]

My favorite moment on House so far was the beginning of Season 5 when Wilson doesn't blame House for Amber's death, and yet he leaves and tells him they were never really friends to begin with. The "Wilson's Heart" episode was hell of emotional, and we follow that up with House losing pretty much the only person who will reasonably tolerate his bullshit. I couldn't stand the whole House/Cameron drama, so Wilson leaving and pretty much breaking House was a great moment for me. It was a great example of this goddamn asshole being a person but still retaining his character. And then they brought Wilson back and well they did the whole Dallas "IT'S NOT A DREAM IF IT'S A HALLUCINATION" angle and

I like House as a total asshole. He's likable in a way because he's hell of smart and snappy and he gets shit done at the end of the day, but he's still a douchebag. I wouldn't want to hang out with him. He's a bastard. I haven't seen this movie, and I don't know what my opinion about House says about it, but I'm perfectly okay with a protagonist being a goddamn prick.