What a piece of crap, but at leas Peter brought Fairway sandwiches so the night wasn't a complete waste. Someone got the great idea to pitch Hollywood the movie idea of a super-smart man who breaks into prison to fuck with the justice system that let his wife and child's killers get off easy. Casting very-hot-this-year Gerard Butler and the quickly cliche Jamie Foxx, hopes are high for star-power turnout. Unfortunately the plot goes nowhere except into unbelievable and hyper-action-explosion territory and I wanted to run screaming from the theater halfway through. Basically the story plays like a SAW but with the 'good guy' father/husband killing the two bad guys. The gore and innovative ways to kill are now expected in most horror but then this film has an identity crisis and switches to a thriller, mystery, spy genre? They really lost me with a terrible in-a-tiled-tunnel meet-up with a spy who worked with the madman in secret gov't plots and the guy actually says things like, "We never met. This meeting never happened." "If he wants you dead, you're dead." and "Just put a bullet in his head." Problem with setting up a grieving and vengeful family man as a bad guy is it is very, very difficult to then find a satisfying ending. Like a horror flick, the audience is secretly enjoying Freddie Krugger and his ilk killing. But you can bring those baddies back, like a bad dream. You can't make a good man into a cathartic killing machine and have him get away with all the vengeful bloodshed of innocents. The painted themselves into a bloody corner. Don't be dumb enough to join them.
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