If, as a prosecutor insists, "Some justice is better than no justice at all," does that mean some logic is better than no logic at all?

"Law Abiding Citizen" has moments when you want to say, "Oh, come on" out loud. Despite two fine and fine-looking actors as the leads -- Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler -- the story demands the audience swallow a lot of nonsense about how the criminal justice and Philadelphia prison systems work.

The movie opens with a home invasion that leaves the wife and young daughter of Clyde Shelton (Butler) dead. Ambitious prosecutor Nick Rice (Foxx) cuts a deal that sends one of the killers to Death Row and allows the other to plead to a lesser charge.

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'Law Abiding Citizen'

1 1/2 stars = Bad
Ratings explained

• Starring: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx.
• Rating: R for strong bloody brutal violence and torture, a scene of rape, and pervasive language.
• Web site: www.lawabidingcitizenfilm.com/

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Nick gives Clyde a lot of platitudes about how some justice is better than none and "It's not what you know, it's what you can prove in court."

A decade later, Clyde strikes like a coiled rattler going after the men who slaughtered his family and then turning his attention to the people charged with upholding the law. Once he is behind bars, though, no one can figure out how he's executing his plans but the stakes and body count keep rising.

F. Gary Gray ("The Italian Job," "Be Cool") directs a screenplay by Kurt Wimmer, one of the writers of "Street Kings." That 2008 movie, starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker, was a corrosively cynical look at police corruption and cop-cowboys in Los Angeles.

"Law Abiding Citizen" is a corrosively cynical look at the justice system. The premise is intriguing but the execution more torture porn than thriller at times, with a vengeful Butler drenched in blood a couple of times. Other characters have blood on their hands but not in so literal a way.

Justice may be blind but so is anyone who imagines that prisoners of a certain notoriety wouldn't be more closely monitored, even in an ancient prison. Suspending civil rights, which lawyers and judges blithely do, is one thing; suspending disbelief another.

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