There's only so much Hollywood good will a monster hit will afford you. 300 turned Frank Miller (and adaptations of his graphic novel work) into a hot Hollywood commodity, but Miller probably extinguished his own flame by directing the ridiculous The Spirit. 300 also made its director Zack Snyder an event filmmaker, and though Watchmen may not have performed as well as people expected, Snyder's talent was never in question. As for 300's star Gerard Butler, who for a while seemed ready to rise from Vin Diesel's ashes as the next great action star, he's since removed most of his cachet with astounding surgical precision. Since 300, his films (P.S. I Love You, Nim's Island, RocknRolla, The Ugly Truth, Gamer) have grossed an approximate total of $214 million dollars. But even worse, each one of them was utterly forgettable. And now, less than a month after Gamer tanked comes Law Abiding Citizen, Butler's new thriller with Jamie Foxx. And, well, things aren't looking good.

The trailer for Law Abiding Citizen made the film seem intriguing enough -- a morally ambiguous cat-and-mouse game between two leading men who both happen to have rock-hard abs. What could be better? But when I got the invite to an advance screening a few weeks ago, I didn't bite. It just didn't interest me. It might be because Butler almost killed me once defending Amy Sacco's good name, but it's probably because he chooses to make shitty movies. And I'm not saying Law Abiding Citizen is a shitty movie, because I have yet to see it, but a lot of other people have seen it and don't like it all that much, and they're particularly not fond of Mr. Butler himself.

"So much for our sympathy for the leading man, who happens to be Gerard Butler in yet another questionable role," announces the Village Voice. "What I mostly noticed is how quickly I've grown tired of Butler's mush-mouthed bravura," says EW's Owen Gleiberman. Even when his performance is complimented, it's backhanded: "Perhaps because Foxx is giving such a self-satisfied performance, Butler steals the movie, and doesn't even strain himself doing it," says Newsday. Roger Ebert, who sort of liked the movie, couldn't even bother to comment on Butler's performance, so unremarkable it is. I predict it makes three dollars at the box-office this weekend. Then I can go back to writing about the Sri Lankan civil war, and Gerard Butler can continue in his quest to eventually break Jennifer Aniston's heart.