Lockout

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version française s'il vous plaît, merci beaucoup pour votre effort

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The latest action/thriller from Luc Besson (Taken) follows a similar formula of his other action films. Lockout jumps right into the action and refuses to slow down. The premise is somewhat original with many elements from other future isolated prison films. I think the best way to describe this movie without giving away too many details is that is a cross between John Carpenter's "Escape From New York" and David Fincher's "Alien3" (minus the alien of course). Guy Pearce plays a wise cracking, hardened government agent who, following some misunderstanding with his superiors, has to go into space on a solo rescue mission for the President of the U.S.'s daughter (Maggie Grace) who is trapped on a run wild women-less prison holding murders and rapists used for conducting experiments. Okay maybe the premise is not too original. Pearce's portrayal of Snow is one action movie fans will like, he can take a punch while delivering effortless one-liners (much like Bruce Willis did in Die Hard). But I will say the zippy comebacks get annoying at times, some were great zingers I will admit but there are some that were unnecessary. You got the idea Snow didn't give a crap about anything without them. Maggie Grace was a typical damsel in distress, nothing much else to add there. The villains were kind of creepy, Joseph Gilgun was off the wall but predictable and same could be said for the leader played by Vincent Regan. I actually thought of Peter Stormare as Langral as the major antagonist rather than the prisoners. Like I say in the title, it has action from start to finish which has advantages and disadvantages. The very original special effects were fantastic and fight scenes were well done which made the movie go by very fast. The problem with so much action is that the story gets jumbled or rushed. Besson used this for "Taken" and it worked out for it, but with Lockout there were some things missing or flaws in the story. One was there seemed to be some references to the President being like a tyrant by Pearce's character but it is never really explained. Overall it was a fun movie, great action with so-so acting and an interesting outer space setting. 7/10 for me, maybe if it were 15 minutes longer it could have made up for its flaws.

Lock Out is a sci fi action movie with the familiar story of a rebel/criminal being tasked with breaking an important woman out of a high security prison facility. Though the story is clichéd, its a premise that I usually find interesting. The twist here is its the year 2079 in the future, and the prison is an orbiting huge structure above the Earth. It wasn't as good as the trailer made it seem. The wisecracking got old after awhile, Guy Pearce's character seemed more like a video game character making tough guy jokes than a real person. His love interest in the film also was boring. I enjoyed the action scenes and the special effects of the orbiting prison but to be honest they were kind of routine. There was lots of macho posturing from sweaty neanderthal types who play the convicts and it was kind of amusing. I liked this movie a lot more than my friend did, who thought it was terrible. I suspect that me being a "fanboy" of the sci fi genre makes me a bit biased to like it more than I should though. I would not be surprised to see this movie bomb at the box office to be honest. I enjoyed it as far as it went but its definitely not great, and unless you are a serious enthusiast of somewhat goofy scifi/action movies, then stay away.

What is Guy Pearce doing in Lockout? More to the point, what was I doing there? Alas, it was another pre-credits walkout from me. Life's too short to spend it watching the credits of poorly made pulp. If you've seen Escape from New York or Escape from L.A., imagine them set in space and you've seen Lockout, albeit with Kurt Russell doing his best rather than with Guy Pearce taking the money and putting most of his effort into not smiling about the ratio of $$$ earned to effort exerted. It's the 'near future' and the world's governments have decided the best way to deal with criminals is to spend millions (billions???) of dollars flying them thousands of miles to a high security, but lightly staffed, American prison in space whereupon they are put into stasis until their sentence is served and they are flown home. Quite why 1. stasis is a suitable punishment, bearing in mind it essentially pauses life without aging or loss of years, and 2. a costly space prison is a better place for comatose prisoners rather than a cheap, subterranean bunker is beyond me and directors James Mather and Stephen St. Leger never bother to explain. One is also left to wonder whether Lockout needed two directors just so the blame could be shared. Unbelievably, the prisoners are released from stasis, overthrow the staff, seize control of the prison and do very bad things. Rather than nuke it and start again, a rescue mission is launched because the President's daughter is visiting it on a fact-finding mission. Really? And who do they choose to rescue her? Naturally, it's Guy Pearce's Snow, who's been wrongly convicted of very bad things, who is called upon to beat hundreds of violent criminals and rescue Emilie (Maggie Grace) in return for a full pardon. Yeah, right! So, the plot is, ah, flawed but what about the acting? Pearce gives a performance that makes one wonder how he possibly enthralled in L.A. Confidential and Memento. Prometheus cannot come quickly enough for him to redeem himself, although the virals show early promise. Grace is about as convincing as my front door although Peter Stormare and Vincent Regan are competent, if not memorable as we've come to expect. The standout performance, however, is from Joseph Gilgun, who is proving to be a versatile and most enjoyable actor to watch. Having served his time in Coronation Street and Emmerdale (at 257 episodes it sounds like his first prison sentence!) he delighted in Shane Meadow's This is England series and quickly banished the memory of Nathan when his character, Rudy, filled the gap in series three of the fabulous Misfits. Yes, in Lockout he's on pantomime villain duties but goodness knows it's a welcome rock to cling to in the swamp. Unfortunately, it's a swamp that is all consuming. Another film review from The Squiss. For more reviews from The Squiss subscribe to my blog at www.thesquiss.co.uk

Luc Besson's name is all over the marketing for Lockout, the new sci-fi action thriller directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger. From a publicity standpoint, it makes sense. Besson's films are always entertaining, and his better ones invariably become cult classics. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Besson both co-wrote and produced Lockout, the film just doesn't live up to its billing. Guy Pearce stars as Snow, a former CIA agent convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years in stasis aboard an experimental orbital prison. At the same time, the President's daughter, Emily (Maggie Grace) arrives at the prison for an informal inspection. When things go wrong and the inmates take over the prison, Snow is offered a chance at redemption if he agrees to go in and rescue Emily before she gets killed. It's a pretty good concept despite some similarities to Escape From New York, but the execution is poor. It starts incredibly well, showing off the film's sense of humor and a surprising amount of charisma from Pearce. The always-sarcastic-and-egotistical schtick, however, wears thin after about 15-20 minutes and we're left with a surprisingly unsatisfying action picture. The set pieces are surprisingly tame and altogether underwhelming, an issue that may be somewhat alleviated by the "Rated-R" version of the film that was released in other countries, including Canada. The action is further hindered by extremely below average visual effects which only make it harder to take it seriously. There are a couple of effects near the beginning that are so bad that they pull the viewer completely out of the movie, something unforgivable in a modern action film. Grace is adequate as Emily, a typical more-than-she-seems-to-be damsel in distress. Her interactions with Snow are decent, but again, tame. The dialogue is OK at times, awful at others. The conflict and tension between Emily and Snow is often manufactured and rarely makes sense and each situation exists solely to service another scene later. There is no rhyme or reason to a lot of what goes on, which would be less noticeable in a film with more intriguing action. The film's supporting characters, including the inmates, are given no development, so even though the performances are fine, they lack depth. In fairness, the film makers do get a few points for tossing in a couple of curveballs that actually make sense and don't seem out of left field, but in the end, the lack of interesting set pieces makes the film's other flaws stand out even more. Lockout had a lot of promise, but fails to follow through on almost any of it.

First off, Lockout is not meant to be taken seriously. It is a fun action sci-fi movie that breaks the boundaries of what it physically possible. Remember when you were a kid playing with your little action figures in the sandbox, well that is how they designed Lockout. They forgot about what is real and what can actually be done and simply had fun. Guy Pearce is hilarious and teamed up with Maggie Grace the laughs just keep rolling. It is an action, sci-fi, comedy that is amazingly well crafted if you can take your thinking cap off and just have fun. There are a few plot twists, but nothing you didn't see coming. While Lockout doesn't really bring anything completely new to the table, it is very entertaining and well worth multiple viewings. Due to mixed reviews I did not expect much, but Lockout really impressed me with its style and fast paced action. Other reviews has said that the special effects looked terrible, that is simply because of the style. One thing Lockout has is style and solid direction and cinematography. They knew what they were doing with this movie and they pulled it off perfectly. The PQ & AQ were great on Blu-ray and while the special features were lacking, it is still a solid Blu-ray release. Recommended!