Neil Rosen

(2013-05-21 16:35:18)

Overall, this is an okay time waster when it comes on TV or DVD, but it's certainly not worth full price at the box office, despite, some entertainment provided by the always reliable Guy Pearce.

Roger Moore

(2013-05-20 20:50:06)

Guy Pearce goes into low-Earth orbit to get his cool back in "Lockout," a silly sci-fi B-picture made fun by his star turn.

chaz-28

(2013-05-18 11:50:51)

Lazy and amateur filmmaking destroys what is actually an interesting idea; unfortunately it is in the wrong hands here

Lockout is a product of outright laziness. There is nothing new here,nothing unique, and nothing to recommend. Aside from a few good jokesfrom our hero, Snow (Guy Pearce), the film has nothing going for it.The plot is stock beyond belief, the dialogue is groan-inducing, andthe action editing is some of the worst in years. What is technically agood idea on paper, a prison break in space, is spoiled with extremelylousy and inept filmmaking.Snow has been set up. He is convicted of a crime he did not commit andis on the way himself to the maximum security space prison known asMS-1. Coincidentally, the President's daughter, Emilie Warnock (MaggieGrace), is on a fact finding mission to MS-1 when an inattentivesecurity guard sets in motion an impossible chain of events which endsup with all of the prisoners woken up from stasis, released from theircells, very quickly in control of an immense prison complex, and thecaptors of the First Daughter.If only there were one man, a loose cannon if you will, who thegovernment could send on what would basically be a suicide mission tosave the girl. Whoa, you mean there is such a guy? Let me guess; is itSnow armed with his chiseled abs and snappy one-liners? Quickly blastedoff into space, only Snow can somehow break into an impenetrableprison, find the girl, escape with the girl, and somehow keep all ofthese violent and psychotic criminals aboard their floating prisonwhich also seems to now be crashing towards the eastern seaboard.There is a sub-plot where Snow is trying to clear his name but that isjust a side note in what is a one man versus many scenario. It is goodto see Guy Pearce again in an action film and leading role. Long agoare the days of The Proposition, Memento, and The Time Machine.Unfortunately, for the leading lady they picked Maggie Grace, bestknown as one of the most annoying characters from the Lost series.Another character actor you may recognize from Prison Break is PeterStormare who provides his usual menacing one-note skill set.The target audience here of male action fans will be disappointed bythe amateur chase and fight scenes. An early chase scene is reminiscentof Ultraviolet (2006). Remember that horrible film and its horrendouschase scenes which looked like they were done on a computer pre-datingTron? There is a very similar choppy computer feeling here and youalmost expect to see the green screen behind the actors pop into view.Lockout did not have to be this bad. The idea of a prison break inspace, in the right hands, could have been a quality action film with ajuicy story and evil bad guys. Here, the bad guys are cartooncharacters, the filmmaking is cheap and shoddy, and the film is just acomplete mess. Go see The Raid: Redemption instead for your action fix.

yacolic

(2013-05-17 19:39:01)

Has Besson definitely gone senile ?

I don't know how to really express my overall feeling for this moviebut it was kind of : let's rush to the end so maybe people won't noticehow bad it is. Scenes follow each other at double .. triple speed.Script is non existent. Wouldn't guy Pearce be in the movie, it wouldbe directly classified as B-movie. I guess having him in the cast wastheir only way to have this movie in theatres. Sometimes I wonder howsolid actors end up in this kind of movies. Do they need the cash thatbad ? I know it's not that simple and that maybe they realize what theyhave stepped into too late but god, I think he needs to fire his agentfor that one. Even if the story is a mix of things already seen before, just spend alittle more time and money on the script and you can make a 5/10movie a6.5/movie. Last thing: honestly, what happened to Luc Besson who gave us suchbrilliant movies in the past. Time to retire. When you don't have itanymore just let it go.

Van Roberts

(2013-05-16 13:33:54)

"Escape from L.A." Meets "Fortress 2 Re-Entry"

If you're a hardcore action movie aficionado, you probably compared"Lockout" with John Carpenter's vintage sci-fi epic "Escape from L.A."the first time that you watched the lively little trailer. The lastactor that I thought would appear in this entertaining but disposablepiece of fodder is Guy Pearce. Typically, the English-born Pearceappears in prestigious upscale films, such as "Memento," "The King'sSpeech," "The Hurt Locker," "The Count of Monte Cristo," "L.A.Confidential," and Ridley Scott's forthcoming "Alien" prequel"Prometheus." "Lockout" looks out of place in Pearce's filmography soperhaps he was slumming for a fast paycheck. Rookie writer/directorsJames Mather and Stephen St. Ledger along with ubiquitous French filmproducer Luc Besson have done some creative cherry picking for"Lockout." Indeed, the premise about a rugged, lone wolf hero sent intoa hostile environment to save the daughter of a U.S. President has allthe earmarks of "Escape from L.A. This time the setting is a maximumsecurity prison in orbit rather than Los Angeles. This is reminiscentof the Geoff Murphy sci-fi thriller "Fortress 2 Re-entry" (2000) withChristopher Lambert serving time in a futuristic state-of-the-artmaximum security prison orbiting 26-thousand miles above the Earth. Ofcourse, the orbiting prison evokes the idea of Alcatraz in space. Noway is anybody getting out of this place without becoming a satellite.Anybody who hasn't seen any of these movies will probably compare"Lockout" to the Bruce Willis "Die Hard" franchise. Mind you, Besson isprobably the brain child behind most of this exciting nonsense since hewrote "La Femme Nikita," "The Transporter" franchise, both "Taken" aswell as "Taken 2," and "The Fifth Element." Like "Escape from L.A.," "Lockout" takes place in the future. Yes, thisis another dystopian future. Nevertheless, some things don't change.America still has prisons, but the biggest and the worst is no longeron terra firma but instead orbits the Earth. Furthermore, the prisonersare held in suspended animation stasis. The adult daughter of the U.S.President Warnock, Emilie (Maggie Grace of "The Twilight Saga: BreakingDawn - Part 1"), is on a goodwill mission to M.S. One. Actually, she isthere to investigate allegations that nefarious experiments are beingperformed on the inmates. No sooner has Emilie arrived than the inmatesstage a breakout. One of Emilie's overzealous Secret Service agentsdecides that surrendering his entire arsenal of firearms will make himfeel naked so he keeps a gun strapped to his ankle. This Secret Serviceagent gets into a scuffle with a particularly psychotic inmate,Hydell(Joseph Gilgun of "Harry Brown"), during Emilie's interview andHydell swipes his ankle pistol. Initially, Hydell and his older brotherAlex (Vincent Regan of "Troy") have no idea that Emilie is thePresident's daughter.Meanwhile, back on Earth, a wisecracking former CIA agent named Snow(Guy Pearce of "The Proposition") is up to his ears in his own woes.Not only has he lost an important suitcase that contains secretinformation, but he has also been caught and charged with the murder ofhis best friend as well as treason. The authorities decide Snow is theideal candidate to blast off into space and rescue the President'sdaughter. Of course, Snow isn't exactly enamored of the idea so hequalifies as a reluctant hero. Once he arrives aboard M.S. One, hefinds himself in a murky maze with everybody, including the President'sdaughter, trying to kill him. After she realizes who Snow is, Emilieand he stick together like glue but constantly bicker. While Snow andEmilie are fleeing from Alex and his insane brother Hydell--who regardseverybody else as a potential casualty, our heroes rely on aid from theoutside in the form of Shaw (Lennie James of "Columbiana") who knowsSnow. Shaw possesses blueprints of the prison and can advise Snow whereto go to elude the inmates. Shaw and Snow have an underlyingrelationship that relates to the missing suitcase. It seems the man wholast had the suitcase, Mace (Tim Plester of "Dr. Who: A ChristmasCarol"), is the only one who knows about its location. Unfortunately,since he has only recently been released from stasis, he has troubleverbalizing his thoughts."Lockout" is the kind of runaway thriller where complications keepcomplicating everything. Mind you, this is a derivative movie in thesense that you've seen everything here before. No matter what happens,Besson and first time helmers Mather and St. Ledger keep throwingobstacles in the path of our hero and heroine. The villains aretreacherous and take lives without a qualm. In fact, actor JosephGilgun bears an amazing resemblance to Robert De Niro in his earlyMartin Scorsese movies "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver." The setting isappropriately grubby a la "Outland." Interestingly, Guy Pearce isplaying the kind of role that Arnold Schwarzenegger would have doneback in 1984. Like James Bond, Schwarzenegger acquired the habit ofuttering a clever one-liner whenever he found himself in a tightpredicament. Pearce's Snow behaves in similar fashion. Some of thelines that he utters are humorous. Maggie Grace and he seemappropriately paired despite the circumstances surrounding theircoupling. Clocking in at a trim, vigorous 95 minutes, "Lockout" looks alittle rough around the edges but it delivers every clichГѓВ© intact withmore than enough style to make it worth watching.

Matt Pais

(2013-05-16 10:47:46)

[Has] ambitions only of stupid fun and completely ridiculous, logic-bending action. The 'fun' part comes and goes.

twiswall

(2013-05-16 04:41:23)

Never write reviews...

No spoiler here unless you consider me tipping you on a terrible moviea spoiler. I never write movie reviews but I had to take a minute towrite a review about a movie that was so absurd in the first 10 minutes(of a 95 minute movie) that I turned it off. Some moronic director gavesome moronic CGI animator free reign over 3 minutes of airtime. Theresult was a boring and silly motorcycle chase scene. It was so badthat I couldn't bring myself to watch the rest of the 85 minutes of thefile for fear that the same CGI guy may want to work more of his"magic". Who knows if there was a story here because I couldn't bringmyself to watch anymore to find out. CGI guy sucks and the directorsucks for letting him destroy this film in the first 10 minutes. If youare going to screw me...at least wait until I am involved for 20 or 30minutes first so I feel like I am already to committed to give up.

george.schmidt

(2013-05-15 17:35:30)

"Die Hard In Outer Space" meets "Escape From New York"

LOCKOUT (2012) *** Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, JosephGilgun, Peter Stormare, Lennie James, Jacky Ido, Anne-Solenne Hatte.Better-than-it-should-be mash up of "Die Hard In Outer Space" meets"Escape From New York" could've been the pitch for this fun andover-the-top sci-fi actioner set in the near future with glib, laconicPearce (channeling Snake Plissken & John McClane) , a wrongly chargedespionage patsy, enlisted to rescue the President's daughter aboard anoverrun interstellar prison with the violent inmates running theasylum/hostage scenario with the usual flare-ups of hostility,oil/water chemistry with his sleek charge (a game Grace) and thetime-clock ticking away. Revved up action thanks to filmmaking teamJames Mather & Stephen St. Leger (collaborating with filmmaker LucBesson on the congested screenplay) and a plucky anti-hero make thingsmore soothe-sailing for the bumpy ride ahead.

PhilipGHarris

(2013-05-15 01:58:30)

Prison Caper hits the editors knife

Lockout has managed to placed itself as the most average movie I haveever seen. In the main the issue was about the editing. Time and time againexciting scenes were cut short, or potential plot was removed makingyou wonder if you had fallen asleep (I didn't) or adding continuityissues: Oh look it's the international space station... why?Performances were strong. Joseph Gilgun is going to get typecast if heisn't careful - playing evil/sociopathic Woody/Rudy - but hisrelationship with Vincent Regan worked well. Guy Pearce is alwayswatchable but Maggie Grace and Peter Stormare seemed to sufferdesperately from the editors knife.Effects were good and, in general, plot was hijacked from numerousother sci-fi prison movies - including Wedlock, No Escape, Fortress etal which is no bad thing, but given the writers, should have beenbetter. Could this have yet again been the editor as any deeperdiscussion of the "issues" raised by the storage of the prisoners wasbrushed over, a shame as this raised the finer issues of the plot.It also appeared that the writers had quite cleverly tried to referenceGuy Pearce films throughout, nice bits of dialogue, shots and otherclues but, yet again, snip, snip snip.This is a film to add to the watch list if there is nothing else to seeand you want a paint-by-numbers sci-fi thriller.Do not expect to be taxed.

Van Roberts

(2013-05-14 05:17:31)

Snow Job

If you're a hardcore action movie aficionado, you probably compared"Lockout" with John Carpenter's seminal sci-fi epic "Escape from NewYork" the first time that you watched the lively little trailer. Thelast actor that I thought would appear in this entertaining butdisposable piece of fodder is Guy Pearce. Typically, the English-bornPearce appears in prestigious upscale films, such as "Memento," "TheKing's Speech," "The Hurt Locker," "The Count of Monte Cristo," "L.A.Confidential," and Ridley Scott's forthcoming "Alien" prequel"Prometheus." "Lockout" looks out of place in Pearce's filmography soperhaps he was slumming for a fast paycheck. Rookie writer/directorsJames Mather and Stephen St. Ledger along with ubiquitous French filmproducer Luc Besson have done some creative cherry picking for"Lockout." Indeed, the premise about a rugged, lone wolf hero sent intoa hostile environment to save the daughter of a U.S. President has allthe earmarks of "Escape from New York. This time the setting is amaximum security prison in orbit rather than Manhattan. This isreminiscent of the Geoff Murphy sci-fi thriller "Fortress 2 Re-entry"(2000) with Christopher Lambert serving time in a futuristicstate-of-the-art maximum security prison orbiting 26-thousand milesabove the Earth. Of course, the orbiting prison evokes the idea ofAlcatraz in space. No way is anybody getting out of this place withoutbecoming a satellite. Anybody who hasn't seen any of these movies willprobably compare "Lockout" to the Bruce Willis "Die Hard" franchise.Mind you, Besson is probably the brain child behind most of thisexciting nonsense since he wrote "La Femme Nikita," "The Transporter"franchise, both "Taken" as well as "Taken 2," and "The Fifth Element." Like "Escape from New York," "Lockout" takes place in the future. Yes,this is another dystopian future. Nevertheless, some things don'tchange. America still has prisons, but the biggest and the worst is nolonger on terra firma but instead orbits the Earth. Furthermore, theprisoners are held in suspended animation stasis. The adult daughter ofthe U.S. President Warnock, Emilie (Maggie Grace of "The Twilight Saga:Breaking Dawn - Part 1"), is on a goodwill mission to M.S. One.Actually, she is there to investigate allegations that nefariousexperiments are being performed on the inmates. No sooner has Emiliearrived than the inmates stage a breakout. One of Emilie's overzealousSecret Service agents decides that surrendering his entire arsenal offirearms will make him feel naked so he keeps a gun strapped to hisankle. This Secret Service agent gets into a scuffle with aparticularly psychotic inmate, Hydell(Joseph Gilgun of "Harry Brown"),during Emilie's interview and Hydell swipes his ankle pistol.Initially, Hydell and his older brother Alex (Vincent Regan of "Troy")have no idea that Emilie is the President's daughter.Meanwhile, back on Earth, a wisecracking former CIA agent named Snow(Guy Pearce of "The Proposition") is up to his ears in his own woes.Not only has he lost an important suitcase that contains vitalinformation, but he has also been caught and charged with the murder ofhis best friend and espionage. The authorities decide that Snow is theright man to blast off into space and save the President's daughter. Ofcourse, Snow isn't exactly enamored of the idea so he qualifies as areluctant hero. Once he gets aboard M.S. One, he finds himself in amurky maze with everybody, including the President's daughter trying tokill him. Once she realizes who Snow is, Emilie and he stick togetherlike glue and constantly bicker. While Snow and Emilie are fleeing fromAlex and his insane brother Hydell, who regards everybody else as apotential casualty, our heroes rely on help from the outside in theform of Shaw (Lennie James of "Columbiana") because he has blueprintsof the prison in front of him and can tell Snow where to go. Shaw andSnow have an underlying relationship that relates to the missingsuitcase. It seems that the man who last had the suitcase, Mace (TimPlester of "Dr. Who: A Christmas Carol"), knows about the location ofthe luggage. Unfortunately, since he has only recently been releasedfrom stasis, he has trouble verbalizing his thoughts."Lockout" is the kind of runaway thriller where complications keepcomplicating everything. Mind you, this is a derivative movie in thesense that you've seen everything here before. No matter what happens,Besson and first time helmers Mather and St. Ledger keep throwingobstacles in the path of our hero and heroine. The villains aretreacherous and take lives without a qualm. In fact, actor JosephGilgun bears an amazing resemblance to Robert De Niro in his earlyMartin Scorsese movies "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver." The setting isappropriately grubby a la "Outland." Interestingly, Guy Pearce isplaying the kind of role that Arnold Schwarzenegger would have doneback in 1984. Like James Bond, Schwarzenegger acquired the habit ofuttering a clever one-liner whenever he found himself in a tightpredicament. Pearce's Snow behaves in similar fashion. Some of thelines that he utters are humorous. Maggie Grace and he seemappropriately paired despite the circumstances surrounding theircoupling. Clocking in at a trim, vigorous 95 minutes, "Lockout" looks alittle rough around the edges but it delivers every clichГѓВ© intact withmore than enough style to make it worth watching.

kosmasp

(2013-05-13 17:54:55)

Not the PG13 version mind you

I watched this movie in Germany and we got the uncut version (that willbe released in the good old US of A tagged as unrated). I have toadmit, I had no idea what to expect, but was more than pleasantlysurprised. Is this a formula that has been used before? Of course ithas. John McClane, Snake Plissken and others come to mind. I'm notsaying Guy Pearces character is rattling the throne of one of them, buthe is having so much fun with it and it really translates onto screen.Of course there is the other view, that this is premature and tries tobe funny but isn't. I can't foresee what side you will be on. I knowthat Guy Pearce is not trying, he just is. It comes natural of and outof him. Guy Pearce actually does not get as much credit as he doesdeserve for his acting

Jake Coyle

(2013-05-13 06:05:34)

Cavalierly conceived, generically titled and derivatively plotted. It feels like a missed chance because Pearce and Grace came ready to play.

anlauren

(2013-05-12 15:43:30)

This is a bad

Horrible, choppy mess of a movie.Don't waste your time unless you want a movie to make fun of.Acting was mediocre to just plain bad.The constant one liners became annoying.The plot or plots was very choppy and messy. It seemed like the moviewas just one plot from what the trailer displayed, but another plot wasbrought into the movie at the beginning. However, that plot got lostduring most of the movie and then it was brought up again in the end totry and make some sort of epic ending to a mystery. It fell beyondshort with both plots terribly portrayed and very loosely connected.Honestly I felt barely, if any connection between the two. In otherwords this movie was written, directed, and acted by what appears to beKindergarteners. Nothing flowed and the effects were B-rated This movie was an absolute disaster.

Van Roberts

(2013-05-11 21:24:40)

"Escape from L.A." Meets "Fortress 2 Re-Entry"

If you're a hardcore action movie aficionado, you probably compared"Lockout" with John Carpenter's vintage sci-fi epic "Escape from L.A."the first time that you watched the lively little trailer. The lastactor that I thought would appear in this entertaining but disposablepiece of fodder is Guy Pearce. Typically, the English-born Pearceappears in prestigious upscale films, such as "Memento," "The King'sSpeech," "The Hurt Locker," "The Count of Monte Cristo," "L.A.Confidential," and Ridley Scott's forthcoming "Alien" prequel"Prometheus." "Lockout" looks out of place in Pearce's filmography soperhaps he was slumming for a fast paycheck. Rookie writer/directorsJames Mather and Stephen St. Ledger along with ubiquitous French filmproducer Luc Besson have done some creative cherry picking for"Lockout." Indeed, the premise about a rugged, lone wolf hero sent intoa hostile environment to save the daughter of a U.S. President has allthe earmarks of "Escape from L.A" This time the setting is a maximumsecurity prison in orbit rather than Los Angeles. This is reminiscentof the Geoff Murphy sci-fi thriller "Fortress 2 Re-entry" (2000) withChristopher Lambert serving time in a futuristic state-of-the-artmaximum security prison orbiting 26-thousand miles above the Earth. Ofcourse, the orbiting prison evokes the idea of Alcatraz in space. Noway is anybody getting out of this place without becoming a satellite.Anybody who hasn't seen any of these thrillers will probably compare"Lockout" to the Bruce Willis "Die Hard" franchise. Mind you, Besson isprobably the brain child behind most of this exciting nonsense since hewrote "La Femme Nikita," "The Transporter" franchise, both "Taken" aswell as "Taken 2," and "The Fifth Element." Like "Escape from L.A.," "Lockout" takes place in the future. Yes, thisis another dystopian future. Nevertheless, some things don't change.America still has prisons, but the biggest and the worst is no longeron terra firma but instead orbits the Earth. Furthermore, the prisonersare held in suspended animation stasis. The adult daughter of the U.S.President Warnock, Emilie (Maggie Grace of "The Twilight Saga: BreakingDawn - Part 1"), is on a goodwill mission to M.S. One. Actually, she isthere to investigate allegations that nefarious experiments are beingperformed on the inmates. No sooner has Emilie arrived than the inmatesstage a breakout. One of Emilie's overzealous Secret Service agentsdecides that surrendering his entire arsenal of firearms will make himfeel naked so he keeps a gun strapped to his ankle. This Secret Serviceagent gets into a scuffle with a particularly psychotic inmate,Hydell(Joseph Gilgun of "Harry Brown"), during Emilie's interview andHydell swipes his ankle pistol. Initially, Hydell and his older brotherAlex (Vincent Regan of "Troy") have no idea that Emilie is thePresident's daughter.Meanwhile, back on Earth, a wisecracking former CIA agent named Snow(Guy Pearce of "The Proposition") is up to his ears in his own woes.Not only has he lost an important suitcase that contains secretinformation, but he has also been caught and charged with the murder ofhis best friend as well as treason. The authorities decide Snow is theideal candidate to blast off into space and rescue the President'sdaughter. Of course, Snow isn't exactly enamored of the idea so hequalifies as a reluctant hero. Once he arrives aboard M.S. One, hefinds himself in a murky maze with everybody, including the President'sdaughter, trying to kill him. After she realizes who Snow is, Emilieand he stick together like glue but constantly bicker. While Snow andEmilie are fleeing from Alex and his insane brother Hydell--who regardseverybody else as a potential casualty, our heroes rely on aid from theoutside in the form of Shaw (Lennie James of "Columbiana") who knowsSnow. Shaw possesses blueprints of the prison and can advise Snow whereto go to elude the inmates. Shaw and Snow have an underlyingrelationship that relates to the missing suitcase. It seems the man wholast had the suitcase, Mace (Tim Plester of "Dr. Who: A ChristmasCarol"), is the only one who knows about its location. Unfortunately,since he has only recently been released from stasis, he has troubleverbalizing his thoughts."Lockout" is the kind of runaway thriller where complications keepcomplicating everything. Mind you, this is a derivative movie in thesense that you've seen everything here before. No matter what happens,Besson and first time helmers Mather and St. Ledger keep throwingobstacles in the path of our hero and heroine. The villains aretreacherous and take lives without a qualm. In fact, actor JosephGilgun bears an amazing resemblance to Robert De Niro in his earlyMartin Scorsese movies "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver." The setting isappropriately grubby a la "Outland." Interestingly, Guy Pearce isplaying the kind of role that Arnold Schwarzenegger would have doneback in 1984. Like James Bond, Schwarzenegger acquired the habit ofuttering a clever one-liner whenever he found himself in a tightpredicament. Pearce's Snow behaves in similar fashion. Some of thelines that he utters are humorous. Maggie Grace and he seemappropriately paired despite the circumstances surrounding theircoupling. Clocking in at a trim, vigorous 95 minutes, "Lockout" looks alittle rough around the edges but it delivers every clichГѓВ© intact withmore than enough style to make it worth watching.

Mick LaSalle

(2013-05-10 23:21:08)

Most of the time "Lockout" is pleasant enough, not something to recommend to a friend, but enjoyable in the moment.

darkraven_109

(2013-05-10 08:48:13)

A Disappointment

Imitation is said to be the greatest form of flattery and it shows inLOCKOUT. While it's nice to see a modern-day homage to some old movies,LOCKOUT falls short of becoming a great action film all on its own andends up succumbing to becoming nothing but a pale shadow of the 80'smovies.I didn't care if the story was basically ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK PLUS DIEHARD IN SPACE; I was still willing to give the movie a shot since thetrailers made it look like a hardcore action movie that homages thedays of the 80's. In a time of too many superheroes, seeing one mantake on a prison with nothing but a gun, his wits and his sarcasmlooked promising.The first half was actually enjoyable. It starts with a wellchoreographed (but poorly CGI-rendered) chase scene then quicklyescalates into the mass break-out of the inmates of the space-boundprison MS-1. The hero, Snow, is presented as an all around badass andhe serves as a great throwback to the days of John McClane and hisintroduction was executed well. His enemies really looked the part asthe newly liberated hardened criminals aboard MS-1.The second half, on the other hand, was a complete waste. The actionwas really flat, lacking the adrenaline of the opening sequence and thesheer brutality of the films it wanted to homage. The movie also seemedunsure of what genre it should stay in; one moment it's a jailbreakaction movie and all of a sudden it shifts into awkward romanceterritory. At the hands of a better writer this combination of genresmight've worked but that's not the case for LOCKOUT. At this point,Snow's witty dialogue gets more forced as the minutes drag on. Frombeing a sarcastic hero, Snow ends up something more like a sitcomcharacter who can't say anything that isn't supposed to be a joke.There was also that unnecessary subplot about government conspiraciesthat only hindered the plot from advancing at certain points.And this may just be me, but for a movie set in a prison, the overallfeeling was kind of soft. The dialogue implied that there's around 500or so of the worst criminals from Earth detained in MS-1 and yet themovie only bothers to give focus on a small gang of 10 or something. Iwas expecting a lot more brutality in the prison but I only got a gangof inmates trying to get a ransom instead of an entire prisonpopulation of psychopaths trying to kill the hero.LOCKOUT had so much promise and potential but sadly, all of this iswasted in this so-so action movie. At most, this movie only warrants aDVD rental to kill a boring afternoon more than anything else.

Kevin Carr

(2013-05-08 02:21:34)

some fun action and cool concepts can't quite save the film from shoddy writing, weak acting, goofy VFX and a running time that's about 20 minutes too long

bkoganbing

(2013-05-07 08:35:03)

My Date With The President's Daughter

In this futuristic science fiction film, earth has apparently solvedits incarceration problem. A giant prison has been built in spacefloating above our earth and our prisoners have been put in stasis.They are frozen in containment pods and the work and worry of guardingprisoners and feeding them and keeping them occupied or evenrehabilitating them is all in the past. But no less than thepresident's daughter Maggie Grace is on a fact finding mission becauseshe's heard bad rumors about the place.At the same time CIA agent Guy Pearce is in a jackpot all his own whena fellow agent and friend is killed and some valuable documents aboutthe US space program are stolen. He's in a real bind over atheadquarters.But when some nitwit violates rule one in correctional facilities evenfuturistic ones and keeps his gun in his ankle holster it all goes downhill from there. One of the really crazier inmates gets a hold of theweapon and the prisoners are freed from stasis and they've got hostagesincluding Grace. Pearce just might be the best bet to free her and analibi witness in his own case is on the floating prison as well.Lockout is a combination of Gattaca and Escape from New York with alittle bit of the old Tyrone Power/Susan Hayward western Rawhide thrownin as well. The special effects are decent and the players are wellcast.The man who overpowers the security agent and takes his weapon isJoseph Gilgun and his brother who is the leader of the convicts isVincent Regan. Gilgun has two suits missing from his deck and Regan hasall he can do to contain him and he's not all that successful. Forthose of you who are familiar with the film Rawhide, there's a distinctparallel between Regan and Gilgun and Hugh Marlowe and Jack Elam fromRawhide. And it works out the same way with the characters in both.Nothing truly outstanding about Lockout, but it's a decent afternoon'sentertainment.

thevikingage777

(2013-05-03 22:28:43)

A New Gold Standard for Plot Hole

*Spoilers* I'm a huge fan of the sci-fi genre and Guy Pierce so I wasanticipating this movie for some time, but was sorely let down. I'mwell aware that sci-fi is steeped in fiction, but most of the bestsci-fi movies have events pushing the plot forward that make sense.Every scene in this movie was set up by overwhelming implausibilities.This movie is the very definition of Plot Hole. Here is a list tohighlight some of the swiss cheese moments:1. The very premise of the jailbreak relied on a bodyguard - trained inproper management of a gun - hiding his firearm during security. Then,somehow without bells and whistles going off on the most "securedprison built" the gun (surprise, surprise) gets used to help theprisoners escape. Was the guard part of the escape plan - this is neverexplained. Why is the guard insistent on not following the rules - thisis never explained.2. When trying to hide from villains, Snow goes into a room that all ofa sudden sucks all the air out. They never explain why this ishappening, but we have to be scared now because people are going to diesoon. I can only guess it's the transition room before being dumpedinto space, by why the characters would run into that room of all therooms to choose from is beyond me.3. Did they ever explain why the space station was degrading in orbit,because the whole idea of orbit is that unless something drastic knocksit out of orbit it will remain in orbit forever. And during thisimplausible freefall, no one could fire rockets to push it back intoorbit? Oh who cares, right, just ignore these plot holes and realizetheir instigating life-or-death nail-biting situations. 4. Space is huge. But somehow they run into the ISS while their orbitis degrading. If their orbit has degraded, wouldn't they haveinherently fallen off the same plane as the ISS already? *head scratch*5. I know these criminals are insane and all, but why do they keepkilling the scientists that could save this prison from crashing? Smh6. One of the major plot twists in the movie was that the Snow wasmisunderstood as a killer because of an aberrant reflection in amirror. Now this reflection was viewed by several other people on arooftop from multiple angles, but somehow this magical mirror (thatsomehow has no disruptive shadow play or anything else in thereflective line of sight) and all parties see Snow doing the same thingsomehow miraculously. Baffling.7. Even though I don't understand why we give a crap about thePresident daughter's safety this much, but she seems to be somewhatimportant when she points out that the "freezing" process could causebrain damage. Finally, a plot point that instigates terror that issomewhat based in reality. I can see how the process used would, afterlong durations, would cause brain damage. But yet we don't see signs ofthis brain damage with *any* of the hundreds of prisoners we interactwith during the movie. Yet somehow, the character we care about thathas the hidden plans who has only been on the prison for a very brieftime somehow has permanent damage. Good thing he can only talk aboutthe hidden information. One would think that the damage would affecthis memory...nah it only affects his motor and verbal skills. Ugh.8. So we're on a massive station that I'm sure has shuttles or escapepods or something that will allow you re-entrance into Earth'satmosphere. Nah, let's just strap into space suits not remotelydesigned for the heat pressures of atmospheric re-entrance and let'ssomehow magically not end up in the ocean or an unpopulated area - weland smack dab into the center of a major town that's relevant to thestory. Oh yeah, and cops immediately arrive when landing, because copsimmediately think of criminality when they see sky divers. I can go on and on, but I won't bore you with the insane amount of plotholes thrown blindly at the audience to provide the allusion of terrorand story advancement. I can't be surprised, what do you expect with amovie written by three different people? I just would've expected adraft or two to weed out these easily replaceable mistakes. Thankfully, the movie was somewhat watchable because Guy Pierce washilarious as the anti-hero and I was surprised by the unconventionallove story. You don't usually see the hot girl get doused in oil or seeher hit the leading man instead of kiss him. I gotta give them creditfor that. I also really liked the lead psycho villain, been a fan ofhis work from Misfits. Unless you're a huge Guy Pierce fan, don't mind mindless action flicks,or are looking for definitions of plot holes - watch *any* other sci-fimovie.

John Smith

(2013-05-03 13:34:23)

Underrated! Decent action with GREAT humor

Guy Pearce steals the film with his dry caustic humor as a wronglyaccused special agent. The film has a decent plot involving thepresident's daughter on a humanitarian visit to a maximum securityspace prison suspected of foul play. The visit goes south and it's upto agent Snow (Guy Pearce) to save her against about 450+ murders andrapists.Most action films have the same wise cracking devil-may-cry hero buttheir personality usually fizzles after their introduction because thewriter has no more punchy quotes or mannerisms - not here. Thecharacter is consistently hilarious throughout the film regardless ofthe situation. This is very rare and indeed carried the film.Maggie Grace does a good job as the damsel in distress and one prisonerdoes a good job acting truly psychotic, but not enough to really engageyou believably (his character was too over the top). The CG wassurprisingly decent and well balanced along with the rest of the film,which takes place on the space prison.Unlike many films, it's "uh oh" moments were not stupid because thesetup MADE SENSE. Other writers should take notice because they couldlearn a lot. This makes the film far more enjoyable without the facepalming that most blockbusters get. I really enjoyed this film. Welcomeback, Luc Besson!