 Tagline: Take no prisoners. Luc Besson (Director of The Fifth Element) presents this futuristic thriller about a renegade CIA agent (Guy Pearce, Prometheus) who is betrayed by his government and sentenced to 30 years frozen in a cryonic chamber 50 miles above Earth. The only way to avoid serving time is a suicide mission - overcome a gang of ruthless prisoners and rescue the President's daughter (Maggie Grace, Taken). Storyline: In 2079, in Washington, the ex-CIA Operative Snow is brutally interrogated, accused of treason against the United States. The chief of the secret service Scott Langral believes that he shot the agent Frank in a hotel room. Meanwhile, the idealistic daughter of the president of the USA, Emilie Warnock, is visiting MS One, a maximum security prison in outer space expecting to find evidences that the prisoners are actually guinea pigs of a huge corporation. When one of her bodyguards loses a hidden pistol to the dangerous prisoner Hydell, he subdues the staff in the central control room and releases the prisoners, including his brother Alex who becomes the leader of the riot. Now the veteran agent Harry Shaw offers freedom to Snow if he succeeds in rescuing the president's daughter. But the idealistic Emilie does not want to leave MS-One without the hostages. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, July 10, 2012 -- It seems as if there's been a shortage of good, big-budget, big-studio Sci-Fi Action films of late. It's nice to see the genre return to the big screen and in a big way in Lockout, Luc Besson's (The Fifth Element) brainchild story of a wrongly-accused convict sent to an orbiting space station to rescue the President's daughter from inmates who have taken control of the installation. In essence, this is nothing more than Escape from New York without the clunky graphics, dated feel, and John Carpenter's synth score. It's absolutely unoriginal filmmaking, but it's loads of fun and done just right, a dumb Action movie that arranges all the right pieces into exactly the right places, something of a good old throwback movie that might have even starred Arnold were it made in his heyday. Lockout also lacks smarts or anything resembling a deep plot, but they don't get a whole lot better than this when it comes to mindless poporrn-munching cinema with lots of explosions, gunfire, space ships, and even a little bit of intrigue, suspense, and humor to carry the movie when the guns cease and the action slows. Snow (Guy Pearce, The Hurt Locker) has been sentenced to prison for a crime he claims he didn't commit. In the year 2079, prison isn't just concrete walls, bars, and three square per day. It's an orbital station where inmates are kept in stasis. It seems highly efficient, but not everyone is sold on the merits, including Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace, "Lost"), DOTPOTUS (Daughter of the President of the United States). She's heading to the overhead colony, known as M.S.-1, to oversee operations and check on the condition of the installation's 497 prisoners, some of whom may fall victim to various mental instabilities as a result of their unique incarceration. When one prisoner, Hydell (Joseph Gilgun, Harry Brown), is awakened and questioned by the well-meaning Emilie, he nabs a weapon from the girl's secret service agent, kills him, and sets free all of his fellow prisoners, including Alex (Vincent Regan, Troy), a cunning, ruthless enemy who won't relinquish control of the station so easily. With the President's daughter in the line of fire, a military rescue mission is ruled out. The solution: send in a single man to save the girl. Snow is promised a pardon to do the deed, but can he withstand hundreds-to-one odds and make it out alive, and with Emilie safe and sound right behind him? Lockout may be described in its advertisements as "Die Hard meets Blade Runner," but it really is just a remake of Escape from New York; replace the President with the President's daughter and replace New York with an orbital penal colony and it truly is the same story. After all, Lockout doesn't have the smarts of Blade Runner or the charisma of Die Hard, but it knows its place and doesn't even try for the former, though it does make a run for the latter. Lockout is an infinitely likable little movie, not a great movie, but a highly entertaining, brain-off, slickly-crafted Sci-Fi Action flick that does a good job with every element, flubs none, and seems very content with what it is, which is nothing approaching Oscar contention but rather a quickly-paced run and gun adventure. On the surface, audiences know exactly what to expect: a stale plot, slick filmmaking, cool sets and special effects, some stylized action, charismatic characters, and a minor plot twist or two. Yet the surprise is how well it all comes together, how well it works as pure entertainment, how much fun it really is when watched in the proper context. The directing tandem of James Mather & Stephen St. Leger make Lockout feel fresh, not at all like a re-imagining of a fan favorite. It finds its own identity with a collection of good characters who don't form much of a shape other than "flat" but who do manage good chemistry -- Pearce and Grace in particular -- and demonstrate an understanding that Lockout need only be fun, not great, to work. Pearce carries the film nicely as the tough guy, a man wronged, with a smart mouth and a penchant for getting into and out of trouble. In other words, he's a stock action hero, but sometimes that's all a movie needs. Likewise, the bad guys look and act menacing; there's little depth and precious little personal history, but again, does a movie that knows, acknowledges, and enjoys its place need more? Lockout additionally enjoys sound special effects -- there's a nifty outer space battle near the end -- and fine set dressing. The picture blends believable future-thinking technologies and everyday objects with a worn-down, grimy, inhospitable look, foregoing some idealistic vision of the future for a more plausible one, which works well even as the movie maneuvers through a largely implausible video game-style scenario. Don't count on seeing Lockout on any best-of-year awards lists or in Oscar contention for any category -- there's more of a chance the good folks over at the Razzie Awards will find a spot for it -- but mark it down as one of the year's most simple and effective entertainment vehicles. Everything about Lockout just works, from the acting to the characters, from the sets to the special effects, from the story to the pace. Plus, it's a real treat to see the Action Sci-Fi genre back up front-and-center. Never mind comparisons to Die Hard or Blade Runner or even Escape from New York; Lockout works fine as a standalone movie, a Coke-and-popcorn good time that, hopefully, ushers in a new wave of like-minded Action/Sci-Fi pictures. Sony's Blu-ray release of Lockout sparkles. Though the disc is disappointingly short on extras, the technical presentations are expectedly superb. Highly recommended. [CSW] -2.9- I just needed to add that this really was a pretty average movie. [V5.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - The 8/2/2012 D-Box codes didn't work, maybe a later update will. Last viewed on 08/05/2012. Cast Notes: Guy Pearce (Snow), Maggie Grace (Emilie Warnock), Vincent Regan (Alex), Joseph Gilgun (Hydell), Lennie James (Harry Shaw), Peter Stormare (Scott Langral), Jacky Ido (Hock), Tim Plester (John James Mace), Mark Tankersley (Barnes), Anne-Solenne Hatte (Kathryn), Peter Hudson (President Warnock), Nick Hardin (Hostage Negotiator), Dan Savier (Duke), Damijan Oklopdzic (Slick), Bojan Peric (LOPD Technician 1). IMDb Rating (07/18/12): 6.1/10 from 15,890 users
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
