Luc Besson is an action impresario. The French filmmaker
once directed two highly acclaimed action pics in La Femme Nikita and Leon: The
Professional. Since then, he's produced a whole slew of shoot-em-ups like The Transporter, Taken, and Colombiana. Lockout is the latest thrill ride
churned out by the Luc Besson factory.
Lockout can best
be described as Escape from New York
in outer space. It is the year 2079 and the most dangerous criminals are
incarcerated in MS One, a maximum security prison orbiting the planet. The
inmates are also kept in suspended animation. Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace),
the daughter of President Warnock (Peter Hudson), comes on board to assess any
effects the stasis process may have on the prisoners' minds. The one convict
they decide to revive and interview happens to be Hydell (Joseph Gilgun), the
most dangerous and psychotic one aboard. He quickly releases all the other
inmates who proceed to systemically kill the majority of the prison's staff.
The President is forced to turn to the one man who can save his daughter, a man
so badass he needs only one name. That man is Snow (Guy Pearce), a former CIA
agent arrested by the Secret Service and accused of murdering one of their
agents. Snow reluctantly agrees to mount a rescue, partly to reach a comrade on
MS One, who possesses evidence that may exonerate him.
Lockout is
straight B-grade material. Co-directors James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, who
penned the script with Besson, have the same cookie cutter visual style as
other Besson disciples like Louis Leterrier, Pierre Morel, and Olivier Megaton.
The special effects aren't anything to crow about with a freeway chase being
particularly laughable due to video game graphics. Other similarly ridiculous
sequences include an agent shooting himself in the head to save oxygen for
Emilie followed by Snow injecting her through the eye with a stimulant. Eat
your heart out Pulp Fiction. The
story and the action are unapologetically derivative. In addition to John
Carpenter's cult classic, Lockout
rips off Die Hard with Snow pulling a
John McClane as he crawls around the station's air ducts while bemoaning his
fate. There's even a Star Wars
sequence as attack ships stage an assault on the penitentiary.
Maggie Grace once again assumes the role of damsel in
distress and the always hammy Peter Stormare is great as the Service's slightly
sinister chief. But, the whole movie hinges on Guy Pearce's performance as the
prototypical action hero armed with only his wits and a bevy of corny
one-liners. He won't win an Oscar, but he is a helluva lot of fun.
So bad, it's good is the best way to describe Lockout, a film whose sheer awfulness is
highly entertaining. Don't demand too much from Lockout; just check your brain at the door.
Rating: ** (*****)
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