Lockout

We've all seen films about the distant and not so distant future before, i.e. "Rollerball", "The Andromeda Strain", "I Am Legend", "I, Robot", "Escape from New York", "Logan's Run", "Silent Running", "The Hunger Games", "The Book of Eli", "A.I.", "Total Recall". Frankly, the list is endless. Well, another one can be added to the heap and that one is in the form of "Lockout".

The year is 2079. A man, Snow (Guy Pearce) wrongly accused of killing one of his colleagues and is accused  and subsequently convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter, Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace) from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates lead up by Alex (Vincent Regan) and his psychotic brother, Hydell (Joseph Gilgun).
It comes to a point where Snow wonders if he needs to be concerned more about the attacking convicts or of the politics going on at a nearby station that are helping him via radio which is lead up by interrogators, Langral and Harry Shaw (Peter Stormare and Lennie James) respectively.

Others to round out the cast are Jacky Ido as Hock, special agent to Emilie, Tim Plester as Mace, Snow's important contact, Mark Tankersley as Barnes, Anne-Solenne Hatte as Kathryn, Peter Hudson as President Warnock, Nick Hardin as hostage negotiator, and Dan Savier as Duke.

This was effectively directed by James Mather, also cinematographer ("Prey Alone" (short) '04) and Stephen Saint Leger ("Prey Alone" (short) '04). It was written by these two guys and Luc Besson based on an original idea by Besson. The key word here is 'original'. Even though there were some unique aspects in this and a nifty twist, the basic idea is very much akin of that of John Carpenter's 1979 film, "Escape from New York" whereas convict Snake (Kurt Russell) is given his freedom if he rescues the president's daughter from a prison where there are violent inmates. Instead of outer space, this prison was a walled up Manhattan where all the lowlifes of the country are thrown in and the inmates can just duke it out. Sound familiar?

I have to say, though, even knowing this, I still got more out of this than I thought I would. Truly, what really made this was Pearce as Snow. He played this tough, beefy guy, but with a heart so as to make him more human, and he pulled it off well. If you want to see Pearce in one of his best performances to date, rent "Memento" about a man who had to take Polaroid pictures to solve a case, because of the fact he had an extreme short-term deficit condition.

There were very few inconsistencies in this and it didn't come from a totally original idea, but all in all this film was not only explosive with great sets, but kept you right on the edge of your seat until the very end and isn't that the important ingredient to make it that much more entertaining?

Out of 4 stars: 3                      Rated: PG-13                     95min.