LOCKOUT

Lockout, the new thriller form that prolific purveyor of pulp Luc Besson, is cinematic junk food. The kinda thing our mothers told us would rot our brains. I would normally embark on an elaborate breakdown of the plot, however this film can easily be broken down into three sentences:

President's daughter. Space prison. One Man!

If you can't make up your mind based on those sentences, I don't know if I can help you. If you're asking what the president's daughter (Maggie Grace) is doing visiting a super-maximum security space prison, you are already asking too many questions. The One Man who can save her is known only as Snow and is played by Guy Pearce (Memento). The fact that Snow is a CIA agent who's been set-up and now has one last chance to redeem himself by saving the president's daughter goes without saying. I only wrote it down to fill space.

Okay, so Lockout doesn't get a lot of points for originality. The fact that the film so closely resembles Escape From New York and 1,000 other B-movies isn't as much a detriment as it should be. It helps that Lockout is directed with a measure of personality by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger. The action scenes are well done but occasionally have a touch too much shaky-cam. Some of them are actually kinda memorable, and even the ones that aren't have a goofy charm to them.

Adding to that goofy charm are the one-liners. It's not so much that Snow always has something funny to say, it's that he always has 10 funny things to say. My favorites being "Everyone loves me, just ask your wife." and "Don't talk to strangers, shoot them." I always wonder if action heroes come up with all these comments off the cuff or if some of them are written down in advance. Anyway Pearce is a blast and makes Snow into the kind of politically incorrect jerk/bad-ass that every 10 year old want's to be. Maggie Grace is also quite charismatic and it's to the filmmakers credit that they resisted the temptation to sexualize her character.. Both these actors are great stars, but the world hasn't realized it yet.

Lockout is a silly, silly film. It's got every cliché in the book but it hardly matters. Sometimes you don't have to be original. Sometimes you don't even have to try hard to distinguish yourself. Sometimes just being a lot of fun is enough.

Grade: B