SYNOPSIS: Starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace and set in the near future, LOCKOUT follows a falsely convicted ex- government agent (Pearce), whose one chance at obtaining freedom lies in the dangerous mission of rescuing the President’s daughter (Grace) from rioting convicts at an outer space maximum security prison.

REVIEW: This film is confusing not because of the storyline but because some moments will wow you and some moments will make you shake your head. Some moments are satisfying and some are quite disappointing. Probably the most surprising aspect is that Luc Besson is all over this production providing the original idea, as a screenplay contributor, and as a producer, and yet the movie as a whole falls short. For starters, the story is quite simple which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but in this case there was room for improvement (a more complex story might have helped). To top that off, whatever there is of a story is riddled with cliché. Then there’s that scene. You’ll know which one if and when you see it. Let’s just say that the effects in that scene look like a 10 year old video game, or like something out of Ultraviolet. It was a slap in the face, insulting, and too cheap. But there were some good aspects to the movie as well. Yeah, there were. There is a good amount of action and at times non-stop. In the midst of the cheesiness there is some wit in the script. Most of which, both the cheesiness and the wit, is brought to us by Guy Pearce who plays the lead role, Snow. This is not a typical role for Guy so it was kind of interesting to see him do it as opposed to someone who more typically would do this kind of role. He really pulled it off by being cocky and sarcastic with sharp line delivery probably unlike anything you’ve ever seen him do and that was a treat. We also get a good dose of Maggie Grace who is not that teenager in Taken anymore, even though she wasn’t one when she did that film but her character was. Her roles are maturing and she did a good job with this one. I for one would love to see more of her because not only is she beautiful, she can act. Two others that stood out with their chilling performances were Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun as two primary villains. They were cold and crazy. So pretty much the performances were good but the characters they played were all very cliché, cut by the same old cookie cutter. Oh yeah and a lot of the dialogue is cliché too, cheesy and cliché. Geez I’ve been using that word a lot haven’t I? It really is one of the best ways to describe this movie. But hey, it is the mainstream directorial debut for James Mather and Stephen St. Leger so okay, not so bad but again, there is room for improvement. You could go see this movie and it might entertain you but I would recommend putting it on the rental list and not the theater list.

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