staring
Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Lennie James, Peter Stormare
My buddy Mike had been waxing eloquent about this prison break/rescue movie called Lockout and had offered it to me several times. No mention was made about science fiction being the main thread, Mike it seems in not really a science fiction fan. But sorry Mike, Lockout is a Science Fiction flic no question!
The basic theme is your standard framed warrior/police person/ merc is pressed into service to rescue a high level dignitary. Lockout follows Snow a man framed for a crime he did not commit, is offered his freedom in exchange for rescuing the President's daughter Emilie. The kicker is this time the prison is an orbital prison called MS One which he inmates have taken control of.
There are several sub plots about Snow’s “crime” and a mysterious briefcase and others that are tied up at the end.
The plot of Lockout will soon become familiar to fans of the space station /prison venue. Or the rogue soldier/officer or the main character who’s methods are viewed as anachronistic etc. such as say “Outland” or “Demolition Man” There are very familiar plot devices and as such takes very little chances. Matter of fact none. The special effect are adequate and plenty of them though some are definitely going to make you go HUUUUH? But even these are elements from other films, just applied a little gratuitously here.
So, Lockout is if not lazy every bit derivative. The square jawed main man, the femfatale who always seems to have a thing for bad boys. The obligatory psychopathic megalomaniac with a retinue of various malcontents.
But if you’re out for punch him in the throat and stomp on his head brainless fun, then Lockout is your entertainment for the evening. The direction is competent and the cast never seemed to camp it up even you the Wilhelm scream was way early...lol.
Because I only had the dvd the extras were a bit slim, but there was a few decent shorts but no director’s comments but on a dvd can’t say I expected them.
So, I would give the movie a harmless entertainment 7 with a 6 for extras. An overall 13 and a 6.5 rating. With a “its not a rip off, and not bad to boot, rent it I would say, just don’t expect more than good entertainment.” review and hey, that aint so bad!
7 comments:
This is one I've wanted to see myself. Thanks for the review.
your welcome. In reality it will not burn you to bad. You will just be able to draw parallels to those other films, but it does have it own "charm"
Just watched Night of the comet the other day. It finally hit me and I remembered what it had been taken from.
"Where Have All the People Gone."
It was a movie from the 70's, made for tv. Found out it on youtube as well.
I hardly ever do reviews. I got on star wars on another sci-fi site, about how badly Lucas had gone in a different direction on the whole force thing and got reemed. Actually they wanted to do more than that to me. (Admitting I favored star trek certainly didn't help that situation though.)
But you just can't turn space fantasy or space opera into science fiction. They aren't even in the same category.
I stopped reviewing for health reasons. Eventually they'd have found me I figure. They are quite persistent. LOL
who in their right mind goes on a Wars site, Call them wankers by saying Trek is real science fiction and then sticks around as the go pleasantly insane?
Well I can tell you that this just isnt going to happen here. First off I don't watch SWs movies HA! But if we can handle the insanity that was odd-cube and his off beat reviews, then I am sure that anything you have to offer will be entertaining and interesting.
I never claimed to be in my right mind. If I had an old london police call box I could really get away with the "Mad man with a box" Line.
And it was supposed to be a sci-fi site. Liars. I mean I like my space fantasy as well as the next guy, and I am a character follower first though. Even Lucas called it a space opera. Liked the first okay, I was young. Had to watch the last one for the fight between Ben and Anakin.
But say one word about something not right in there, and it's like walking into a physics convention, and saying Newton was mentally defective and a Freddy Krueger. They really go insane. It was then I brought out the real comparison to Star Trek, and hung out to watch the hatred spew like the fires of Pompeii.
All I originally said was something to the effect of warp drive being much more probable in physics compared to hyperspace. And maybe something about the parsec thing and the .5 past light speed.
I'll never do that in public without a bunch of Trekkies handy let me tell you.
Ahhh yess the Kessel Run is 12 parsecs, and before I can say uhhh whaaaaaa we are regaled with .5 pas light speed! But like you said, we were young...Me maybe not so much, and it was 78...and a freekin Star Destroyer just flew over our heads and kept going and going (oh yes...VERY small theater) so any pronouncements were from the mouth of gods...but when that wore off I can remember saying ...oh wait, he meant that as speed? I thought he was bragging about sub space folds and his was so good as to put light-years in less than the space taken up by a trip to the outer planets...but then what the hell was .5 past light-speed?! is that like 1.5x ls? .5 is half...but half of what? light-speed? yep 78 was fun 79 not so much!
That beings as it may, I would have loved to be in that discussion group! Yep, they were out for blood!
OMG Kall, you are sitting there calling for all intents...(because Newton was a misdirection) Star Wars people Mental Defective Freddie Kruegers?!!! and well hell throw in liars for a good even melt...
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