In Space!

Lockout (2012) was a pretty standard action movie: We were expecting something like Escape from New York in space. We pretty much got that, but the minimum possible version.

It starts with Guy Pearce getting bet up. He's in an interrogation room and every time he gives a wise-ass answer, he get socked. Which is pretty much every answer. He is a CIA spy who apparently shot his senior partner when a pickup went bad - then the McGuffin went missing. Last seen when sketchy Tim Plester took it on a subway train.

For his crime, Pearce is going to be sent to an orbital prison where he'll serve his sentence in suspended animation. But first, Maggie Grace, the President's daughter, is on a fact-finding mission to see if this process is safe. One of the worst prisoners, Vincent Regan, is woken up and brought to her to interview. He of course gets a gun and takes her prisoner. He quickly releases all the prisoners and takes all the good guys hostage. One of the other prisoners is Joe Gilgun, a total loony and Regan's brother. It's Jigsaw and Loony Bin Jim all over again. 

So the plan is now to send Pearce up to the prison secretly to bring Grace back in an escape pod, and to hell with everyone else. But Grace is intent on saving the rest of the hostages. When Gilgun finally goes nutso and kills all the hostages (and several prisoners, including his brother), she is allowed to talk to her father. "Everyone is dead; blow the place out of the sky". 

But of course, they don't. Pearce manages to get her back to Earth, and she also decodes Plester's ravings to find the hidden McGuffin. So the mystery at the start of the show is solved, as if anyone cares.

Because we are there for the action. Which is fine, although I don't think there was much that was especially cool. This was produced and conceived by Luc Besson, so we could have expected better. Finally, there is a scene when the government sends fighter craft to attack the prison, which has guns to shoot back - And it looks like it comes straight out of Star Wars. Like, shot for shot. Not an homage - a rip off. Lost some respect there.

Still, a Guy Pearce one-man-army actioner in space. If that's good enough for you, go for it.