LOCKOUT - Fun, but obvious and at times cringe worthy.

The choice of films to watch this weekend had caught up on themselves, and there were a possible 3 films we were interested in seeing. I say interested, I think they were 3 films that we would see but not really fussed about any of them, especially since they had all gained rather average reviews. The other 2 we thought about were Battleship and Gone. Both in hindsight had received worse reviews than the film we decided to see, but we probably wished we had seen ahead of what we did see; Lockout.


The main reason that we were slightly disappointed with our choice this week was because this film does not deserve a theatrical release, and the only reason it probably did is because Guy Pearce stars in it. This is the sort of film that you would not be surprised to see when flicking onto Channel 5 at 11 at night. It is typical 80's action flick, and tries to be a Die Hard in space, and I have to say it doesn't really work. The action is set up to be there, but despite being fun it never really engages you. You could watch action scene after action scene, and switch off inbetween and still understand the film. There is very little else to it.

The action is fun but also ridiculous. Our hero is knocked down once, despite being battered, but our scary villain is floored in one punch. The CGI effects for the opening action sequence, of Guy Pearce racing through a futuristic city are so hyped up it's like you're watching a computer game, which becomes really distracting and the scene becomes a CGI mess. Also the less said about the climatic jump scene the better, it is utterly ridiculous and the directors seem to sap any bit of tension out of it. If you see it you will know what I mean.

Guy Pearce is the only thing possibly decent with this film. His character does become slightly annoying, but he is pretty good at it. He plays Snow, who is the man sent alone onto a maximum security prison in space gone awry to rescue the President's daughter. He is a character that despite having pain handed to him can still crack a joke about someone's mother. At times this point about his character is funny, and there is a great funny scene between him and Maggie Grace (President's daughter) where he tells her to keep her mouth shut. Their banter is alright, but at one point in the film she seems to have a considerable change of heart in about 5 seconds, and it is unbelievable.

The film is very retro. It is an 80's action flick in space, and all the queasy remarks and action scenes have all been said and done before. It is a fun film, but the writing is as if they have watched a lot of action films and stolen a scene or quote from each, which they didn't have to do because the premise is pretty original in itself. Guy Pearce is good, and surprisingly so is Joseph Gilgun, from Emmerdale, who plays one of the inmates, but other than that it does all seem to fall very flat and we left the cinema not really caring much for it, and unaware that we had even been to the cinema. It did not deserve a theatrical release and we kind of wish, that despite horrid reviews, we stumped for Battleship. At least then we could have seen 2 hours of CGI mess on the big screen.

Pros: Guy Pearce and some of his cheese ball lines.

Cons: Some of it is cringe worthy, and the CGI action scenes are difficult to watch.

4 / 10


Top 10 films of 2012 so far:


1. The Hunger Games     8 / 10
2. 21 Jump Street     7.5 / 10
3. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol     7 / 10
4. The Grey     7 / 10
5. Safe House     6 / 10
6. The Raven     6 / 10
7. Contraband     6 / 10
8. The Cabin In The Woods     5.5 / 10
9. This Means War     5 / 10
10. Man On A Ledge     5 / 10