Lockout

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2012
Country of origin:	France / USA
Director:	James Mather, Stephen St. Leger
Genre:	Muscular sci-fi
Starring:	Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Peter Stormare, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1592525/
Tagline:	Take no prisoners.
Favourite line:	"I'm being beaten up by a guy called Rupert?"

Muscular sci-fi action never hurt anyone.

The plot:
It’s the near future, the year 2072 (I think!)
The prison system is now in private hands, run for profit and, in order to minimise loss of profit, the worst offenders are sent to Maximum Security Prison One, or MS1 for short.
But MS1 is like no prison ever built before, for it is in near Earth orbit, and the inmates are confined to stasis for the duration of their sentence.
Now, as it happens, one day the president’s daughter is paying a visit to the facility, and wouldn’t you know it, that’s the day the bastards go and bust out, taking her hostage, along with most of the crew.
Step forward Snow (Guy Pearce), a man wrongly accused of treason.
His only hope of salvation, and escaping incarceration on MS1?
Yep, you got it: Save the president’s daughter, no matter the cost.

Now, if this sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it bloody well should.
Effectively, what we have here, is a mash-up of cult favourite Fortress and other cult favourite Escape from New York. ‘Cept instead of saving the president, they’re saving the daughter. And instead of it being New York, it’s MS1. And instead of it being Snake, it’s Snow.
See it now?
The Fortress references? Well, it’s a sci-fi movie about a futuristic prison, with a seemingly corrupt prison system. Guy Pearce tries his best not to do an impression of Snake Plissken, and kind of fails.
But Pearce is always watchable, even when he’s phoning it in.
Maggie Grace as President’s daughter Emily is a mite annoying, constantly bemoaning the actions of Snow, even though the poor fucker is trying his best to rescue her.
Daft bint.
Other than that, nothing of particular interest to note, save for the presence of Joseph ‘Woody’ Gilgun from This Is England as a particularly twisted individual, a role he plays with some gusto, so nice to see him land a part in a ‘major’ movie.
Rough, tough sci-fi action, then.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.