For a Luc Besson film, I am incredibly disappointed. There were some good parts, but also some truly terrible parts.

Characters seem poorly written for the sake of needing a plot device, or just because...

[spoiler]Perfect example is Hock. What a dumb shit. Between taking an ankle gun into the interview room and shooting the controls to activate the gas release, this guy has stupid in spades. Best part was him shooting himself in the head. He sure wasn't using it.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Emilie is pretty stupid as well. She attacks Snow twice, despite the fact he was helping her both times. He isn't wearing orange, so he is probably not one of the prisoners. Then, she seems confused about who cause communications. Thankfully Snow has a smartass comment to tell her how flippin stupid she is. ... and she can't even read a simple map... stupid![/spoiler]

[spoiler]And Snow is just generally incompetent. Between being seen trying to make entry because he can't hide his legs, to walking like he is drunk, to being a worthless fighter, to being so weak he can't even pull himself over the edge of the torsion chasm (either with a perfect grip or a few moments later with a perfectly good rope)...[/spoiler]

[spoiler]And who doesn't understand things in orbit stay in orbit? M.S. One would not reenter the atmosphere for a while. The drag would be minuscule enough to give it weeks to months before needing a boost back into higher orbit. Not 8 hours to completely return to Earth. Hell, it was in a higher orbit than the I.S.S. and the I.S.S. only reboosts to a higher orbit about once a month.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]And what does having the controls be fly by wire have to do with anything? All that means is there are electronic controls instead of traditional physical links. It has nothing to do with orbital mechanics.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Why are they falling when they jump off the station? Wow! The writers of this movie must be some of the most inept sci-fi writers ever. Even in the old school 60s sci-fi they knew about orbital mechanics enough to know you were not going to just fall.[/spoiler]

Nobody smokes anymore, Snow!

I was kind of inclined to headline this as being the movie guaranteed to make highbrow film fans froth with incredulity. That anyone could enjoy such a derivative, tongue-in-cheek, low ambition piece of schlock, is surely cause for venomous spleen venting from the serio film brigade. They call them guilty pleasures, but thing is, I just don't feel guilty about having such a wonderfully fun filled great time with the Luc Besson produced Lockout.

Plot? Well it's the future and basically Guy Pearce (Snow) is wrongly convicted of a crime and sentenced to do stir in stasis until whenever. But up in space at the MS1 prison facility, home to all the maniacs found in "Demolition Man", the president's daughter, do-gooder babe Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace), is suddenly taken captive and it's a big hostage situation. This looks like a mission for a serious hard bastard type! Well "Snake Plissken" wasn't available, so they get Snow, who is bulked up, full of wise cracks and has a point to prove. Guess what follows? Yep, complete popcorn frenzy as Pearce and Grace cut a swathe through MS1 and have a date with coolness personified.

On the way, via a truly gorgeous sci-fi affected Blu-ray print, we will tick off the homages and influences and compare notes with our viewing partners about how it's a "Snake Plissken" movie but with Shane Black type dialogue. While those who are partial to a bit of sci-fi design are well served here. Because even though there might be the worst CGI effects ever during a chase scene (that mercifully only runs for 50 seconds), the space ships, sets and Torsion System sequence, prove that you don't need Michael Bay type bucks to please the eyes. From the quite brilliant and hilarious opening interrogation beat down, to the big reveal and punch line, this Besson produced piece is serving popcorn with a smile to a certain segment in the film watching populace.

With bits of the "Snake Plissken" movies, "Fortress", "Die Hard", "Commando", "Demolition Man", "Minority Report", "Last Boy Scout" and any other quip laden dude/wronged man on a mission movie, Lockout clearly lacks originality. But seriously! Was anyone involved playing it as anything other than a sly homage movie? No, they wasn't. Pearce is great fun in the role, but he isn't trying to worry the highbrow crowd's votes for films of the year. Anyone viewing it expecting something cerebral should feel more guilty than those who stand up to say they had a great time watching it. Ingem Ferem. 7/10

We watched this movie more or less by chance last evening. We normally do not have Canal+ in our “bouquet” but they are making a drive right now so everyone can watch Canal+ for a couple of weeks and this movie looked interesting, at least compared to the rest of the choice available that evening, so we watched it.

It was a surprisingly entertaining evening movie. It is pretty much a standard Hollywood nonsensical pop-corn movie but it is a well done one. It makes no pretence of being anything else than it is. The story is a fairly predictable action story. Hero gets framed during the introduction scenes. Quick flip to the space prison that is going to serve as the scenery of the bulk of the movie. Dumbass thinks he is more clever than everyone else so he breaks the rules. Goes bad. Prisoners break out. President’s daughter just happens to be there at the same tame. Our hero is sent in to save the day. Action time!

There are a few more complications to the story but that is pretty much it. It is a simple and solid story that pretty much holds water. It would have been a fairly standard, even mediocre, movie if it was not for our hero which is doing an admirable job of playing hero and tough guy. The dialog, as nonsensical as it is, definitely lifts the move. The action is fairly good and so are the special effects although it is by no means a movie that is held up by its effects. The main bad guy is a really irritating psychotic son-of-a-bitch. The actor is doing a good job of portraying him but the character itself bugged the hell out of me when watching the movie. He is a bit over the top that has to be said.

Anyway, the movie was quite entertaining as an evening pop-corn flick and since we picked it more or less by chance and did not know much about it before hand it was indeed a fairly pleasant surprise.