When entering a film produced by Luc Besson, you can be assured of two things: 1) It'll probably be completely unoriginal and full of clichés and 2) Number 1 won't really matter because it'll be a hell of a lot of fun.
Guy Pearce is one of those actors that never really popped like he should have, but fortunately never really faded into obscurity. I caught both L.A. Confidential and Memento right around the same time, and was instantly a fan of Pearce and anticipated big things for him. His first big budget lead role in the 2002 remake of The Time Machine was a dud, but he's been maintaining a solid presence in art-fare, including 2010's Best Picture winner The King's Speech. He seems to have a lot of fun with his role as ex-CIA agent Snow in Lockout, and he takes the audience along for the ride. He's definitely channeling some Kurt Russell for this.
Peter Stormare is engaging as always, this time as an assholish head of Secret Service, and I always get a kick out of seeing Lennie James on screen (when's he coming back to The Walking Dead?). Maggie Grace has made a career of playing the damsel in distress, and pretty soon they're gonna run out of actors who can save her.
Major credit to both Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun for playing to great villains who would, given a better film, go down as some of the better cinematic villains of the past 10 years.
The biggest problem of the film is definitely the production design. The graphics and CGI are laughably bad in the opening chase sequence. Besson and his team created such an amazing world 15 years ago with The Fifth Element, it's almost shocking that they couldn't replicate that look for Lockout.
But I will give it to writer/directors James Mather & Stephen St. Ledger for taking what they gave themselves and making it work, barely. I was never able to fully suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride, but when I did... damn what a fun ride it was.
It's great 80s B-Movie fun, think Escape from New York in space, but with modern filmmaking notions, and a weak plot. It's fun... but never fully realizes it's potential, which is disappointing. I say wait till DVD.
Guy Pearce is one of those actors that never really popped like he should have, but fortunately never really faded into obscurity. I caught both L.A. Confidential and Memento right around the same time, and was instantly a fan of Pearce and anticipated big things for him. His first big budget lead role in the 2002 remake of The Time Machine was a dud, but he's been maintaining a solid presence in art-fare, including 2010's Best Picture winner The King's Speech. He seems to have a lot of fun with his role as ex-CIA agent Snow in Lockout, and he takes the audience along for the ride. He's definitely channeling some Kurt Russell for this.
Peter Stormare is engaging as always, this time as an assholish head of Secret Service, and I always get a kick out of seeing Lennie James on screen (when's he coming back to The Walking Dead?). Maggie Grace has made a career of playing the damsel in distress, and pretty soon they're gonna run out of actors who can save her.
Major credit to both Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun for playing to great villains who would, given a better film, go down as some of the better cinematic villains of the past 10 years.
The biggest problem of the film is definitely the production design. The graphics and CGI are laughably bad in the opening chase sequence. Besson and his team created such an amazing world 15 years ago with The Fifth Element, it's almost shocking that they couldn't replicate that look for Lockout.
But I will give it to writer/directors James Mather & Stephen St. Ledger for taking what they gave themselves and making it work, barely. I was never able to fully suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride, but when I did... damn what a fun ride it was.
It's great 80s B-Movie fun, think Escape from New York in space, but with modern filmmaking notions, and a weak plot. It's fun... but never fully realizes it's potential, which is disappointing. I say wait till DVD.
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