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Locked Up and Out - A review of Lockout
Lockout offers another predictable take on the familiar prison break tale.
Guy Pearce is no slouch when it comes to acting in adventure films and here he is spot on as a law enforcement agent who is sentenced to 30 years on MS One, a maximum security prison hovering above the Earth.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself here...the movie takes place roughly sixty years from now on an Earth where criminals are frozen in space thus rendering the world a safer place.
Not a bad idea, really.
What is a bad idea is having the President's daughter (Maggie Grace) pay a visit. The convicts escape and all hell breaks loose.
That is until Guy Pearce arrives to save the day. And take out the bad guys along the way. (Wow...I'm a poet and didn't know it.)
And if you can't see the way this movie is going to end, you either live in a cave or don't watch Hollywood movies very often.
Pearce is his capable self, playing the character in full bad-ass mode, complete with attitude and off-the-cuff barbs and quips. He is the one major saving grace in the movie. Otherwise this would just be typical B-movie drivel.
The rest of the characters are pretty much one total B-movie cliche after another. Grace plays her part to the hilt, too, not letting her Emilie simply melt down into typical movie hysterics. Her feisty character is a nice foil to Pearce's agent Snow.
But talk about predictable...yes, the guy you least expect to be the bad guy really IS the bad guy...just as I and most of the moviegoing audience expected.
Demolition Man (the Sylvester Stallone movie from nearly 20 years ago) was actually a lot funnier...and more entertaining...and pretty much had a very similar plot (although that prison wasn't located in outer space).
I wouldn't mind seeing the characters again in a sequel...but hopefully next time they'll be more grounded. I give the movie 2-1/2 out of 5 stars.