{2jtab: Movie Review}

Snake Plissken is back.

Whoops.  I mean, a super-spy go-to-government stud named Snow (Guy Pearce, playing Kurt Russell, adorned in a ‘Warning: Offensive’ t-shirt) is back on the job in co-directors Stephen St. Leger & James Mather’s Lockout.  It’s cheesy brawn over brains for this one.  Lockout knows exactly what it is and it never weakens in its grip upon the Roger Corman reigns.  Even its budget rings in its limitations with great fun.  Pushing its low-budget sci-fi offerings, shameless rip-offs, and B-movie swagger to the limit, the good times are as infectious as its raucous cast.

Co-written by Luc Besson, the wise-cracking Snow maneuvers his way through a Die Hard scenario in a prison floating somewhere in space.  Leger and Mather and Besson are credited as screenwriters, but the script - which borrows so much from every other thundering actioneer – practically writes itself.  Throw in a jailhouse insurrection led by a hot head (Joseph Gilgun) and a cool as a cucumber-type (Vincent Reagan), a kidnapped President’s daughter (Maggie Grace), and a falsely accused anti-hero (Pearce), who plays by his own Han Solo-inspired rules, and you know exactly what to expect.

Lockout plays its B-movie board game theatrics well.  The pieces are plastic and they simply wait for the next player’s turn.  It’s so campy and comical at times that it is hard to be critical of the final product.  One can choose to ding the film for a couple of shoddy effect sequences, but that's all part of its charm.  Lockout isn’t aiming to be inventive; it’s a return to the action genre of the early 1990’s and, while there’s a lot of sucktastic films from that era, this one manages to be the cream of the crop with a healthy amount of humor and goofy galactic fun.

What works best is the cast; everyone – especially Pearce – has come to party.  Pearce no longer looks like a reserved Richard Chamberlin (see Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark).  He’s pumped and his steely streamlining lands every punch thrown.  Of course, that workout includes his comedic timing.  The comedy; the outer space setting; the Indiana Jones heroics all work to deliver something that is certainly worthy of a buck or two.

Certainly, Lockout isn’t aiming to be inventive with a worn-out genre.  There’s no mistaking its intentions.  Sit back and enjoy, my friends.  With hammers cocked, its geeky phasers are set on “fun” and, with a budget of only a mere $30 million, the global box office returns should promise that Snow is here to stay.

{2jtab: Film Details}

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and language including some sexual references.
Director: James Mather, Stephen St. Leger
Writer: James Mather, Stephen St. Leger
Cast: Guy Pearce; Maggie Grace; Vincent Regan; Joseph Gilgun; Lennie James
Genre: Action | Thriller
Tagline: Lockout
Memorable Movie Quote: "Mr. Presient, there's been a massive takeover."
Distributor: Open Road Films
Official Site: http://www.lockoutfilm.com/
Release Date: April 13, 2012
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: July 17, 2012

Synopsis: Starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace and set in the near future, Lockout follows a falsely convicted ex- government agent (Pearce), whose one chance at obtaining freedom lies in the dangerous mission of rescuing the President’s daughter (Grace) from rioting convicts at an outer space maximum security prison.

{2jtab: Blu-ray Review}

Component Grades Movie Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - July 17, 2012
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit); Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; Portuguese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD); UV digital copy
Region Encoding: A

Snow and the grizzled gang of badass that he encounters looks absolutely killer on Sony's 1080p transfer. Once again, Sony proves to be the leader in HD entertainment as there is not one single flaw in this image. It was shot on digital, but from the detail in the atmosphere and surrounding environ, you’d have guessed 35mm. Colors are bold (note the orange jumpsuits) and flesh tones are warm. Shadows are deep without surrendering their edges to murky mishaps. There is a tapestry of detail in every single close-up and backgrounds are always punctuated with fine detail. The spellbinding detail continues in the superbly sonic DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This is highly jazzed up and bouncy soundtrack that works all the speakers. It’s spacious and precise and sweeps from channel to channel for a totally immersive experience.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• None

Special Features:

It’s simple and badass entertainments, but not worthy of detailed supplemental material, I guess. You get a UV digital copy of the film and two featurettes that just barely crack the surface of this John Carpenter knockoff. One features the cast and crew talking for about ten minutes about working against a green screen and the joys of working with directors Mather and St. Leger. The other featurette discusses the production design of the future.

• Breaking Into Lockout (11 min)
• A Vision of the Future (10 min)

{2jtab: Trailer}

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