Lockout

A man wrongly convicted of being a traitor against the United States, is given an opportunity for a reprieve by taking on a suicide mission to a prison in space!

When the daughter of the President of the United States is kidnapped while on a visit to a maximum security prison in space, it is decided that only one man on earth can possibly save her. The problem is that he has no wish as all to take on the suicide mission, nor does he care much for the political views of the man running the country.

Once his mind is made up for him, he has to break into the most dangerous prison in the galaxy, make his way past 300 of the worst criminals in history and rescue the young woman, all before the dangerous men discover exactly who they have in their hands. If the unwilling hero is able to make it there and back intact, he may just have his wrongful death sentence overturned.

Australian actor Guy Pierce has done a number of very decent films in his career, especially in recent years, but this one, although decent, does not come anywhere do the sort of quality he usually delivers. His portrayal of the the rather familiar, "Snow", is fairly good, but one cannot help but compare him to the rather more famous character of "Snake Plissken".

Directors James Mather and Stephen St Leger, who also wrote the screenplay, did their very best to disguise the fact that this "original" script just happened to be a cross between "Escape from New York", "Con Air" and any random space film you can think of. Given these facts, they did do quite a decent job and if you had not seen these films, it would have been a very good stand alone project. The film is fast paced, action packed, and even has the odd good one liner thrown in for good measure.

Big screen newcomer Maggie Grace takes the leading female role in this film, playing the role of "Emilie Warnock" and gives a very decent showing, taking to action like a very attractive duck to water. Look out for more from this fairly talented actress. Joseph Gilgun, continues his vein of playing criminals, with a truly superb performance as the completely insane "Hydell". He is the true highlight of this movie, and could well have done with playing a far bigger role in this one. He is a character you will want to hate, but somehow end up feeling sympathy for.

This movie is nothing special, but is worth the cost of the ticket and the popcorn. It will certainly be better on the big screen, and the special effects are a joy to behold at times. This will keep the action fans happy and a number of sci-fi fans entertained too. It's not going to win any awards, but will help you kill two hours on a Sunday afternoon

5.5/10