Snow (Guy Pearce) comes straight from the pages of DILLIGAF? magazine, complete with a nihilistic attitude and a steady stream of snide, half witty comments.
Of course when the top secret, top security floating space prison is compromised by a brazen and it must be said unfathomably simple attack, Snow is the only man on hand capable of saving the day…
… Actually not so much the day, but the president’s daughter Emily, a young woman who happens to be aboard the space prison making sure everything is shipshape. A strange task really, given that all inmates are frozen in stasis for the duration of their sentences. This also provokes me to wonder just how one might contemplate the error of one’s ways if they awaken years later with no recollection of the sentence. In fact it seems possible that the last thought upon commencing a 10 year sentence might be “I’m going to kill those mofos“, with the first thought an entire decade later being “right now to get those mofos“.
Wonder who voted for that awesome suggestion?
Not Snow. He’s too cool to vote. He’s also too cool to think he’s cool, which must be complicated.
Once he saves the prez’ daughter from certain death, the mismatched duo must serve their own sentence of sorts, namely co-existing with each other. He’s obnoxious and so rebellious he smokes. She’s ungrateful and irritating. If I really wanted that dynamic I’d watch an episode of The Real Housewives of… Anywhere really.
Lockout is a modern day Split Second; an unnecessary small budget sci-fi film made either to give a young director a shot or for tax breaks – most likely both. Unlike Split Second, Pearce doesn’t quite have the sheer force of personality and charisma required to make you forget that it’s really a silly little B movie. If anything, his superior acting ability makes him try too hard for the material, which only serves to draw attention to how paper thin the concept of an orbiting-prison-fridge really is.
Final Rating – 6 / 10. Maybe as the filler in a B movie marathon, started after the eyes start glazing over. As the ‘main event’ though, I’d avoid.
