Lockout

After the 2000 Christopher Nolan film, "Memento," Guy Pearce has become one of those actors, who seems to be a bit underused from time to time. Granted, it might be due to staying out of the crowd and not being whored out a lot, but he does give good performances, like in "Memento," which lead most people to have him be a pretty good action star.

However, like the yin & yang, for every good movie an actor has, there's always a bad one to counteract it. And that's today's subject, with the film "Lockout."

In the film, Guy Pearce plays Snow (yes, that's his name) a man of of the year 2079, who's framed for the murder of a former government expert, Frank, who he was hired to protect. Frank's last breath was for Snow to guard a briefcase and keep a lighter, saying “Don't let them find out,” and keeps the lighter, with the briefcase left in the hands of his friend Mace. Soon, a prison riot happens, in space, and Guy Pearce is ordered to go up there and save the president's daughter, Emile, before the prison crashes into the earth, only on there to save Mace, who was put up there.

Now when you look at the trailers, you think that the film would be pretty straight forward, with being a typical action flick...however, it goes WAY below that. First off, the films first half our is simply a borefest. Even when it's during an action scene it's not that entertaining, and you'll have your soda gulped down before you're even half way through, trying to find something to enjoy. The characters in the film are complete idiots. I mean, what president would send their daughter to interview psychotic prisoners?! Plus, one guy is told not to bring weapons on the prisoner's side of the interview room, and guess what? He sneaks a gun in! Yeah, there's a reason why you don't bring a weapon on that side! And you know what happens next? He has him and Emile locked in a room, shoots the lock code, which results in nitrogen getting into the room slowly. How stupid is this guy?! Mace, was pretty much a useless character, and if you just cut him out of the film, and had Guy Pierce hide the briefcase, you'd have the exact same film. The cops are also boring, and are very bland. Emile was also a very underdeveloped and ANNOYING character. We basically know very little about her, other than the fact that she's the presidents's daughter. Even in some scenes where we're suppose to care about her, it comes off as hilarious instead. In fact, Guy Pearce even makes her look like a boy, and you can't help but laugh at it. By the end of the film, you were hoping she was dead, but life's just not fair.

But despite amount of crap this movie has, there are some things to like about it. Guy Pearce gave a pretty good performance, despite the crappy script he's working with. He's badass, witty, and knows how to handle certain situations. Also, the effects are decent enough and aside from the atrociously shot fight scene in the beginning that's thrown in your face, the action scenes are...okay, to say the least. But even with Guy Pearce and the okay effects and fight scenes it's not enough to save the film. It just makes you wish Emile was developed more, then it would have been a mediocre action flick.

Overall, "Lockout" is just a disappointing film, that didn't have much to disappoint to begin with, and they screw it up anyway. I don't recommend this in anyway possible. Unless you like action films that's complete trash.

Rating: 1/5
2/10