In Space, No One Can Hear Your Parole

"Lockout" is an absurd, unremarkable movie built around an absurd and brilliant concept.  It could be easy to file it away with other classic B movies like "Escape from New York" but it is an original concept produced by Luc Besson, one of the busiest men in Hollywood.  Because of that, it was pushed as sort of a "Taken" in space, but the only similarity, really, is that Maggie Grace, the actress taken from the Liam Neeson film, is the same actress taken in this one.  Keep in mind, a film like "Lockout" is only good for an audience that is either bored and stumbles into it during a Saturday matinee, or an audience that is in the right mood to enjoy something this silly.  I guess I was in the right mood.

The premise is exactly as advertised.  In 2079, a prison called MS-1 is in orbit around the earth.  All the world's worst criminals are sent there to be put into stasis sleep for the length of their sentence.  As we're informed early on, stasis sleep has unfortunate side effects on the human brain; psychosis, dementia, and any number of other conditions that lead to increased agression and violent behavior.  Inconveniant then, that the President's daughter, Emilie (Maggie Grace), is on board for a humanitarian mission at the same time a prison break results in all the criminals being woken from stasis sleep.  If you're one of the people that likes to comment "looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," don't say that to these guys. The Secret Service director, Langral (Peter Stormare) wants to send up an assault team to quell the uprising and rescue the First Daughter.  Shaw (Lennie James) has a better idea: send in wrongly accused agent Snow (Guy Pearce) to do the job.

Snow is due to be sent to MS-1 for conspiracy, or espionage, or murder, or something.  Point is, his mission went all wrong, a good friend of his died, he's accused of the murder and the suitcase with the MacGuffin in it has gone missing.  Snow was able to slip it to an associate named Mace (Tim Plester) just before his capture.  Problem is, Mace stashed the case and got captured too and was quickly whisked away to, you guessed it, MS-1.  This development is the motivating factor and real agenda for Snow being sent in.  He needs that case to perhaps clear his name because his smart mouth certainly doesn't do him any favors in declaring his innocence.  In a stylish and clever opening scene, Snow is being interrogated by Langral as to "what happened in that hotel room" and for every crack Snow makes about Langral's wife or mother, a henchman cracks his face, with his head popping back up and erasing the opening titles.

That's really the extent of what can be said of the plot.  There is no guess work involved or any real tension for that matter.  Snow will go in, beat up some baddies, get into some gun fights, verbally abuse Emilie, find his partner and save the day.  This sequence of events will not be new nor will it please most audiences, I'm guessing.  Like I said, I was in the right mood and was mostly entertained by its self-aware and cheeky attitude.  While he's no Snake Plissken, Guy Pearce, significantly bulked up, makes for a formidable hero. Although, if you saw L.A. Confidential or Memento, you already knew that.  Maggie Grace, with her delightful features, is an actress that can nicely balance a sense of vulnarability and simultaneous tenacity.  Certainly Snow's attitude and quips toward her are completely inappropriate given the nature of the situation, but this isn't a plot you can embrace without abandoning conventional logic and reasoning.

As much fun as I found myself having, "Lockout" has plenty of lackluster elements that will prevent it from being the hit that "Escape From New York" became.  The villains are caricatures of most prison movie convicts.  The two key players are Alex (Vincent Regan) and Hydell (Joseph Gilgun), Scottish brothers incarcerated for apparently being too Scottish.  Hydell is such a loose cannon that he is not beyond gleefully shooting every hostage at his disposal.  I find myself wondering, out of all the inmates in stasis sleep, and knowing the potential effects, why would the prison staff pick Hydell as the one to wake up for an interview with the President's daughter?  Older brother Alex is more calculating and once he discovers Emilie's identity, he realizes she is the key to their success.  The problem is, the movie never tells us exactly what the convicts want.  There is much talk of demands being met, but I listened attentively and can't report hearing a single demand.  I suppose getting off MS-1 would be desirable enough for anyone, no matter how crazy but no other motivation is provided, leaving us to fill in the blanks.  Most sequences of the key baddies consist of them standing around, trying to open doors, pointing their weapons and miraculously showing up exactly where the plot needs them to be.  The prison in space concept really provides "Lockout" its villain because there are obvious environmental hazards to consider.  What if, for instance, MS-1 has destabalized and is falling out of orbit, or if, let's say, the assault team was going to blow it into oblivion no matter who was on board?

These concerns, and many more, provide plenty to chew on for 95 briskly paced minutes.  The editing is little more than a glorified chop job, sometimes disorienting the perspective and timeline.  However, this may be more due to budget restrictions than post production concerns about rating and run time.  "Lockout" is able to convey what it needs to with effeciency, I suppose.  The visual effects at times are occasionally too cartoony, especially in an early chase sequence on a futuristic bike, but the style and energy are so confidently manic that it hardly matters.  Again, these concerns will justifiably derail this experience for most audiences, even hardcore action fans.  I would not be surprised to see "Lockout" among ScyFy channel's dismal offerings on a rainy afternoon three years from now.  The ridiculous concept and a witty Guy Pearce are what saved this movie for me.  In some interviews, Pearce reported miscommunications on set due to production staff from multiple countries.  Considering what language barriors must have existed, it is a wonder "Lockout" works at all; but despite all odds, it does.  Luc Besson may be a busy man, but he sure knows how to sell an idea.