Lockout Movie Review

 
Lockout Average Rating:  2.5/5

(Based on six web reviews)

Stars: 2.5/5   Site: nytimes.com

Real cinematic killer B’s may be extinct, but at the French film factory EuropaCorp the B-movie ethos of cheap genre thrills endures. A co-creation of the hit maker Luc Besson, EuropaCorp is the outfit that fired the bullet-headed Jason Statham into international fame with the “Transporter” franchise and resurrected Liam Neeson as a middle-aged tough guy with “Taken.” One of the company’s latest, the English-language “Lockout,” is as dopey an entertainment as imaginable, but it’s also a reminder that the film’s star, Guy Pearce, has always had great screen magnetism, to which he has now added a bedrock of muscle. Also: he can act.

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Stars: 6/10   Site: flix66.com

Despite some flaws, LOCKOUT is still high-octane fun full of fast energy and absurd action.  It’s not near as good as THE FIFTH ELEMENT but still better than COWBOYS & ALIENS and Pearce delivers the appropriate humor and grit to make it worthwhile. Clearly LOCKOUT isn’t for everyone but if you enjoy entertaining Sci-fi films with B-movie mentality, I highly recommend this crazy futuristic outer space prison film.

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Stars: 2.5/5   Site: jewishjournal.com

Besides a scenerio I’ve seen thousands of times…over the top psychos with lots of tattoos, a damsel in distress and an anti-hero going against all odds to rescue the girl, the main character, Agent Snow, spends so much time cracking one joke after another that I wanted to throw my shoe at him. I get it…This dude doesn’t do intimacy, but does he have to be so annoyingly glib…Apparently the writers think he does. Lastly, this film could have taken place in any prison…in any part of the world…with the exact same script. No one had to travel to space to bring us a bad version of…‘Die Hard’.

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Stars: 4/10   Site: filmpulse.net

Luc Besson’s name is all over the marketing for Lockout, the new sci-fi action thriller directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger.  From a publicity standpoint, it makes sense.  Besson’s films are always entertaining, and his better ones invariably become cult classics.Unfortunately, despite the fact that Besson both co-wrote and produced Lockout, the film just doesn’t live up to its billing.

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Stars: 2.5/10   Site: cinemablend.com

That line is one of many make-or-break moments in Lockout, when you can decide as an audience to laugh at its audacity and keep going, or to shut down entirely to this movie's macho, hoo-rah appeal. The charm here is a little thinner than some of the other brash action movies to come from producer Luc Besson's hivemind-- it's no Taken, despite the presence of Maggie Grace as the kidnap victim once again, and it's missing the blunt-force dynamism of District B13. But it also has a trump card in the form of Guy Pearce, who unleashes a growling, muscular id as disagreed government agent Snow sent in to rescue the FIrst Daughter because he's got nothing left to lose. In his best scenes he makes Lockout feel special and vibrant, but when he's gone, the movie can be a surprising slog for something so silly.

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Stars: 2.5/5   Site: uk.movies.ign.com

As for the actual action, it's decent fare. When it's not hopelessly rendered alongside copious amounts of sub-par CGI, the chase scenes and gun fights are actually pretty fun. Despite a few jarring green screen spectacles, the movie does a good job of integrating its practical sets and using a gritty lens to better mask its low-budget production value.

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