Rated PG-13 and 95 minutes long, it reminded me of the Halo video games and that old “Escape From New York” movie with Kurt Russell. If you like that sort of thing, you’ll probably enjoy “Lockout.”
Released in theatres on April 13, “Lockout” was directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Ledger. The cast included Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Peter Stormare, Lennie James, Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun. The movie is set in the year 2079, and Pearce plays the main character, Marion Snow. Snow is a former government agent who has been mistakenly accused of being a spy. He’s offered his freedom if he can rescue the President’s daughter from an orbiting super prison called MS One. The prison's been overrun by the inmates, and she's been taken hostage.
The President’s daughter, Emilie Warnock, is played by Maggie Grace. Many of you will remember her from her role as the character Shannon Rutherford on the hit TV series, LOST. In “Lockout,” she travels to the orbiting prison as part of an inspection tour. Accompanied by two Secret Service agents, the riot sparks off when one of the super-violent prisoners gets his hands on one of the agent’s handguns.
The main two bad guys in the movie are brothers, Alex and Hydell, who’ve both been locked up for their many crimes. Alex is played by Vincent Regan, and Hydell is played by Joseph Gilgun. One interesting bit of trivia about these two characters is that their names were derived from the name “Alek Hidell,” which was one of the aliases used by John F. Kennedy assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
The idea behind the movie’s orbiting prison was also interesting. In this floating maximum security prison, prisoners are kept in stasis during their sentences. They’re basically put to sleep, and the President’s daughter made the trip up to see if they were being treated humanely. She’s also there to investigate rumors that the stasis treatment has a negative effect on the prisoners’ minds, and that in some cases it enduces dementia and psychopathic behavior. Another thing that’s brought out in the movie is that the prison features a number of escape pods and that with no one to maintain the prison’s orbit, it will fall back to Earth after a short period of neglect.
I got a big kick out of this movie. I thought it was well written and very funny in spots. The action scenes were especially well done, and this movie was also high on suspense. If nothing else, it was highly entertaining, and I’d actually enjoy watching this movie again.
Shot mostly in Serbia, this movie was first released in France. The shooting budget was around $20 million, and box office revenues topped off at over $25 million.
In the end, how many of you have seen “Lockout”? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? What was your favorite part? Let us know in the comments section below.
For more information about “Lockout,” visit the movie’s official Web site at www.lockoutfilm.com.
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