Lockout - Movie Review

Lockout is a movie starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace. Pearce plays an ex-CIA operative named Snow. He is falsely accused of espionage and treason against the United States.  Grace plays Emilie Warnock the idealistic daughter of the president.

The story is set in 2079. The United States has built a prison in space called MS-1. It is used to house the most dangerous criminals. The prisoners are placed in stasis rather than in a cell. Some allege that the prisoners are being used as test animals in order to figure out if and how stasis can be used for long term space travel and they want the station shut down.  Emilie Warnock, the president’s daughter, fears inhuman things are being done to the prisoners. So she goes to visit the prison to see how the prisoners are being treated and research how stasis affects the human mind.  While she is in the prison there is a prison break (shock!) due to one foolish bodyguard’s decision to sneak a gun into the prison to protect Emilie. Whoops, who could have guessed that would go wrong?   

On earth Snow has been captured and is being interrogated for his believed role in espionage and treason against the US. Snow maintains his innocence while the CIA leader threatens to send him to MS-1 as a prisoner. During this time the president’s daughter is captured and now he will do anything and use anyone to get her back. And who do you think the best man for the job is? Yes that’s right it’s Snow. At first Snow refuses to go but he soon finds out that the one person who can help clear his name is being held prisoner on MS-1. Truly, how unpredictable is that?

Once Snow is in the prison his job is supposed to be to save the president’s daughter but he is truly more interested in finding the man who can prove his innocence. This of course leads to a lot of friction between him and Emilie but don’t worry that changes as they spend more time together. During this time all the prisoners in the station are trying to find Emilie to use her as their main bargaining chip to get off the prison. To make matters worse after a failed attack by the marines in space ships to get onto into the prison MS-1 is now falling into orbit and will soon hit the Eastern coast of the US somewhere near D.C. The government then decides there is no option but to blow up the station. This means Snow is on the clock not just to save Emilie and find the prisoner who can save him but to get off the station before the government destroys it.

So I watched the whole thing and yes it is as cheesy as it sounds and it is as cheesy as it looks. If you want to see how it looks take a look at the trailer here. You can tell how formulaic the movie is going to be just by the trailer. They actually say, “there’s only one man who can get her (Emilie) out…Snow. He’s the best there is but he’s a lose canon.” I mean come on, a lose canon. Who says that anymore?  

Now the question is would I recommend this movie? And the answer is yes, of course I would. If you are like me and just like cheesy movies that don’t require a lot of thinking and lend themselves to a lot of laughter, at the expensive of the movie rather than due to the intention of the writers then this is a “good” movie for you to watch. Now, if you need movies that provide you with intellectual depth, moral quandaries, strong emotional connections or Oscar worthy acting then this is not the movie for you. This movie is a fairly formulaic action movie. It provides lots of explosions, high speed chases, fighting and small moral issues to think about but nothing that will take away from the hero of the story, Snow. It is a fairly short movie only about an hour and a half and it doesn’t feel like the story is dragging along at any point so that is another plus for the movie. If you watch this you’ll get an hour and half off from thinking and hopefully have a few laughs again not because the writers or director wanted you to laugh but because the writers and the director made a movie worthy of laughing at.