The Basement has been a champion of Luc Besson's low-budget sci-fi/action flick Lockout simply based on the premise of Guy Pearce rescuing Maggie Grace from a prison in space. I mean, come on! How fucking cool is that!?!
Just in case it's not clear: a man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. (Pearce) is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter (Grace) from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates.
That's a premise with B-movie written all over it. And Lockout is indeed a B-movie. No more, no less. The visual effects range from decent (a final assault on the prison by spacecraft) to God fucking awful (a CGI car chase on par with a late 90s video games). Much of the action is of the running and shooting variety, save for a very cool zero-gravity brawl.
In fact, it's the action and effects in Lockout that let me down the most. I don't need originality every step of the way, but give me something better than a TV movie. On this level, Lockout disappoints.
Fortunately Pearce rises to the occasion as Snow. He's a smart ass and a smoker, the sort of action hero who has been absent in movies since the early 90s. And Grace is gorgeous and feisty. Their chemistry keeps this flick afloat. I also dug the shit out of Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun as badass Irish convict brothers. They made a great pair of bad guys.
This wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it didn't suck ass either. It's a solid little B-movie that tries hard but doesn't have enough balls to carry it through to a complete win. A Bad from The Basement for me.
Just in case it's not clear: a man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. (Pearce) is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter (Grace) from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates.
That's a premise with B-movie written all over it. And Lockout is indeed a B-movie. No more, no less. The visual effects range from decent (a final assault on the prison by spacecraft) to God fucking awful (a CGI car chase on par with a late 90s video games). Much of the action is of the running and shooting variety, save for a very cool zero-gravity brawl.
In fact, it's the action and effects in Lockout that let me down the most. I don't need originality every step of the way, but give me something better than a TV movie. On this level, Lockout disappoints.
Fortunately Pearce rises to the occasion as Snow. He's a smart ass and a smoker, the sort of action hero who has been absent in movies since the early 90s. And Grace is gorgeous and feisty. Their chemistry keeps this flick afloat. I also dug the shit out of Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun as badass Irish convict brothers. They made a great pair of bad guys.
This wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it didn't suck ass either. It's a solid little B-movie that tries hard but doesn't have enough balls to carry it through to a complete win. A Bad from The Basement for me.
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