The Luc Besson action grist mill turns them out like few others. Objective quality is hit and miss, but the movies he produces are flashy, in the same way the McDonald’s in Times Square is flashy. They enjoy a proximity to top tier glamor and glitz, but, in the end, it’s just fast food.
From 2012 comes Lockout, a film that so resembles Escape from New York that Besson and company were successfully sued for plagiarism. Co-directors and co-writers James Mather and Steve Saint Leger (Besson was also credited with a writing and story credit) might have been done dirty by that lawsuit. The analogues to Escape are many, but if John Carpenter could claim plagiarism for this flick, then the entire horror and sci-fi movie industry should operate under the constant threat of litigation. Anyway…
It’s the future! 2079! Our anti-hero and Snake Plissken analogue, Snow (Guy Pearce), is on his way to prison after being wrongfully accused of murdering an undercover federal agent. He’s due to be sent to MS One, an orbital maximum security facility where prisoners are sent into hibernation to serve out their sentences, à la Demolition Man. Meanwhile, Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace), the president’s 
daughter, arrives for an inspection tour, which includes waking up various convicts and interviewing them about their experiences in hibernation.
Besson would never let this kind of situation get too bogged down in dialogue, so, soon after the first prisoner, Hydell (Joe Gilgun), is awakened, he busts free in murderous fashion. Not long after, all the other prisoners are thawed, and the prison staff is taken hostage. A head villain emerges in Alex (Vincent Regan), who also happens to be Hydell’s older brother.
It’s lucky for the president that Snow was just about to be sent to MS One. The head of the Secret Service, Langral (Peter Stormare), and CIA officer Shaw (Lennie James), present Snow with a choice: save Emilie or, go to serve out his sentence in the same prison they just lost control of, I guess. Anyway, Snow takes the mission, and we now have, not really Escape from New York in space, but more Escape from L.A. in space.
A game of cat and mouse begins aboard the prison space station. Will Snow be able to rescue Emilie? Will he somehow also clear his name? Will the filmmakers jam in as much action as they can, including space dogfights, to keep audiences from getting bored? Yes, to all. None of that is a surprise.
What is a welcome surprise is the talent in this film. Lennie James is a consummate professional, Stormare has just the right amount of sleaze, Grace is believable, the bad guys are cartoonishly despicable (especially Gilgun), and Pearce is…well, about Pearce. Veteran action fans will be familiar with the lone hero. Of paramount importance in a character like this is personality. It doesn’t even have to be a good personality. Snake Plissken was an asshole. Snow is supposed to have that same kind of energy, but he’s more of a temperamental wiseass. Rare is the line of dialogue that isn’t delivered with wispy sarcasm, and said dialogue is lame. One can root for Snake, but rooting for Snow is plain difficult. Let’s put it this way. Sometimes it seems like the Snow character was written for Pauly Shore.
Finally, a viewer had better enjoy CGI, or just not care. Most of the film was shot in front of green screens. Most of the time, the scenery recedes nicely into the background and one isn’t bothered by its uncanniness. At other times, it’s cheap. Either way, the CGI is an integral part of the production and a viewer will have to live with it.
Lockout never stops moving. The action stalks characters like Jason Voorhees. No matter how fast one runs, no matter how desperately the film could use a moment of character development or intelligent exposition — BAM! — the action returns, relentless. For this flick’s watchability, that’s good. Every time Snow squeezes the trigger or kicks some ass, we don’t have to listen to any of his snarky nonsense. For all that, Lockout seems destined for anonymity, and lands in the Watchability Index at #200, displacing Ice Twisters.