Lockout [Blu-ray]

Set in the not too distant future, Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential) stars as a wisecracking government agent, Snow, who is wrongly convicted of murder & selling state secrets. But he may just have a way to redeem himself, as the presidents daughter Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace -Taken) who was visiting a maximum cryostatis prison in space to check on the well being of the inmates, is smack dab in the middle of a prison riot. Only one person would be crazy enough to go in there, Snow!

To start with it's quite obvious from reading the synopsis alone that this is a reworking of the classic Escape From New York with Kurt Russell. None the less, Lockout turns out to be a very watchable brutish action movie, but with some intelligence thrown in there, in the shape of the sub plot rumbling underneath the main events. The action is fast, furious, brutal & smart in places, but there are a couple of far fetched moments that even the most hardened of action fans may raise an eyebrow too. The CGI & special effects used are pretty good on the whole with some exceptions here & there, but, considering the budget worked with it's not surprising. Some interesting ideas used in places, no doubt thanks the man who came up with the idea of the film, Luc Besson. But he will undoubtedly be pleased with the work that directors & co writers James Mather & Stephen St. Leger have managed to produce, in keeping with Besson's fast & furious action style.

Now, a film like this needs really convincing villains, and in my book, Joseph Gilgun (Emmerdale[Eli Dingle]) was impressive as the oddball psychotic inmate, as was Vincent Regan (Black Knight) to the other extreme, as the more stable leader trying to keep him & the situation under control. Guy Pearce was solid as the wisecracking Snow, who shares more in common with John McClane from Die Hard than Kurt Russell's more rugged & darker Snake Plissken. Maggie Grace was very watchable as the presidents daughter, having a good rapport with Pearce & giving as good as she got from Snow. Her father played by peter Hudson, less so. But the addition of the well traveled Peter Stormare (Armageddon) & Lennie James (Colombiana) added the much need gravitas that the film needed to give it that serious edge.

In conclusion, i found Lockout to be a watchable, if somewhat predictable action movie. But it manages to give a little ray of intelligence through the story about Snow, to cling too, through it's racing 1 hour & 30 minute run time. Another shining example after Colombiana of what Mr. Besson & Co. can do with a relatively small budget. Recommended.

Amazing sci-fi action movie with a retro feel!! The story is sweet and simple and probably predictable but that matters not as you will have so much fun with this movie, it feels really oldschool action like something the 80s would have thrown at us with Bruce Willis back in the day. Guy Pearce is a quality actor who plays a fun character in a ridiculous situation in space saving the presidents daughter from thousands of the worlds most dangerous criminals, all good fun, lots of great action and plenty of cheesy one liners, make sure you check it out.

I received my copy of Lockout at the weekend and I am happy to say that I love it. Yes it's cheesy, yes it's derivative but it's fun and, with the exception of the awful bike chase, the SFX hold up very well. Guy Pearce's wisecracking tough guy performance is thoroughly entertaining and I can happily add the film to my shelf along with other shameless throwback movies like Doomsday.

Unfortunately I have a low tolerance for low quality products and the UK blu ray of Lockout is one such product. All the reviews I had read previously of this release had been glowing when appraising the visual quality so I was a little bit surprised to see a fairly soft and murky image in places and, worse, some genuinely appalling and thoroughly distracting occurrences of colour banding, most noticeably in space scenes. The shot of the prison at around 55 minutes is a good example with the sun flare on the right hand side of the screen looking like it was rendered by an 8 bit computer. The skydiving sequence at the climax of the movie is even worse. As a result I spent an hour fiddling with my TV and blu ray settings to try and resolve the issue, to no avail. It occurred to me then that the numerous reviews I had read were specifically for the US release, distributed by Sony, so I ordered a copy from a market place seller and it arrived today, only two days later. It turns out I was right. The US release IS reference quality and absolutely flawless. The UK version is distributed by Entertainment in Video and is the inferior product by some considerable margin.

Apologies if you think I'm being too finnicky but if I buy a blu ray I expect blu ray quality, not this second rate, lazy and flawed transfer that we have been fobbed off with in the UK.