Lockout (2012)

Directors: James Mather & Stephen St. Leger

Starring: Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Lennie James, Peter Starmare, Jacky Ido, Tim Plester

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Take no prisoners.

Plot: A man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yeah!

I'm a huge fan of Guy Pearce so regardless of how bad the reviews are, I'll see his movies. This didn't last 10 minutes in the theaters in my area and I so I missed it. I barely knew it was out before it was gone. I've finally had a chance to see it and I'm sad I didn't see it in the theater. I really enjoyed it and it's largely due to Pearce's wise-cracking badass character, Snow. He's terrific. Maggie Grace surprised the hell out of me. Usually a character like hers is poorly written and equally acted but I really dug her performance. I Loved the trailer but it felt like it was a space remake of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) which was kind of a turn off. In some ways it is like the John Carpenter film (I could easily see a 1981-era Kurt Russell in this role, too) but it's also having lots of fun and throwing in a back story for why the President's daughter is at the space prison to begin with. The ending is stupid silly like something out of a Michael Bay movie but you should have already surrendered your suspension of disbelief to go along for the ride regardless of where it takes you. My friends and I had a great time with this one. Don't let the 37% Rotten Tomato score steer you away.