Review of Lockout (2012) by Meng San L — 28 Jun 2016

A so-so action thriller. Good cast, reasonable dialogue with moments of acerbic wit, but a dull story with not one, but two anti-climaxes - that's main plot and sub plot. There's a very strange CGI chase scene at the beginning, that's so low budget, at least in its appearance, that it actually works quite well on some animated graphic novel level.

I'll be watching that one more time before I never see this film again. Guy Pearce is very good as the action lead and would have been perfect for Max Payne based on this performance. Maggie Grace is the empowered female that has now overtaken the cliche of the damsel in distress.

Nothing new from her, but it's not expected with the material she has to work with. Joe Gilgun and Peter Stormare do a very good job of being unlikable. I actually only watched this based on Gilgun's recent showstealing form in 'Misfits', and unfortunately, he wasn't given room to breathe and gets bogged under the central anticlimax.

I'd watch a sequel to see what else could be done with Guy Pearce's character. Linking him and Gilgun as the unlikely duo would be a masterstroke in extreme u-turn storylining.