Lockout

Last weekend I also went to see Lockout (not my choice - it was for a friend's birthday and the birthday boy got to decide).

The basic concept of the movie is there is a prison in outer space where prisoners go, are placed under sedation, and sleep for their entire sentence.  Emilie, who happens to be the President's daughter, goes in her role as a psychologist.  She is trying to determine the side effects of the sedation drugs, which are thought to cause aggression.  She begins by interviewing prisoners, and the prisoners get out, wake each other up and all hell breaks loose.

Guy Pearce plays Snow:

 and Maggie Grace plays Emilie Warnock.

Rotten Tomatoes critics give the movie 33% and audience members rated it 53%.

One critic who didn't like the movie put it this way - "It is the kind of movie where someone tumbling in space above the earth's atmosphere opens a parachute and lands gently on earth without even gasping for a breath." Another called it "85 minutes of shoddy plotting, direction, and full on boredom."

Those who liked the movie seemed to see past the predictability, with one critic saying "it is cliched, ridiculous and very entertaining," and another says they did a fine job of "coming up with obstacle after obstacle for our two leads to dodge - not the least of which happens to be good old-fashioned logic." 

So yes, it may not be the most thoughtful, revolutionary, or barrier-breaking movie.  But let's be honest - you can go to The Flicks for that.  Sometimes it is nice to sit down for a good old action movie and let your brain take a break.

I do agree with the critic who said it is the type of movie where the parachute opens and they land gently.  That sums it every very well - everything seems to constantly, magically, work out exactly as it should.  Also, the movie attempts to be smart with "unique" subplots, but I think they were totally confusing and didn't add much to the movie without a more thorough understanding of what was going on.  It was like they decided, "we need to make this more 'intellectual'" so the writers threw in some twists.  The add-ons seemed totally irrelevant to the rest of the movie and were never hanging (in the way where you know they will desperately attempt a sequel).

I would say go see this movie if you want action, explosions and good looking people.  Don't see it if you want thoughtful, intellectual, or deep.  If you go with the right expectations, it can be an enjoyable movie.