DVD movie review: “Lockout”

The recent film “Lockout” is a passable sci-fi action movie, with plenty of flaws but enough fun, absurd moments to make up for the errors. In 60 years, inmates are housed on a space station, kept confined in deep sleep containment units. A private company has invested deeply in this technology, as a means of testing how humans survive stasis chambers.

I couldn’t help, as I watched this movie, thinking that the idea for this film came as the script-writer watched the original “Alien,” or the recent prequel, “Prometheus.” After all, if humans are going to survive a trip across space for hundreds of years, they need to perfect this technology.

However, Emilie (Maggie Grace of “Lost” and the “Taken” films) visits the space station. Emilie is the daughter of the president of the United States, and she is investigating human right violations of the inmates. Of course, her visit winds up leading to an inmate escaping, and the 500 inmates on the station taking it over – the inmates are definitely running the asylum at this point.

Enter agent Snow (Guy Pearce of “L.A. Confidential,” “Time Machine,” and “Memento.”) Snow has been framed for a crime he didn’t commit; he also is trying to speak to a friend who is confined on the space station, so he reluctantly agrees to go up there to try and free Emilie.

Of course – despite the vast age gap between these two (Pearce is 45, Grace is 29) – they quarrel a lot when they first meet, but somehow fall for each other by the time the movie wraps up.

This movie is definitely for a niche audience of sci-fi fans. The camera work is purposefully shaky, with sudden and swift edits away from scenes. Some of the computer graphics is really bad, too – the film ‘looks’ like it was cheaply made. Sci-fi fans who grumble about “Independence Day” or “Armageddon” as being unrealistic films, scientifically speaking, will not like “Lockout.”

“Lockout” was released on April 13, 2012. Shot on a mere $20 million budget, it only earned $14 million domestically and just $32 million worldwide, according to Boxofficemojo.com

Critics gave it an ugly-but-expectedly low 38 percent approval rating at Rottentomatoes.com. Average viewers gave it a slightly better mark of 45 percent approval rating.

This movie isn’t for everyone. I rented it late Saturday night with admittedly low expectations, but I was satisfied with what I saw.

Vetter’s rating: C+