"Lockout": When Bad Things Happen to Good Actors... or Athletes

From hearing the title, one might think that a film called "Lockout" would be a riveting drama about the recent players' union lockouts of professional sports leagues such as the NBA, NFL, and NHL.  Instead what the movie "Lockout" gives us is a ho-hum sci-fi action thriller about a man wrongly accused of conspiracy against the United States who gets a shot at redemption when he is called upon to save the President's daughter from an outer space prison that has been overrun by its psychotic inmates.

Yeah, the sports drama sounds better, doesn't it?

This movie stars Guy Pearce and is produced by the same team that brought us "Taken" starring Liam Neeson.  I usually enjoy Pearce's work, and I think his performance was the saving grace of this movie.  If not for him, "Lockout" would have been nearly unwatchable.  He's good here, but it's unlucky for both him and the audience that he is given such a bad script to work with.  His character is pretty one-dimensional, and he speaks in enough one-liners to give Henny Youngman a run for his money.  I believe Pearce is a much better actor worthy of stronger material.  For proof, see Christopher Nolan's "Memento".
In addition I think "Lockout's" visual effects are garbage, and the action is cheesy.  There is an extremely stylized chase sequence at the beginning that is so hectic, I couldn't tell what was going on.  I didn't know why Snow (Guy Pearce) was running, who he was running from, or why they were after him.  The CG world around him in this scene looks as if it were animated for a bad video game.

THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS SPOILERS: The ending was dumb too.  First we get something of a double-cross when Snow finds out that his friend Harry is the one guilty for the crimes the former is accused of.  Interesting, but it's ruined by more bad dialogue between Snow and Emilie, the president's daughter played by Maggie Grace.  "I've got this feeling your old man's not going to approve of this.  I mean, I can't really see this going anywhere, can you?" says Snow.  "Depends on how good you are in bed," replies Emilie.  "Well in that case, I give it at least 10 minutes," says Snow.  AAAAnd roll credits.

"Lockout" is streaming now on Netflix, but there are so many better movies available on Instant Play worthy of your time.  Go ahead and skip this one.  1.5 of 4 stars.