The opening salvo promises much - a stream of zingy one-liners, a dizzying chase (which includes a good nod to the Bourne jump-through-the-window gag and shows us what the opening motor-bike chase in the promised live-action Akira might look like) - and sets up a fun 70s/80s action/sci-fi flick along the lines of Escape From New York and Fortress. It is therefore a shame that it does not take long for the energy and ideas to get thinner, more generic and sadly predictable, but the film remains entertaining thanks to a lively and committed performance by Guy Pearce, who is clearly having fun in the Bruce Willis/Kurt Russell role of 'bad' CIA operative, who is charged with rescuing the President's daughter from a space station filled with newly-awakened-from-cryogenic-stasis criminals. Maggie Grace is reasonable in the token female role, although the writing often undermines any attempt to give her independence and toughness, and Brits Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun lead the criminals with solid but expected notes of cruelty and madness. It all leads to an oddly anorexic ending, which with a little more thought and just a few more character shots could have had more impact, but as daft mid/low-end sci-fi/action movies go, Lockout has enough going on to keep entertaining, and it is good to see the genre on the big screen rather than DVD dumping ground.
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