Film Clip: Lockout

In 2079 America, where the worst criminals are kept in suspended animation in an orbiting maximum-security space station, a humanitarian visit by the president’s daughter (Maggie Grace) triggers a riot and hostage-taking among the awakened prisoners, and it’s up to a disgraced CIA agent (Guy Pearce) to sneak aboard and rescue her—and find the evidence that will clear his own name. The script by directors James Mather and Stephen St. Leger and producer Luc Besson is short on logic, science, and understanding of the U.S. Constitution, but long on videogame action and obstacle-course twists and turns. It also gives Pearce a heaping plateful of snappy hardboiled dialogue, and he digs into it with a relish that’s hard to resist. The outlandish story makes the movie interesting and Pearce makes it fun. J.L.