Lockout. 2012. James Mather & Stephen St.Leger.
The blurb on the box says "Die Hard in space!!" This film is actually much more in line with Carpenters Escape From New York. In the year 2079, CIA agent Snow is wrongly convicted of international espionage and the murder of a fellow agent. The only hope to prove his innocence lies with a convict on a maximum security cryogenic prison in orbit 5 miles above the earth. Fortunately for Agent Snow the Presidents Daughter is on a humanitarian mission on said prison investigating the effects of cryogenic freezing on the human mind. Upon being woken up one of the most dangerous convicts in the place promptly steals a gun from a secret service agent and all hell breaks loose. Snow is given an ultimatum rescue the Presidents Daughter or spend the next 30 years in such a facility.
Ok so this Luc Besson produces actioner is clearly highly derivative. Nicking the plot of the aforementioned EfNY (apparently since its release John Carpenter has in fact successfully sued Besson) and one of the key ideas of Demolition Man. But to be honest I don't care, it nicked some very good ideas which is where a lot of derivative films go wrong. Guy Pearce plays Snow and even though his performance is corny as hell I really enjoyed it. Perhaps it was just what I was looking for Friday night. This is the sort of film that got me into films in the early nineties. The ones I would devour from the video store and watch again and again and I have no shame saying it was a blast and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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