I was kind of inclined to headline this as being the movie guaranteed to make highbrow film fans froth with incredulity. That anyone could enjoy such a derivative, tongue-in-cheek, low ambition piece of schlock, is surely cause for venomous spleen venting from the serio film brigade. They call them guilty pleasures, but thing is, I just don't feel guilty about having such a wonderfully fun filled great time with the Luc Besson produced Lockout.

Plot? Well it's the future and basically Guy Pearce (Snow) is wrongly convicted of a crime and sentenced to do stir in stasis until whenever. But up in space at the MS1 prison facility, home to all the maniacs found in "Demolition Man", the president's daughter, do-gooder babe Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace),is suddenly taken captive and it's a big hostage situation. This looks like a mission for a serious hard bastard type! Well "Snake Plissken" wasn't available, so they get Snow, who is bulked up, full of wise cracks and has a point to prove. Guess what follows? Yep, complete popcorn frenzy as Pearce and Grace cut a swathe through MS1 and have a date with coolness personified.

On the way, via a truly gorgeous sci-fi affected Blu-ray print, we will tick off the homages and influences and compare notes with our viewing partners about how it's a "Snake Plissken" movie but with Shane Black type dialogue. While those who are partial to a bit of sci-fi design are well served here. Because even though there might be the worst CGI effects ever during a chase scene (that mercifully only runs for 50 seconds),the space ships, sets and Torsion System sequence, prove that you don't need Michael Bay type bucks to please the eyes. From the quite brilliant and hilarious opening interrogation beat down, to the big reveal and punch line, this Besson produced piece is serving popcorn with a smile to a certain segment in the film watching populace.

With bits of the "Snake Plissken" movies, "Fortress", "Die Hard", "Commando", "Demolition Man", "Minority Report", "Last Boy Scout" and any other quip laden dude/wronged man on a mission movie, Lockout clearly lacks originality. But seriously! Was anyone involved playing it as anything other than a sly homage movie? No, they wasn't. Pearce is great fun in the role, but he isn't trying to worry the highbrow crowd's votes for films of the year. Anyone viewing it expecting something cerebral should feel more guilty than those who stand up to say they had a great time watching it. Ingem Ferem. 7/10

In this futuristic science fiction film, earth has apparently solved its incarceration problem. A giant prison has been built in space floating above our earth and our prisoners have been put in stasis. They are frozen in containment pods and the work and worry of guarding prisoners and feeding them and keeping them occupied or even rehabilitating them is all in the past. But no less than the president's daughter Maggie Grace is on a fact finding mission because she's heard bad rumors about the place.

At the same time CIA agent Guy Pearce is in a jackpot all his own when a fellow agent and friend is killed and some valuable documents about the US space program are stolen. He's in a real bind over at headquarters.

But when some nitwit violates rule one in correctional facilities even futuristic ones and keeps his gun in his ankle holster it all goes down hill from there. One of the really crazier inmates gets a hold of the weapon and the prisoners are freed from stasis and they've got hostages including Grace. Pearce just might be the best bet to free her and an alibi witness in his own case is on the floating prison as well.

Lockout is a combination of Gattaca and Escape from New York with a little bit of the old Tyrone Power/Susan Hayward western Rawhide thrown in as well. The special effects are decent and the players are well cast.

The man who overpowers the security agent and takes his weapon is Joseph Gilgun and his brother who is the leader of the convicts is Vincent Regan. Gilgun has two suits missing from his deck and Regan has all he can do to contain him and he's not all that successful. For those of you who are familiar with the film Rawhide, there's a distinct parallel between Regan and Gilgun and Hugh Marlowe and Jack Elam from Rawhide. And it works out the same way with the characters in both.

Nothing truly outstanding about Lockout, but it's a decent afternoon's entertainment.

Luc Besson is the man behind this ultra-fast-paced B-movie action flick, which can best be described as DIE HARD on a space station. It's a B-movie through and through, in which the unashamedly unoriginal storyline is rushed through at a blistering speed with plenty of entertainment value heaped in along the way.

The best thing about the film is by far Guy Pearce and his antihero character. Pearce is one of those underrated actors in Hollywood, one of the ones who seems to out-act everybody else in a movie, and you wonder why he never quite made the A-list. He fits his laconic character in this one like a glove, and the witty one-liners are delivered with relish. Put simply, he's one of the funniest action stars since Bruce Willis in the original DIE HARD.

The storyline is loaded with action and violent incident throughout, and there's little time to take a breath let alone become bored by the proceedings. Besson has assembled a great little cast here, in particular the bad guys; Vincent Regan (300) as the serious bad guy, while Joe Gilgun (THIS IS ENGLAND) has a ball as the oddball psycho. Lennie James is always a welcome presence too, and even Maggie Grace is much less annoying than she was in the TAKEN series. Kudos to Besson for producing his best movie in years.