"It's the world's most secure prison. It holds the planet's deadliest criminals. It's impenetrable…because..it's not on Earth."
So opens the latest trailer for "Lockout," the Guy Pearce starring, Luc Besson produced sci-fi film that ditches the quip-heavy approach of the first two spots and goes for the typical we're-going-to-explain-this approach to mixed results. On the one hand, as the opening voiceover confirms, the concept for this one is pretty stupid, centering on a wrongly accused convict given the task of rescuing the President's daughter from a maximum security prison in space (it even sounds moronic typing it out). That said, once Guy Pearce waltzes into the frame clearly aware his hamming it up in a big, dumb action movie, things get considerably more interesting. Chewing the scenery and throwing around one-liners like confetti at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Pearce is one reason we're excited for this, bringing an awesomely old school action hero charm to a movie that is essentially "Taken" in outer space. Replace "foreigners" with "prisoners," Earth with outer space, Liam Neeson with Guy Pearce and….well, they're keeping Maggie Grace…and it's the same formula. Yet, Pearce makes this thing tremendously exciting if only because he's clearly operating on a whole different level than the rest of the movie.
So, future cult classic or a dumb sci-fi movie saved by some snappy one-liners? We'll see on April 20th [via io9]
