Capsule reviews by Bob Ignizio
I'm
trying to get caught up with the films I missed this year before
making my obligatory “Best of the Year” list. Most were
reviewed by other writers here on the Cleveland Movie Blog, but a
handful slipped through the cracks for whatever reason. So to what
degree I can, I'll be reviewing some of these films we missed the first time around that are now
available on home video. First up, a trio of “B” action flicks:
THE RAID: REDEPMTION,
LOCKOUT, and SAFE.
LOCKOUT
Producer Luc
Besson continues his quest to become the modern day king of Euro
schlock cinema with LOCKOUT,
a cheap but reasonably fun knock off of John Carpenter's ESCAPE
FROM NEW YORK. Instead of Kurt
Russell as Snake Plisken, we get once promising actor Guy Pearce as
“Snow”. And instead of being sent into a New York City turned
prison colony to save the President's daughter, he's sent to a space
station to save the president's daughter, here played by Lost
alumni Maggie Grace. LOCKOUT
also has a subplot about Snow trying to clear his name for a murder
he didn't commit. Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun are fun as the
brothers leading the inmate revolt, but they can't compensate for
Pearce, who's no Kurt Russell. Still, if you're in the mood for this
kind of trashy old school sci-fi/action B movie, LOCKOUT
should kill an hour and a half fairly well. 2 out of 4 stars.
