Lockout (C-)

If I could sum this movie up, it's The Rock + Con Air + Escape From New York but set in space.  15 years ago this would have been an ideal movie for me because I was into action flicks like this, I probably would have given it a higher rating too.  A sign of the times that I'm getting old I suppose, that sucks.

Guy Pearce has typically been a good actor in my eyes (L.A. Confidential, Ravenous, Memento, etc).  Good stuff.  He always surprises me with his perfect American accent too because he's got a pretty heavy Australian accent in real life.  Good work, Guy.  In this movie though it was a little over the top, like Bruce Willis in Die Hard.  He was trying too hard to have funny one-liners in the face of danger.  Evidently this piece was written by Luc Besson, the guy who did Professional and Fifth Element, so perhaps Luc's perception of American funny dialogue is limited by his Frenchiness and overexposure to Stallone and Arnold movies.  Bruce Willis had more believable quips in Die Hard is all I'm saying, and Guy Pearce's lines came off lame.

The bad guy (see below) was my only favorite part of the movie.  Not big physically (actually very scrawny), but completely nutso.  A truely homicidal psychopath, everytime he was left alone with someone he basically had to kill them.  His bodily behavior was loopy and twitchy too, kind of Heath Ledger Joker-ish.  The only thing that sucked was that his accent (Irish? Scotish?) was so thick I couldn't understand what the hell he was saying.  Like Brad Pitt in Snatch.  Funny at times, but mostly annoying.

Ok the end was completely goofy.  Not going to spoil it, but it's absurd.  And I'm not sure I remember the bad guy dying.  I guess it was inferred by something else that happens, but sometimes I like to see it happen, just for closure or some sort of demented pleasure that I can't explain. 

Overall, I don't need to see this movie again.  Maybe if it's on the Sci-Fi channel and there's nothing else on I might put it on, but otherwise it was a dud.