Stephen St. Leger
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Pearce ( The King’s Speech ) channels some of the great action stars of the past – Bruce Willis’ John McClane from Die Hard , Mel Gibson’s Riggs from Lethal Weapon and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s John Matrix from Commando – in crafting Snow, an instantly likeable lead who has that ‘I wish I was as cool as this guy doing anything’ charisma.
In both premise and execution, "Lockout" combines elements of Besson's "The Fifth Element" and "Escape from New York," clinging to those and countless other movies' B-movie thrills so faithfully that it at least remains watchably bad.
A process which must have consisted of throwing "Escape from New York," "Die Hard," "Romancing the Stone," "The Fifth Element" and all of their rip-offs into a blender and hitting "pulverize" until all traces of taste and texture were removed.
Some of that inspiration, and execution, is better than others — "La Femme Nikita," "The Fifth Element" and "Taken" fall into the better category — with Besson directing only a few of his brainstorms.
As in “The Fifth Element,” it feels like Luc Besson, co-writer of both films, concocted the basic story during a teenage fever dream in a high school study hall.
The generator of this story is the inexhaustible French producer Luc Besson (" The Fifth Element ," " La Femme Nikita ," "Ong-Bak" and dozens of others).
Since striking fanboy-cred gold with his elaborate, eccentric sci-fi spectacular " The Fifth Element ," writer-director Luc Besson has been enjoying (well, I presume he's been enjoying) a lucrative cinematic sideline dreaming up and producing action films in multiple genres.
Not only does Damon's Max have tattoos that remind me of Pearce's character in "Memento," but Pearce's recent performance in " Lockout " just seems to be the perfect prep for this role.
We have Tatum’s lone hero trying to save an estranged family member; James Woods’ coolly professional ringleader whose plot to rob the Federal Reserve is merely a diversion for Something Bigger; Jason Clarke’s hot-headed henchmen; Gyllenhaal’s outsider trying to navigate the situation’s increasingly macho power plays; King’s suddenly valuable hostage; a snivelling reporter; an especially cocky computer hacker; a failed helicopter approach; a thwarted tank attack… Then again, the modern-cowboy-thwarting-terrorists rite of passage is well-known by many an action star at this point, from Steven Seagal, Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Keanu Reeves and Jean-Claude Van Damme to Harrison Ford in the easily superior “Air Force One,” Tomer Sisley in last year’s “Sleepless Night” and Guy Pearce in “Lockout.”