Lockout (D-)

DVD Review

Lockout is meant to be mindless action fun. It can be, I suppose, if one truly ignores all aspects of plot and morality and creativity. Lockout wants to be an exercise in self-referential silliness, but it is more a bad movie that openly admits it is a bad movie. Admitting it doesn’t stop it from being true.

Lockout is written by Luc Besson, the guy who created Taken andThe Transporter who is also the guy who created dozens of other action movies that are long since forgotten (Colombiana being the most recent). In other words, it is written by a talented guy who occasionally slips a half-way decent b-movie into the schlock he is hired to churn out. The Internet Movie Data Base identifies him as coming up with the “original idea” and writing the screenplay. I doubt there is an original idea in Lockout, but I assume the events that occur in the picture were scripted since they lack all forms of spontaneity. Still, the database also says he was assisted by James Mather and Stephen J. Ledger (both known for shorts, not feature films), who also direct. I find it possible that one person could have done such a bad job on the story, but it is pretty impressive that three of them could come up with something this awful. Maybe they each wrote a third of the scenes without telling each other what happened in the other parts and then patched it all together as best they could without taking time out of their weekends.

The story is about a guy named Snow who is framed for the murder of a colonel he is friends with. He didn’t do it, but he did take a briefcase which was supposed to be important (before someone cut the scenes explaining that part). Now he is convicted of conspiracy without a trial because it is a dystopian future and something something. Luckily for him, the (US) president’s daughter was on a mission to a space prison to investigate the rumor that it does medical tests on deep space travel on its prisoners. The space station is in orbit around Earth, so I am skeptical as to what “deep space” means, but apparently the president’s daughter isn’t. She was thinking about closing it down because it seems inhumane. She doesn’t bring up the fact that even in the future it is doubtful the idea of a space prison is cost effective. It isn’t like they still don’t still have to pay for guards—there are tons of them walking around the prison, even though all the inmates are cryogenically frozen.

Anyway, she ends up in danger because one of her personal bodyguards starts beating the snot out of an inmate she unfroze because the inmate said he wore perfume, and then the inmate stole the bodyguard’s gun and shot a gas tank, and then unlocked the cryogenic cells so prisoners can walk around if they want. I swear it makes less sense when you see it! Snow is sent in to save her, because they say more than one man would cause her to be killed in the crossfire, and sending in a convicted terrorist as the rescuer seemed safer. So Snow needs to rescue the president’s daughter before they blow up the space prison (since a few of the prisoners took hostages that means it is probably best for all 500 of them to die). Wait, if it is inhumane to test the effects of deep space travel on prisoners why is it okay to blow them up? Being blown up always seemed pretty inhumane to me.

There are two somewhat acceptable parts of the film. The first are the well-executed action sequences that are fun odes to 80s B-movies despite having been obviously edited down to secure a PG-13 rating. It is worth noting, though, that this movie was made with 20% less cash than it took to make Lethal Weapon 2, and that is not adjusting for inflation. Maybe a space epic setting wasn’t the best choice: The cheapness of it all is evident in every frame.

The second not-bad part of the movie is the acting. Maggie Grace, as the first daughter, is not very good; that is probably the script’s fault. Everyone else is great. Guy Pearce as Snow, Vincent Regan as a criminal mastermind, and Joseph Gilgun as a sadistic lunatic are all hamming it up, but that is exactly what is needed for an over-the-top, silly action flick. They are so entertaining to watch you occasionally forgot that everything else is really, really, really terrible.

Some people might be able to ignore plot and morality and artistic merit to see some good action pieces, but in this day and age there are hundreds of movies with better action sequences than this that are of better quality. There is no need to encourage this hideous studio cash-grab by renting it; just get one of the free 80s flicks that can be downloaded 100% legally for free with three clicks of your mouse. One of the best perks of this day and age is you don’t need to settle for garbage like Lockout.

The Amazing Spider-man (B-)

The Amazing Spider-man is an okay film, and probably would have been a great one if it weren’t for the clowns at Sony.

While all film distributors must be primarily driven to make money, Sony/Columbia’s extreme greed and lack of any artistic integrity is a step beyond anything the other companies do. They forced a Ghost Rider movie to go into production with only half the budget of its predecessor, they let Steven Soderberg leave Moneyball less than a week before it would start shooting because he wanted it to be historically accurate, and they forced MIB3 to film without a finished script because they were offered a tax incentive to film before the end of the year.

The Spider-man franchise is arguable Columbia’s most valuable film property, so naturally they have been complete tyrants with its film productions. They forced Spider-man 3 to go into production very fast, but at the last minute demanded the script to be completely changed in order to incorporate the Venomcharacter so they could have a spin-off film. When the movie was released, it received significantly lower reviews than its predecessors. Sam Raimi--who had reinvented the super-hero genre with the blockbuster trilogy--returned for the fourth installment, but Columbia continued to demand rewrites and hurry production until he dropped out. Therefore, a reboot came out five years after the last movie (with only three years devoted to its production).

Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy

Still, it had an impressive crew. Avi Arad--who successfully brought the Spider-man, X-Men, and Avengers franchises to the big screen--hand-picked Marc Webb for the role of the director. He had only directed one previous movie, but that movie is (500) Days of Summer, which everyone agrees is fantastic. Webb is great with the Spider-man characters--setting the story in high school, he mixes angst, humor, and teen awkwardness together for something thrilling, charming, and entertaining (also, he has the perfect name for the subject matter). He also is better at getting great performances from all the actors he deals with. Andrew Garfield is made to look more cool and less geeky than Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker/Spider-man (probably because fans like myself can't relate to someone nerdy and geeky), but he brings both a charm and a relate-ability to the role.Emma Stone plays Peter’s love interest Gwen Stacy; the dynamic between her and Garfield is delightful. Rhys Ifans asthe villain, Sally Field as Aunt May, and Denis Leary as Gwen’s police chief father are all good choices; the real gem, though, is Martin Sheen as a loveable yet believable Uncle Ben (Peter’s caretaker).

Another interesting element is how the manner in which Spider-man webs through the city. It is less graceful than in the original, but more realistic. It is a great way to distance this movie from the original, and it looks fantastic (especially in 3D).

In an effort to distance itself from the Raimi trilogy, this story follows Peter’s quest to find out why when he was about eight years old his parents fled (leaving him with his aunt and uncle) and then promptly died in a bizarre plain crash. No one really cares about his parents, but it is a great excuse to show him get bitten by a spider, develop awesome super-powers, and battle crime. The first problem arrises from the fact that Se7en scribe James Vanderbilt's original screenplay has obviously been rewritten too many times. The second problem is that the story obviously featured drastic edits and changes--after it was shot. For proof, one can see the promotional material, which features loads of scenes that didn’t make it into the final movie but should have. Dave Faracci at Badass Digest writes a great article explaining it all: the effects of tampering way too late into the production process are pretty apparent. Despite the dark tone and interesting set-ups, there is no clear theme; several plot threads are left unresolved; and characters vanish from the story with no clear explanation.

The reasons for the changes have to do with time (a shorter movie can be shown on TV or in theaters more frequently) but also with a set-up for a sequel. I think the sequel will probably be pretty great, though any comic fan knows it will get FAR darker. However, this movie now seems like homework you do to understand what is going on in The Amazing Spider-man. Well thought-out, carefully detailed, and mildly entertaining homework; but wouldn’t you rather not do homework at all? Sam Raimi’s Spider-man was a set up for the excellent Spider-man 2, but it was entertaining and thoughtful on its own. The Amazing Spider-man is an incoherent mess.

That above line is very critical, which makes me stress that this movie isn’t bad, per say (just incoherent and a mess). It has cool visuals, good acting, great artistic style, and the semblances of great stories. And if you ignore the plot it’s action scenes are pretty cool. It just has been tinkered around with too much.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (A-)

Seth Grahame-Smith is an already established author, but this year he has proven himself to be quite good at writing movies as well. Abraham Lincoln will be divisive film, mainly because Grahame-Smith gives viewers so much credit: He believes that people can accept a movie that is a high quality entry in a variety of genres all at the same time.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter covers the president’s life from his traumatic childhood to right before his assassination, but incorporating a quest to rid the world of vampires into the plot. The book, written by Grahame-Smith, is apparently humorous in that is reads like a biography (I haven’t actually read it), but as screenwriter, Grahame-Smith takes the story in a whole different direction. As a so-absurd-it’s-hilarious tale, the film instantly satisfies, and he knows not to overdo that angle. The movie also works as a Grindhouse-style flick wherein the filmmakers pretend they aren’t in on the joke, but it manages to exceed this limited genre by not turning into a full parody. In fact, the themes and metaphors are surprisingly complex for a summer flick, and the movie ends up raising some interesting points and becoming weirdly patriotic. Most importantly of all, though, is that the movie is a solid action film with excellently choreographed fights and great visuals.

Tim Burton produces and works with Grahame-Smith in much the same way as they did on Dark Shadows. Their pictures hop from idea to idea and genre to genre, and manage to be effective at all of them--as long as viewers don’t mind the switch. It certainly gives them a lot of credit.

Timur Bekmambetov made Wanted a hit with stylized, violent, over-the-top, and thrilling action sequences. He does the same here in a dream pairing with Zack Snyder’s editor (and thus slow-mo master) William Hoy. Also worth noting is that he gets good performances from the cast. Benjamin Walker is a relative unknown, but he is likable and charismatic as the stoic president. It takes some skill to make a mark in a role previously played by Jimmy Stewart and Gregory Peck (and Trey Parker!). Dominic Cooper, who is most widely known as making Howard Stark almost as charming as his son in Captain America: The First Avenger, but I started to doubt his abilities when he hammed it up a bit in The Devil’s Double. Here, though, he is at the top of his game, which means he is really great (Cooper plays Lincoln’s shady mentor). Mary Elizabeth Winstead has a great dynamic with Walker as Mary Todd and Rufus Sewell is solid as the vampiric villain.

Another thing to note is the awesome costume design by Varvara Avdyushko (Wanted) and Carlo Poggioli (Van Helsing). It is historically accurate but yet fits for fight sequences and looks cool; it deserves an Academy Award nomination (that it will not get).

Abraham Lincoln is a good movie that is also enormously fun, in you are able to handle several different genres packed into one fantastic picture.