Lockout
FilmDistrict | Release Date: April 13, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
16
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Boxoffice MagazineJames RocchiApr 11, 2012
Lockout isn't high art, but it's ridiculous fun. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 10, 2012
Lockout is the kind of manly nonsense no one wants to make anymore. Read full review
75
MovielineAlison WillmoreApr 13, 2012
Lockout is derivative and ridiculous and a good time, provided you can turn off higher brain functions along with any other part of you that might want to lodge a complaint about liberal borrowing from better movies. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTom RussoApr 12, 2012
If you're an "Escape From New York" fan, you might have wondered about those rumors about a possible remake...Well, wonder no more. Producer Luc Besson's action factory has beaten everyone to it, stylishly. They're just calling the thing Lockout, and setting it in outer space. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasApr 11, 2012
More than any masculine heroics, Pearce's primary job is maintaining the tone: smug, irreverent, and giddily punch-drunk. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesApr 14, 2012
It's clichéd, ridiculous, and very entertaining. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesApr 18, 2012
The space prison set-pieces get the job done; only in the film's terrestrial bookends does this nuts-and-bolts action film show its rust. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 12, 2012
Lockout is genre all the way. The film wears its colors proudly, but it also, alas, wears out its welcome. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 11, 2012
The idea of the president's daughter being held captive isn't blindingly original (it's an alarmingly dangerous occupation), but placing the story on a space station is a masterstroke, since we're about filled up to here with prison movies set on Earth. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineNick SchagerApr 9, 2012
Luc Besson's producing career has been so geared toward lean, tough genre films that it's somewhat apt that he'd ape--or, if we're being kind, pay homage to--John Carpenter's preeminent sci-fi actioner Escape from New York with his latest, Lockout. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 14, 2012
The pretty good thriller Lockout peaks with its first shot...When the camera moves and the plot kicks in - as it must - the movie loses its witty economy. Things get cluttered. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 12, 2012
Lockout, is as dopey an entertainment as imaginable, but it's also a reminder that the film's star, Guy Pearce, has always had great screen magnetism, to which he has now added a bedrock of muscle. Also: he can act. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckApr 10, 2012
Directors Stephen St. Leger and James Mather fill the film's obvious narrative gaps with enough witty banter and tongue-in-cheek humor for audiences to overlook the subpar special effects used throughout. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin ChangApr 9, 2012
Tackles a nifty futuristic premise with bargain-basement efficiency and a deadpan, devil-may-care attitude. It's an initially invigorating tactic that proves slapdash and unsatisfying over the long haul, reducing a potentially rich sci-fier to the level of a halfway decent time-killer Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid DenbyApr 23, 2012
If you were to watch Lockout a few months from now, at home alone, it wouldn't produce more than a shrug. Movies this bad need to be revered in public places. Go see it in a mall, and try to sneak a beer or two in with you. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenApr 12, 2012
Pearce pumps a surprising amount of levity into his one-liners – sure, it's still hot air, but at least the banter comes fully inflated. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 12, 2012
Most of the time Lockout is pleasant enough, not something to recommend to a friend, but enjoyable in the moment. Guy Pearce has a lot to do with that, as the most impervious action star imaginable. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleApr 12, 2012
Pearce gets into his groove swiftly, owns it and remains entertaining throughout. The rest of the movie, however, would work better as a video game. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumApr 11, 2012
With no thriller cliché left unused, the gaily outlandish plot is matched by tin-eared dialogue, ripe tough-guy overacting from the very game Pearce, and best-that-she-could acting from Grace. Read full review
42
IndieWireEric KohnApr 10, 2012
Lockout consists of disciplined action pastiche, but much of its thundering engine borrows from better movies. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraApr 22, 2012
It's just not quite as much fun as it should be, despite Pearce's best efforts and some good chemistry with Grace. Unusually for an action thriller, this could have benefited from being just a little longer. Read full review
40
Total FilmKen McIntyreApr 19, 2012
Luc Besson's clunky, space-bound actioner apes '80s B-flick excess but skimps on all the good parts. Fans of really bad science and pixelated CGI won't be disappointed, though. Read full review
40
The GuardianHenry BarnesApr 19, 2012
Pearce has fun; world-weary in the style of a 15-year-old told one too many times to tidy his room – but shoddy special effects and the surface-level sass of the president's daughter leave this one spinning in low orbit. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 12, 2012
Mostly Lockout is lost in space. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 11, 2012
Movies like this are supposed to be ridiculous on some level. It's part of the fun. But, dang. Falling through space, popping your parachute and landing on the one empty stretch of freeway in some bustling future city? C'mon. We all have our limits. Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick PinkertonApr 10, 2012
Lockout is, not unexpectedly, a potluck of derivative references. Read full review
38
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 12, 2012
Enjoy it, in moderation. It's your recommended weekly allowance of schlock. Read full review
38
USA TodayScott BowlesApr 12, 2012
A putrid film that comes dead-weighted with hammy one-liners and a plot so silly it borders on comedy? Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 12, 2012
Lockout is painful. Not painful in the way Uwe Boll or "Sex and the City" movies are painful. But painful enough that I kept waiting for Nicolas Cage to show up. Or Katherine Heigl. Or, god forbid, both. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 12, 2012
The aftereffects of watching Lockout include an inability to focus or to complete a simple declarative sentence without an ill-timed cutaway in the middle. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 12, 2012
Directors James Mather and Stephen St. Leger stage a few good action set pieces, but unlike the 1981 midnight movie classic it imitates, the blandly titled Lockout never busts out of its cheesy concept. Read full review
12
New York PostKyle SmithApr 13, 2012
Besson co-wrote and produced this cheesy mash-up of elements from James Bond and "Battlestar Galactica." Read full review
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