Mather/St. Leger: Lockout

Guy Pearce, Lockout, Open Road Films, 2012.

Keeping in time with the incomparable B-movie spirit of their forefathers, new directing team Mather/St. Leger share more than just their particular team name with similar B-action auteurs Neveldine/Taylor. All four men apparently share the kinship of the American action-adventue genre. They carry the torches lit by Michael Winner, J. Lee Thompson, and Tony Scott.

Mather and St. Leger's debut film, the irresistable Lockout, was actually a conception of tireless auteur/action producer Luc Besson, whose Transporter pictures recently brought fresh life to the parched genre. Lockout is a B-movie beaut; a preposterously propulsive plot, a stone faced action lead (the excellent as always Guy Pearce) and sci-fi trappings involving a maximum-security prison in outer space and the President's daughter getting trapped inside during a riot. While the plot is overly familiar, many of the sequences and set pieces thwe director's construct here are cheezily breathtaking.

While its not as seamless as I would like, its bumps are all apart of the funhouse ride. An addictive little modern schlockfest, Mather/St. Leger's Lockout is a doozy; what they do next should be worth obsessing on.