“Lockout” is set in a prison in space. It stars Guy Pearce as an ex-secret agent all muscled up and throwing as many one-liners as punches. The mission is improbable* and there are many explosive shortcuts.

    The movie is set some 60-plus years in the future, but a lot of things remain the same. Pearce is Agent Snow. Make that ex-agent, since he discovered some double-crossing* in a CIA*-like operation — but instead of getting a promotion he ended up doing jail time for murder.

    “Lockout” opens as agency investigators are trying to beat him into revealing where to find a briefcase that holds some state secrets. But it only serves to bloody his face, strengthen his resolve and sharpen his comic timing.

    Meanwhile, Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace) is the U.S. president’s daughter who tours the maximum-security prison orbiting* not too far from an international space station. Her aim is to interview the inmates* who serve most of their sentence in stasis — a medically induced sleep state — and she is looking into rumors that it has drawbacks — early dementia* among them.

    After some bonehead* moves by the secret service agent attached to guard her, all hell and most of the prisoners break loose and there is only one man who can infiltrate* the place and get her back safely. But it won’t be easy, because in addition to the trillion-mile shuttle trip, the bulky spacesuits and the prison mayhem*, Snow and Warnock turn out to be like oil and water.

    With the inmates taking over the asylum*, lots of hidden agendas, opposites attracting and some pretty impressive pyrotechnics* and high-risk stunts*, the filmmakers had a lot to work with. But they only get about halfway there and despite the danger at every turn, your palms never sweat.

    Still, the filmmakers’ inventiveness with special effects and action, which landed them this job, gives the film a good deal of visual punch. As Snow and Warnock try to outwit the most lethal* gang of inmates, they seem to face a firefight around every corner and the slick high-tech lines of the spaceship are a perfect backdrop for the shootouts.(SD-Agencies)

    The film is based on an idea from espionage*/action specialist Luc Besson, whose interest in the genre seems to know no bounds — writing, directing, producing, sometimes merely thinking.