Guy Pierce, Remember him? Well he was Mike in Neighbours and if your 30+ you'll remember - don't you dare say you don't! A normal soap star turned movie ledge is among us as Guy (after departing Ramsey Street & Home and Aways Summer Bay) graced our presence on the big screen with classics such as LA Confidential, Rules of Engagement, The Time Machine, The Hurt Locker & The Kings Speech before landing this master piece on us which to my knowledge could essentially define a generation? (or not!)Well, Pierce plays Snow (Informer.......sorry!) a wreck of a special Ops CIA agent who's called into take down a space based prison that falls foul to the control of its inmates whilst having the (fit) first daughter on board although un-be known to them at the time (as they've been cryogenically frozen for a wee while) and it is down to one man to get on board, get the Presidents 1st born and escape unharmed from a group of complete nut jobs and if possible, take out the entire space station in the process - There's nothing like reality in the big screen these days!
So - lets get cracking with the SFX, there shockingly bad. Sorry - but they are.
Its set way way way way in the future and the only way you can tell this (prior to the space stuff) is with a dreadful 'Tron' style bike rip-off chase through some unknown major US city but it plays out like a dodgy PlayStation 2 game with OTT graphics and a sense of sheer frustration to get through it and get to the 'spacey stuff' - which luckily it does remarkably promptly.Guy Pierce is a wise cracking fruit loop with a few one liners that will make you proper chuckle along as he bowls through sarcastic comment after sarcastic comment with the pinnacle 'B.J' gag added just for the hell of it but rather than infuriate the viewer it actually comes across quite well.
The first daughter (played by Maggie Grace, Irena for all the Twi-hards out there) is well played but annoyingly & expectantly 'cutesey' and the lead baddie, Vincent Regan (Ghost Rider & some major UK TV roles) is marginally average but for me there is only one winner here, and he's not been mentioned yet...........
May I officially take my hat off to my new favourite baddie (and this is only due to the sad departure of Heath Ledger - Heath, your Joker was unbeatable!) JOSEPH GILGUN.I don't know who you are or where you come from but by crikey to made this movie come alive!
After some research it appears that wee Joseph is not such a N.K.O.T.B with Uk roles in Corrie and Shameless (Legend?) but until now - you were unknown to me! He's without doubt the best bad guy, nut job, one eyed phyco freak Irish weirdo on your silver screen this side of The Dark Knight and I urge EVERYONE to take the time to put up with snivelling Snow and prissy Emilie just to witness this guy in action. For those who doubt, the last photo is of him in this and it makes your skin crawl that someone can be so good in a single role.
Yes the space prison stuff is impressive and the plot is very debatable but for me - its all about the Gilgun. You Rock!
