'Lockout' team should be jailed for assault on credibility

Things I learned from "Lockout:"

» You can skydive from a space station.

» You can revive someone who is dead from a lack of oxygen by stabbing a needle full of ... something ... into their eye and rooting around till you hit whatever you're supposed to hit to bring them back to life.

» Motor oil, toilet water and a little cigarette ash make an excellent hair dye.

» YOU CAN SKYDIVE FROM A SPACE STATION!!!

I'm sorry. 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.

There are things to admire, after a fashion, about "Lockout," a film set in 2079 that is directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, who wrote it along with Luc Besson. Guy Pearce would be chief among them. He plays Snow, a smart-aleck former government agent framed for the inevitable crime he did not commit. We meet him as he is being pummeled during questioning, rattling off glib answers to the question of how one of his friends, a fellow agent, wound up being killed. Without a trial, thanks to the efforts of government muckity-muck Langral (Peter Stormare), he is convicted and sentenced to MS One, a maximum-security prison in space.

Meanwhile, Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace) is on the way to — yes — MS One, on a fact-finding mission to find out if the practice of putting the inmates into a sort of cryogenic state harms them. Oh, also: She is also the daughter of the President of the United States (Peter Hudson). Once Emilie arrives, a riot takes place, and soon the entire prison is under the control of inmate Alex (Vincent Regan) and his psycho brother Hydell (Joseph Gilgun).

Snow is offered a deal: Go to MS One and save Emilie. ("Escape from New York" comparisons are doubtless welcome at this point.) So off he goes, and once he finds her, learns that she is not going to be the grateful damsel in distress he might have figured. They spar back and forth while trying to avoid the bad guys and find a way home.

While there are some amusing moments along the way, with Pearce cracking wise as he cracks heads, the whole thing seems disjointed. Among other problems, a final, epic confrontation — a requirement for these sorts of movies — is avoided, making the resolution, while ludicrous, also anticlimactic. (One plus: future medical treatment heals crippling wounds in a jiffy, so there is no pesky limping around while trying to outrun villains. Handy, that.)

Back on Earth, a more-traditional mystery unfolds, sort of — it doesn't really make any more sense than the story that takes place in space, maybe even less. But truly, even with an actor as smart as Pearce romping around in it, this is not the kind of movie for which making sense is a requirement. He seems to be having a grand old time, but with gaping plot holes and ridiculous developments, the feeling is not contagious.