Lockout (15)
HH
Dir: James Mather, Stephen St Leger
With: Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace
GUY Pearce cuts a suitably credible action hero in this Luc Besson-produced homage to John Carpenter's Escape From New York, but cannot prevent the film from falling apart around him. As wisecracking Snow, he is forced to enter a maximum security prison in space in 2079 to rescue the President's daughter while simultaneously looking for the prisoner who can help clear his own name of murder. Blocking his path are 400-plus convicts led by two Scottish brothers. Pearce keeps things watchable but co-directors James Mather and Stephen St Leger fail to bring enough ingenuity to the set pieces or mask the shoddy special effects. The derivative screenplay only makes you remember the films being copied more fondly. Reviewed by Rob Carnevale
Blackthorn (15)
HHH
Dir: Mateo Gil
With: Sam Shephard, Stephen Rea
Running time: 102 minutes
MATEO Gil's drama is built around a "what if" that will be as irresistible to aficionados of the western as a John Wayne retrospective followed by all the buffalo wings you can eat. Bear in mind though that it's slow, reeeee-allll slow. Legend has it that there was no way out for Butch and Sundance in Bolivia. What if legend was wrong? Sam Shephard revels in the chance to play the ultimate stranger in town.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh, tomorrow-April 26; Glasgow Film Theatre, April 24-28
The Divide (18)
HH
Dir: Xavier Gens
With: Rosanna Arquette, Lauren German
Running time: 112 minutes
THIS gruelling horror from Xavier Gens, the director of Frontier(s) and Hitman, will do to audiences exactly what it says on the title. Telling the tale of a group of New Yorkers who flee to the basement of their building after a nuclear blast, it will strike some as an honest examination of man's inhumanity to man, Lord of the Flies style, or a cheap shock fest in which women come off worst. Not watch-with-mother material.
Gone (15)
H
Dir: Heitor Dhalia
With: Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Sunjata
Running time: 94 minutes
SOMEWHERE within Gone there's the germ of a good idea but the execution of this lacklustre suspense thriller is so poor that it quickly becomes lost. Amanda Seyfried stars as a woman who becomes convinced that her sister has been abducted by the same serial killer who tried unsuccessfully to kill her a year before. But is she correct or merely delusional? Heitor Dhalia's film should have had a lot more fun toying with viewers' perceptions but instead becomes a drawn out and increasingly silly race-against-time scenario that strains credibility and patience. Reviewed by Rob Carnevale
Oliver Sherman (15)
HH
Dir: Ryan Redford
With: Garrett Dillahunt, Donal Logue
Running time: 82 minutes
A TROUBLED soldier returns home hoping to reconnect with a hero from his past in Ryan Redford's feature debut. Garrett Dillahunt is the haunted fighter now engaged in a new battle to fit in, especially with his old pal's mistrustful wife. A fine performance by Dillahunt in what is more of a mood piece than a conventional drama. It feels like what it is –a short story over extended.
Glasgow Film Theatre, tomorrow-April 23
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