'Lockout': Return to Reagan-Era Action Movies

You’ll be forgiven if you think you stepped into a time machine after watching this week’s new action movie “Lockout.”

The film, starring Guy Pearce as a wrongly convicted man trying to rescue the president’s daughter from an overrun space prison, has the Reagan Decade written all over it.

You’ve got your wisecracking hero named Snow, some snappy repartee between said hero and the female lead (Maggie Grace) and more cheese than a truckload of Velveeta samples.

But it’s the dialogue that might cause conservatives to snap to attention. Sure, some of the gags are stale considering the movie is set in 2079. When Snow mentions “global warming” it’s easy to predict the problem has already either devastated the globe – assuming those incorrect climate models suddenly fixed themselves – or been jettisoned by reality.

Later, when Grace’s character proves herself handy with a machine gun Snow wonders aloud, “I thought you were a Democrat.” Best of all, when threatened by a government figure, Snow says, “What are you gonna do, raise taxes again?”

Since when is that kind of line used to razz the powers that be?

Perhaps it’s the handiwork of Luc Besson, the French filmmaker who cranks out a bevy of dumb-but-fun action movies for our bemusement. He’s got a producer’s credit here, and the film is based on his original idea.

Conservatives rallied around several recent Besson flicks, including Liam Neeson’s “Taken” and the 2010 actioner “From Paris with Love.”

Odd that it takes a French auteur to realize movies can occasionally be geared toward the right half of the country.