Watch The First Five Minutes Of 'Lockout': Guy Pearce Is A Smartass, Then A Badass

Lockout doesn't boast the most original premise in the world — it's perfectly obvious why it's drawn comparisons to both Taken and Escape From New York — but there's at least one good reason to keep an eye out for this film, and that's star Guy Pearce. The reliably compelling Aussie actor plays up his badass/smartass side as Agent Snow, a former government agent who's wrongly been convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. He's offered a chance to go free, if he can save the president's daughter (Maggie Grace) from violent inmates at a maximum security prison... in space!

FilmDistrict has released the first five minutes of the movie, which see Pearce getting pummeled quite a bit for making cheeky remarks instead of explaining what happened in that hotel room, before showing us what really did happen in that hotel room. Watch it after the jump.

[via Deadline]

I kind of love this. Pearce has always had the ability to make the most out of even the smallest, most underwritten roles (remember that Seeking Justice trailer?), so the fact that he actually gets a meaty leading role in Lockout bodes well. Even within these first five minutes, Pearce makes quite an impression. Though we've seen guys like Snow in a million thrillers before, Pearce has a magnetism that makes you sit up and pay attention. Now we just have to hope the rest of the movie lives up to his talent.

Written and directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, with Luc Besson writing and executive producing, Lockout hits U.S. theaters on April 20. Peter Stormare, Joseph Gilgun, Vincent Regan, and Jacky Ido also star.

Starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace and set in the near future, "Lockout" follows a falsely convicted ex-government agent (Pearce), whose one chance at obtaining freedom lies in the dangerous mission of rescuing the president's daughter (Grace) from rioting convicts at an outer space maximum security prison.