Everyone seems to be watching Lockout on Netflix - but it's actually a certified rip-off of an '80s action classic.
Released in 2012, the film follows Snow (Guy Pearce), a man framed for conspiracy to commit espionage against the US who's offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter (Maggie Grace) from an outer space prison overrun by violent inmates.
Off the back of a $20 million (£15.7m) budget, it grossed more than $32m (£25m), and landed at 38 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It turns out there's good reason why several critics branded it 'derivative' and 'shallow'.
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Check out the trailer for Lockout below:
Inexplicably, it's the number one film on Netflix in the UK right now. It's a proper junk food movie: there's absolutely no substance to it, but it'll pass the time while you inevitably dual-screen between your TV and phone.
However, maybe the plot sounds vaguely familiar to the moviegoers among us: a buff, taciturn hero infiltrates a dangerous prison setting to rescue someone connected to the US president.
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Yes, it's almost exactly like Escape from New York, John Carpenter's 1981 cult classic starring Kurt Russell as the iconic Snake Plissken, an eye-patched hero who'd go onto inspire the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
For example, Box Office described Lockout as a 'sleek, slick and shameless rip-off of Carpenter's Escape from New York', as well as its underrated sequel, Escape from LA.
Carpenter ended up taking EuropaCorp and the film’s writers - Stephen St. Leger, James Mather and Luc Besson - to court, and emerged victorious.
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At first, the production company was ordered to pay €20,000 ($21,388, £16,821) euros to Carpenter, €10,000 ($10,694, £8,410) to the screenwriters (Carpenter and Nick Castle), and €50,000 ($53,472, £42,052) euros to the rights owner of the movie.
Detailed via Observatoire européen de l’audiovisuel, the ruling stated: "The difference in the location of the action and the more modern character featured in ‘Lock-Out’ was not enough to differentiate the two films."
The next year, after Besson appealed the ruling, he was ordered to pay a whopping €450,000 ($481,248, £378,472) due to the long list of similarities. Carpenter had originally demanded €2.2m ($2.35m, £1.85m).
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As per Yahoo News, a spokesman for EuropaCorp and Besson earlier said: "The judges did recognise that there were many differences between the films - and that in their totality the movies were quite different.
"We think that is important, and the fact that the damages were a lot less than were demanded reflects that," he added.
Lockout is available on Netflix now. Escape from New York is available on-demand. Choose wisely.
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Topics: Netflix, Film and TV, Entertainment
Cameron Frew