At the start of his career, with the likes of Subway, The Big Blue, Nikita and Leon under his directing belt, Luc Besson looked like an impressive talent.

Since those films however, Besson hasn't made much of an impact on the directing front, and appears happy enough to slap his name on numerous projects – good and bad – in a producing capacity.

He's credited with coming up with the idea for this project, which surely didn't take him long as it's pretty much Escape from New York in space. Despite the familiarity of the story, this film still has a lot going for it.

It's some time in the future; you can tell this by the fact that there's now a maximum security prison in space – known as MS One. One of the president's team, Emilie (Maggie Grace), has been sent up there to look into how the prisoner's minds are affected by stasis, which is a process of hibernation they'll all subjected to; it's been claimed that it can make them even more mentally unstable.

Thanks to a slip in security, the inmates manage to take over their floating prison, taking the staff that they don't kill hostage. They take Emilie hostage too. Unbeknownst to them however, Emilie just so happens to also be the President's daughter.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, ex CIA agent Snow (Guy Pearce) has been wrongly accused of murdering an agent and friend of his. Secret Service director Scott Langral (Peter Stormare) is in the mood to punish him pretty bad, but is talked out of doing so by another agent Harry Shaw (Lennie James). Shaw persuades Langral that the best play to make is to actually send Snow up to MS One and rescue Emilie.

Snow is quite happy to go up to the prison, as he learns that a friend of his is already up there. But he won't be alone; 497 of the most dangerous scum of the Earth (now MS One) will be running about the place and there won't exactly be a warm welcome waiting for him.

I've been drinking this stuff for years and don't feel any healthier for it. Cows are c***ts.

So then, not the most original story in the world. Thanks for nothing on that front, Luc.

Luckily though, directors James Mather and Stephen St. Leger (who also wrote the film along with Besson) manage to produce a highly entertaining space romp.

What stops this from being your average B movie, straight to DVD fodder, is a highly competent cast, including Brits James, Vincent Regan (recently seen playing John in Sky Atlantic's Hit & Miss) and the superb Joseph Gilgun, who impressed no end as Woody in Shane Meadow's This is England.

And then you have Pearce himself; very rarely is he given the out and out action man lead role, but proves here that it's a breeze for him to do. He imbues Snow with characteristics of Han Solo; he's cocky, witty and pretty useful in a fight. The Star Wars thing doesn't end there either, as he clearly has a Solo/Leia relationship with the feisty Emilie. It works really well, and just makes it more curious why this dynamic isn't used more often in scripts.

The film clearly didn't have the budget of a summer blockbuster, and yet its directors still managed to make it visually appealing with its cinematic chic and cubic zirconia sheen.

It's also not often that you hear a Scottish accent in space (which let's face it, is probably the best place for it) and Gilgun obviously relishes the opportunity to play his Scottish baddie with almost panto villain gusto.

Besson has put his name on some utter tosh over the years, but Lockout is surprisingly rewarding on all fronts. It's hardly original but you'd be hard push to find a more entertaining sci-fi flick this year.