12 Rounds 3: Lockdown | Film review - Die Hard in a police station

Die Hard in a police station is a nifty idea but it is wasted on 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown, a by-the-numbers instalment of the WWE action-movie franchise designed as a showcase for the stable’s star wrestlers. Here, grappler Dean Ambrose plays the doggedly honest cop trapped in his own high-tech precinct after trying to expose a gang of corrupt officers.

The story follows the Die Hard playbook fairly closely, with the good and bad guys playing cat-and-mouse around the building, including its lifts, vents and rooftop. Yet there’s no way the lumpish, stubbornly uncharismatic Ambrose will ever be the next Bruce Willis.

Certificate 15. Runtime 86 mins. Director Stephen Reynolds

12 Rounds 3: Lockdown debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on 28 March and is available on DVD from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzU49CXuZR8

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.