Twilight star Taylor Lautner stars in this Bourne-esque man-on-the-run thriller about a young man attempting to uncover his true identity after finding his baby photo on a missing person's website. Also stars Sigourney Weaver (Avatar) and Alfred Molina (An Education).
After finding the photo, with help from his hot neighbour Karen (Lily Collins, The Blind Side), Pittsburgh teenager Nathan (Lautner) confronts the woman he thought was his mum (Maria Bello, A History of Violence). No sooner, suited goons turn up on his doorstep killing both his "parents". Nathan and Karen manage to escape but find themselves on the run from police, government agents and shadowy figures...
John Singleton’s directorial career has veered decidedly mainstream since his work in the ‘90s, something you’d think would make him the perfect helmer for a Taylor Lautner vehicle (and "from the director of Boyz n the Hood" isn’t gonna mean much to T-Lau fans anyway). As with 2 Fast 2 Furious, he proves adept at shooting an action sequence but again struggles to inject the faint glimmer of tension or emotion that could poke through Abduction’s double whammy of rote script and wooden performances. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing a Bourne-lite for teenagers, especially one that taps into middle class parental issues by implying your folks might not be who you think they are.
By-the-numbers direction and writing, though, require charisma to carry a film and Abduction is abundant proof that Lautner just isn’t the guy for this. The dude is so wooden it’s like watching Pinocchio with abs, his stock moves being shirt removal, sullen and impotent emo glowering, and jaw clenching that is so intense and frequent you begin to worry his carved face might just explode into splinters. He can do the action stuff okay but, since this is a teens’ film, there’s not enough of it.
By Steve Newall, Flicks.co.nz
it sucks!!!!!
it cool!!!!!!!!
it cool!!!!!!!!
Is not a very good movie. Would have been better if it was not made
What a Excellent Movie
The script, direction, and pretty much everything else feels like Jack Bauer, 24: The Teen Years.
Director John Singleton offers bits of suspense, but Abduction is less a movie than a piece of engineering, a glumly ludicrous cat-and-mouse blowout designed to win Lautner male fans along with his girl demo.
Taylor Lautner tries to hold his own in an action thriller too silly to give him much of a chance.
Taylor Lautner can't hold cliche spy flick together with 'Twilight'-bred muscles.
Sadly, it's impossible to fake the faintest enthusiasm for this picture, which is a fourth-rate Hollywood thriller that bungles a lot of thievery from better movies, is entirely bereft of suspense or excitement and features a leading man who absolutely, positively cannot act.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 29th Sep 2011.
Release date: September 29th 2011.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
