STARRING
Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Michael Nyqvist, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs DIRECTED BY
John Singleton SCREENPLAY
Shawn Christensen MPAA RATING
Rated PG-13 RUNNING TIME
106 Mins. DISTRIBUTED BY
Taylor Lautner DVD EXTRAS
‘Abduction Chronicle’ - On-Camera Production Journal with Taylor Lautner
• Initiation of an Action Hero: Taylor's Amazing Stunts’ featurette
• ‘The Fight For The Truth: Making Abduction’ featurette
• ‘Pulled Punches’ Gag Reel
• Abduction Application: Blu-ray Enhanced Viewing Mode - An in-depth original and personal look at the film with the cast and crew
"Abduction" Review
What have we learned from watching the new wannabe thriller Abduction?
We've learned that Taylor Lautner still has his six-pack abs and a willingness to use them as the primary symbol of his screen presence...
We've learned that director John Singleton has sold out by not only agreeing to helm this dreadful project, but by further compromising his artistic integrity by allowing the camera to envelope Lautner as if he were the center of the cinematic universe.
Oh, and not so surprisingly, we have learned with absolute certainly that Lautner can't act.
Am I being harsh?
Yes.
Am I being honest?
OH YES.
Abduction is Twilight hunk Taylor Lautner's first major opportunity to give a glimpse of his post-Twilight potential, which sort of resembles that of the post-MTV career of Pauly Shore ... yes, he hung around for awhile in subpar flicks but ultimately his career drowned with the exception of his recent appearance as himself in Bucky Larson - Born to be a Star. Even co-starring with ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift in his last film Valentine's Day, Lautner couldn't manage to manufacture anything resembling chemistry. There's something wrong when a guy can't even "act" attracted to the beautiful, but otherwise limited, Lily Collins.
In Abduction, Lautner is a high school student named Nathan who stumbles across a picture of himself at 3 1/2 years old on a missing children website. Nathan's website visit somehow triggers some goons to his whereabouts, and just moments after learning from his parents that he is not their child of birth the goons break in and kill the parents. Nathan goes on the run and, of course, the pretty girl from next door (Lily Collins) is by his side.
Smooch. Smooch. Kissyface.
Nathan is suddenly being pursued by both American and European goons (Yes, silly. We have goons here!) determined to take possession of a cell phone in Nathan's possession that holds classified information about spies. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda.
Having so many goons in the film allows Singleton to have a few actual actors in the film including Alfred Molina, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs and even Sigourney Weaver, all of whom clearly regard this sucker (emphasis on "suck") as a paycheck film.
One could potentially put forth an argument that the martial arts-trained Lautner might find his way into action flicks, though even that would be failing to acknowledge that while Jason Statham can't act he does at least have a convincing screen presence. Lautner is a blank slate, seemingly incapable of expressing even the most fundamental emotions beyond pouting and flexing.
Are pouting and flexing emotions?
Designed exclusively for the purpose of trying to trigger a post-Twilight existence for Lautner, Abduction instead serves as a reminder of how incredibly lucky an actor can be when the right part comes along and turns them undeservedly into a household name. We can only hope that once his Twilight years are history that some goons from Bollywood abduct Lautner and America won't be subjected to anymore of this creatively vacant drivel.
