Abduction: Sloppily Written & Acted Action Film

Opening shot: A car zooms down a tree lined road. A cute guy is seated on the front windshield laughing his head off, yelling at the driver to go faster. They reach the party. We get a round of fist bumps and a chorus of 'Man, you're so crazy!' followed by 'I totally am, bro!' and a whole lot of beer. Windshield guy, Nathan (Lautner), wakes up the next morning shirtless and on the lawn where his dad finds him, then takes him home and forces him to spar with him. This little scene sets the film's mood perfectly. It says, 'I am made for 15-year-old boys; I am a mash-up of everything they may find cool.'

The first thing you discover about Nathan is that he really isn't the sharpest tool in the box. He's a brown guy raised by white, blonde-haired and blue-eyed parents without ever questioning his parentage or suspecting anything. While working on a school paper with his girlfriend Karen (Collins), he discovers his picture on a missing kids' website and thus discovers that his parents aren't biologically related to him.

Before he has time to fully process this fact, a bunch of guys bust into his house, murdering his parents and forcing both, him and Karen, to flee for their lives. Hot on their heels are both the CIA and Koszlow (Nyqvist), the guy who ordered the hit on his parents. They're both after a top-secret encrypted list that Nathan has courtesy of his estranged biological father. 

Don't expect much on the acting front; at least not from Lautner and Collins. When Lautner isn't kicking ass, he's lolling around looking extremely awkward, possibly reading his lines off of a teleprompter. Nyqvist, who was so thoroughly badass in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, comes off as a rather campy caricature of a villain. 

The film suffers from an embarrassing script full of laughably bad lines, worn out clichés and huge plot holes. For example, both the villains and the CIA repeatedly intercept Nathan's calls on his mobile phone; yet the plans that he makes with his friend via the same exact mobile phone are never intercepted and allow him to stay one step ahead of his pursuers. Sigourney Weaver, playing Nathan's shrink and an undercover ex-CIA agent, is pretty much the only character with a shred of a soul. 

The only possible reason for this film's existence is that Hollywood's powers-that-be are attempting to turn TaylorLautner into a fully-fledged action hero; a teenage Jason Statham if you will. He actually doesn't do a half-bad job on those terms; he's definitely at his most animated and engaging when he's running for his life or beating the crap out of people. Either way, the only thing that Abduction has going for it is the fight scenes; and the fact remains that not even its very talented supporting cast can salvage the rest.

About the Author

Staff Writer for Cairo 360 

Original article on:Cairo360