If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times before, there is nothing sadder than when a film has a premise that should work (or even worse sounds brilliant) but then is destroyed before it reaches the big screen. That is certainly what happens with new film Abduction, here even the trailer looked promise but what we are left with is one of the worst films of 2011…Golden Razzies take note.
Nathan (Taylor Lautner – Eclipse, Valentine’s Day) thinks he has the perfect life. He lives in a well-off suburb with his Mum, Mara (Maria Bello – Beautiful Boy, Grown Ups) and Dad, Kevin (Jason Issacs – Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2, Cars 2). There are parties aplenty and his only real worry is that he has a crush on the girl across the road, Karen (Lily Collins – Priest, The Blind Side) but she is already dating someone. However, when Karen and Nathan are teamed up on a school assignment they discover a secret about his life, a secret that soon has them running from the CIA and a psychotic criminal, Kozlow (Michael Nyqvist – The Chinese Man, The Girl Who Played With Fire).
Director, John Singleton (Four Brothers, 2 Fast 2 Furious) has been making action films long enough to have known better to take on Abduction as a project after he read the script, penned by Shawn Christenson (Brink, Walter King). This is one of the worst scripts ever written and if Singleton couldn’t tell that then he must question whether or not he has what it takes to be a director. The script treats the audience with absolute contempt, the dialogue is laughable (literally people were pissing themselves with laughter during the Media Screening I was at) and the fact Christenson feels the need for his characters to describe every little thing makes you feel like the film is aimed at a three year old. Christenson can’t even get the name of the film right, there is no abduction in site so it is as mis-named as the recently released Kidnapped (which also didn’t have a kidnapping in it).
As a result of the poor script the only person who can hold their head high is Maria Bello. She is mercifully given some meat in her part whereas the likes of Sigourney Weaver (Vamps, Paul) are reduced to saying crappy lines like ‘Okey dokes’ and asking Nathan if he ‘is okay?’ after a situation that would leave anybody suffering from post traumatic stress. You have to wonder why Weaver would take a role in film like this, but then the same could be said for Michael Nyqvist, who should be on a high after the Millennium series of films instead of rotting away in rubbish like this. And as for Lautner, well if he wanted Abduction to show the world he has a career outside The Twilight Saga then he has made a huge mistake. Robert Pattinson showed the world he could act with Water For Elephants and Kirsten Stewart was amazing in The Runaways but all Lautner shows in Abduction is that he has the potential to be a D-Grade Action movie star.
With one of the worst scripts ever written Abduction has nothing going for it at all. Crap dialogue, poor direction and a woeful acting performance from Lautner this is clearly one of the worst films of the year.
Year: 2011
Director: John Singleton
Stars: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, Michael Nyqvist, Sigourney Weaver
Classification: M
Runtime: 106 mins
Rating: 
Available on DVD from 20th January, 2012