Abduction (2011)

A Major Disappointment

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Nathan is at high school. He discovers a younger picture of himself on a missing persons register. Once he starts investigating, he is drawn into a game of intrigue involving the CIA and foreign agents, where nothing is what it seems and nobody can be trusted.A pretty conventional action-drama. Has a degree of intrigue but this just feels contrived and implausible. Plot develops in random, get-to-the-next-action-scene fashion, meaning that not much makes sense after a while.Cast should be a give away that this wasn't going to be anything more than a weak teen-orientated fluff piece. While we do have the gravitas of such great performers as Sigourney Weaver and Alfred Molina, we also have the talentless Taylor Lautner in the lead role. Clearly just there for his muscles and to get the moronic Twilight fans to watch the movie, he really doesn't help the movie. What little credibility it had disappeared once he was cast and he lives up to the reputation, giving a very wooden performance. Lily Collins plays the love interest and puts in a solid performance, especially considering the (weak) material she had to work with.Sad that John Singleton's career has come to this. Considering that he directed Boyz n the Hood and Higher Learning, two great social commentaries, this movie is truly beneath him.

I see a lot of negative reviews these days. Why can't people just watch a movie without analyzing every little detail. Try to remember what industry movies fall into; entertainment. If you watch it to be entertained,then have fun. Your review is a personal opinion, as is this one. I will not be deterred from seeing something just because somebody says they didn't like it. That said, it was a good overall movie. I was entertained. The first 20 minutes was a bit slow, but after that it pulled me in. I didn't focus on the acting & rarely do. It was fun. My 17 yr old granddaughter streamed it & I just happened to be in the room. We both enjoyed it & had some good interaction with certain parts, like when Sigourney's car explodes & when the house exploded. I liked the international aspect of it. Everybody was after him. I think the name is a bit deceiving as I was waiting for somebody to actually get abducted. Being raised by CIA agents for protection is far from that. Good intense movie with some good twists. The movie did what it set out to do.

I was quite surprised by the vitriol and sour grapes that I saw in many of the reviews for this movie. By some accounts you would have thought that the teenage lead (Taylor Lautner) had his shirt off every chance he could, but in fact there were only two instances at the beginning of the movie and in one you only saw his back. In both cases it was not out of place for the circumstance in which it was done. It makes me wonder just how much of the exaggeration and negativity is the result of envy for the young man as opposed to the movie itself. I'm glad that I decided to take a chance on the film because my family and I found it quite enjoyable and engaging (including my 83 year old father).The story was interesting with a few twists and turns that held our attention throughout the film. There were a few loopholes in the script, but not so much that they distracted from the story as a whole or caused you to get lost in the plot. I found the action sequences to be well done because Taylor did the majority of his own stunts and the shots weren't being jerked around trying to disguise a stunt double. This young man definitely has the physicality for an action movie.The young teenage actors held their own with the support of a very seasoned veteran cast. Do they still need to grow with their acting...of course they do...but they demonstrated great potential and played their teenage parts admirably. The kissing scene was a little clumsy, but then again, the characters are teenagers under stress kissing for the first time since middle school. Who wouldn't be clumsy under the circumstances?There were a few curse words, but they weren't numerous and the "violence" was not bloody or gory. This is not a movie filled with CGI effects. It is dependent upon the action between the characters and their environment which it does very well.Overall, the movie is a teenage action flick that even adults will find entertaining if they just sit back and enjoy without over analyzing each nuance of the film. I would recommend this movie for an evening of family entertainment when you're in the mood for an action movie without a lot of violent scenes.

Ha, in reading all the reviews, this movie is hated. I actually kind of liked it once I put myself into the mindset of a fourteen year old girl and just went along for the ride. Sure its just a showcase for Taylor Lautner, and sure his acting is pretty terrible but I enjoyed the story of a teen who discovers the parents who raised him aren't his real folks, triggering events that leave him running for his life and pretending he's in a Jason Bourne movie.I thought the action scenes were pretty good (despite the plot holes) No one can say that Taylor isn't at least... athletic. There was also a great back up cast of talent including Sigourney Weaver, Jason Isaacs, Maria Bello and Alfred Molina.I'll admit the romance/kissing scenes were very awkward but I did enjoy how the audience didn't know who to trust either until the very end. Kinda twisty. 5/30/14