Actor: Taylor Lautner
Director: John Singleton
Format: NTSC
Publisher: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: 2012-01-17
Running Time: 106
Details: Taylor Lautner fans will get a thrill out of seeing the lupine heartthrob from the Twilight movies transform into a Bourne-style teenage action hero in Abduction, although it's hard to predict how many others will cotton to this preposterous if entertaining thriller. This offering from director John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood, Four Brothers) stars Lautner as Nathan, a high schooler who lives in Pittsburgh with his parents, Mara and Kevin (Maria Bello and Jason Isaacs), and whose shrink (Sigourney Weaver) is helping him deal with the "insomnia, rage, and impulsivity" issues that help get him grounded after a drunken all-nighter. But of course, all is not as it seems. While working on a homework assignment with Karen (Lily Collins), his neighbor-classmate-love interest, Nathan figures out (in the course of one of several scenes that will require a healthy suspension of disbelief) that his folks aren't his parents after all; shortly thereafter, a couple of bad guys posing as cops show up, murder Mara and Kevin, and blow up their house, leaving the two kids on the run without a clue as to why or from whom. It develops that his real dad, a deep-cover CIA operative, has stashed some digital data, now in Nathan's possession, that an implacable Russian mobster (Michael Nyqvist, so good in the Swedish adaptations of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels) would really like to get his hands on; and while another CIA agent (Alfred Molina) may be trying to help the kid, he probably can't be trusted either. The action set pieces, including the finale at a Pittsburgh Pirates game, are quite good; the supporting cast is strong; and, of course, Lautner, the young stud who put the "ab" in Abduction, gets to display both his martial arts chops and his rocky bod a few times. Other than that, the film is kinda flabby. --Sam Graham
UPC: 065935572190
EAN: 0065935572190
