‘Abduction’ starts with a blast, but ends with fizzle
Lionsgate
DENZEL WHITAKER (right) and Taylor Lautner in "Abduction."
Nathan seems to be a typical teenager
in the film “Abduction.”
When the film opens, he is waking up on
a lawn where he apparently spent the night after a drunken party.
Played by Taylor Lautner, best known
from the “Twilight” series, the hungover lad goes home where he
meets the wrath of his daddy, played by Jason Isaacs.
Dad decides being hungover is a good
time for a bit of boxing. So father and son fight and it’s brutal
and no-holds barred.
Bloodied, it takes awhile for the
Lautner character to fight back.
And you wonder, this is child abuse,
right?
Not really, because nothing is as it
seems. Queue eerie music.
Later, the boy must do a paper with the
cute girl next door, played by Lily Collins. The topic? Missing
children.
In their research, they soon come upon
a young boy who looks strongly like Lautner’s character. A feature
on the web site shows what the boy would look like today. And of
course, it looks just like him.
And down in the basement, the teen
actually finds the shirt the missing boy in the photo was wearing,
right down to the stain.
It’s come-to-Jesus time. He asks his
mother, played by Maria Bello, if she is indeed his mother. Tearfully
she says no.
Let me tell you, this is riveting
stuff. If you don’t have your fingers squeezing the couch cushion
yet, you will be soon.
Because before Mom can explain, she
meets some bad guys at the door and it is fight time. While she can
fight better than most mothers, her demise is soon a reality. As is
dad. To make matters worse, there’s a bomb in the microwave with a
timer.
It is ka-boom city and soon the house
is a pile of debris. Actually several piles of debris. And son and
his female friend are dodging house remnants in the family pool.
More action. More fighting, Suspense.
This is a good movie — so far.
When the Lautner character calls the
cops, MORE seemingly bad guys arrive. Is there anyone he can trust?
He takes the injured Collins character
to the hospital where a TV news broadcast states nobody was killed in
the blaze at his so-called parents’ home. As the bad guys descend
on the hospital, they boy’s shrink, played by Sigourney Weaver,
comes to the rescue.
This is fly-by-your-seat, exhilarating
fun as the pair are chased around. The climax comes at Pittsburgh
Pirates Stadium. That was of particular interest to me, since I’ve
been to the stadium and recognized the bridge leading in. (I was
there for a Rolling Stones concert, not the Pirates.)
Yes, the film does run out of steam and
starts to sputter. There are also parts that are hard to swallow,
like Pirates stadium full of people.
But hey, the first part alone is worth
your time. And it is available for streaming for free to Amazon Prime
and Netflix customers. You can watch it right now if you want.
If you are at work, take your tablet
into a restroom stall to watch. For heaven sakes, keep the volume
down. Those explosions are loud.
ABDUCTION
• Directed by John Singleton
• Written by Shawn Christensen
• Rated PG for sequences of intense
violence and action, brief language, some sexual content and teen
partying
• Runtime: 106 minutes
• 3 1/2 stars out of 5
