Click here for the review of Abduction

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One of the funniest reviews for a long time!

So, not keen James? Maybe it's 'so bad it's good'?

JB pretty much summed up my thoughts on Lautner. When 300 came out a few years ago, a lot of critics made the same sort of "it's all about the pecs and abs" complaints. The difference there is that those guys were badass warriors. They fought violent battles. There was a reason for them to be pro-athlete-level fit beyond just getting the ladies to swoon. The Twlight movies on the other hand, are pure harlequin romance, and once you've gone down that road, sorry, there's no going back.

Very funny review though. It's been said before, JB, but you're like Jesus reviewing these movies for us.

Well i've got nothing better to do today, so i'm gonna end up seeing this anyways, I like everything that Singelton's done and I have nothing agianst Lautner personally(I'll gladly watch him over Hugh Grant ANY day of the week) so this should be fun.

That is probably the funniest thing you've ever said, Vex. I mean...what is the comparasin there? How are those two related? Not to mention that Hugh Grant hasn't been notable for over a decade. This boggles my mind.



Come on, dude. Surely you can think of some things more worthy of your time. Life is short! There should always be a better reason to do anything than "I've got nothing better."

Shade, you should know me well enough by now to know that I couldn't care less how much critics love/hate certain films, Abduction looks like mindless fun to me, so i'm still seeing it regardless of what you or anyone else says.

Lily Collins was Sandra Bullock's daughter in The Blind Side. I don't remember her being awful in that so this may be a another case of Taylor Lautner having the psychic ability to suck the talent out of everyone in his vicinity.

Yeah, she was one of the only good things about that otherwise unremarkable film, her and Lautner actually dated while filming, so i'm sure they at least have good chemistry(though they did just recently break up, so it kinda sucks to be him right now)

I agree with everyone else in that this was a fun review to read. Lautner seems like some pretty boy teen underwear model who got lucky when he was picked by a casting director. Even when I saw the trailer for this film I thought some of Lautner's facial expressions looked silly.

Can we assume Lautner is already a pick for a Razzie nomination next year?

I have a feeling he's going to be overshadowed by Nick Swardson because of Bucky Larson, it would've been interesting to see JB review that film.

I guess action movies have come a long way when one of the supporting characters is the hero's shrink.

So this guy is in 'Twilight'? You know, I've seen some shit movies in my life and from what I've heard, it's probably down there. However I've had so many experiences where I've enjoyed what people say is rubbish and disliked what people say is good (Sunshine of the spotless mind was most memorable) that I'm going to probably watch 'Twilight' and enjoy it (wont bother reading though).

No he won't. Guarantee that Lautner's going to have two Razzies nod for this as lead actor and Twilight: Breaking Dawn as supporting actor.

Bucky Larson won't be remembered next week, let alone Razzie time.

Fair enough; I'm certainly not trying to control your choices. It just seemed so odd to me to watch a film for no reason other than not knowing how to fill the time. If you think it'll be fun and it's up your alley, go for it.

Well i'm also seeing it because I like pretty much everything Singleton has done, he certainly knows how to direct action, and at the very least, you do have to Lautner credit for doing all of his own stunts.

Just one question, James: Which movie would you say is worse between this one and Zookeeper? So far both appear to be shoo-ins for the lowest spots on this year's Bottom 10. Also, when you said that this represents a new low for John Singleton, I think you forgot about 2 Fast 2 Furious, which if I'm not mistaken, you gave a lower rating than this.

Well he did say that Abduction provided some unintenitonal laughs, whereas Zookeeper didn't have any laughs whatsoever, so Zookeeper will probably get a higher spot.

I think you meant lower?

As I said elsewhere, I think this is the film that complete's Singleton's transition from being a genuine original filmmaker with a personal viewpoint to being a director-for-hire. The fact is, that Singleton was the director is the only thing that got me to see this.

I'd give it maybe **. This is primarily for the limited performances of Molina and Weaver. Lautner? I'm sorry. But based on this he's got a long way to go before being taken anywhere near seriously as an actor.

As far as what happened to Singleton, here's my theory. Consider his post Boyz output. You have commercial concessions, some decent to fairly good (Shaft, Four Brothers) some crap (this one and 2 Fast 2 Furious), some ambitious films that were still good even if they didn't their full potential )Poetic Justice, Baby Boy) and ambitious films that did reach their potential yet get regarded as botches because they weren't box office blockbusters (Higher Learning, Rosewood).

The fact that those last two got regarded that way by Hollywood is the most likely culprit for why Singleton has followed this direction. If you're put in a position where you have to choose between going back to washing dishes or directing mindless popcorn films, most directors would choose the latter. I can definitely understand it, having worked (and still working) my share of shit jobs. If Singleton had been able to get to the level where Soderbergh did, then he might have been able to realize his full potential.