[pullquote cite=”” type=”left, right”][amazon text=Amazon&template=carousel&chan=That Film Guy&asin=B00AC7PJK2][/pullquote] It’s a funny thing when a good director makes a bad movie. It’s difficult to know what to think. On one hand, you feel sad that they’re not living up to their full potential, on the other hand you feel angry that a director who has made good films in the past is now making terrible movies. In this case, it’s John Singleton, director of such classics as Boyz N The Hood, and, well, that’s about it. He hasn’t made another good movie since. Abduction, is his latest and is a film that has been met with a scathing reception.
Nathan Harper (Taylor Launter) is a typical teenager who lives with his Mother (Maria Bello) and Father (Jason Isaacs) in the suburbs and, after a heavy night of partying, finds his baby picture on a missing persons website. When he confronts his parents about this, Russian terrorists attack, and suddenly his world gets turned upside down as he tries to find out the truth of his past.
The plot is something we’ve all seen before. The 1995 TV movie The Face On The Milk Carton, which was also based on 1990 book series being the most obvious comparison. It even boldly attempts to channel its inner-Bourne Identity, which is enough of an error to fell better films than this. Taylor Launter brings his own unique ‘charm’ to bear on the whole film, and comes across more wooden than Daniel Radcliffe in the early Harry Potter films. The pointless cameos from Sigourney Weaver, Alfred Molina and other talented actors are painful to watch, and you can’t help wonder what their agents were thinking. The camera angles are very strange and disorientating, with some shots cutting at strange places, like in the middle of a sentence, and others staying way too long and roll over 2 or 3 seconds over the time where it feels comfortable to cut.
As scathing as this review is, there comes a point where a film is so bad, that it’s actually entertaining in a perverse way and Abduction comes very close. If you can tolerate the screaming teenage fangirls at the cinema, there are far worse ways to spend your time, although it’s biggest home will be on DVD and Blu Ray. It’s so funny to watch, you’ll be rolling with laughter at each increasingly ludicrous scene. It’s one of the best ‘worst movies’ out there at the moment, and there’s bound to be something likable in there for everyone. The cringe-worthy writing makes for some gleeful moments, while the fight scenes are so silly that even Uwe Boll would blush.
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