AbductionMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 25 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
14 OK for kids 14+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 55
    Movieline |

    As Nathan, the teenage hero of Abduction, Lautner shows he's handy with stunts, many of which he clearly and impressively performs himself, and good with a fight scene. But when it comes to exchanges of dialogue, displays of emotion or just standing around, he's stiff and manifestly uncomfortable. Read full review

  • 50
    Orlando Sentinel | Roger Moore

    Abduction puts Lautner in motion and never goes very far wrong as long as he remains in motion. Read full review

  • 50
    Slant Magazine |

    Odds are John Singleton doesn't know he's made one of the funniest films of the year. Read full review

  • 50
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Director John Singleton offers bits of suspense, but Abduction is less a movie than a piece of engineering, a glumly ludicrous cat-and-mouse blowout designed to win Lautner male fans along with his girl demo. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety |

    Aside from such dutiful fan service, the film is a haggardly slapdash "Bourne Identity" knockoff, never rising above the level of basic competence. Read full review

  • 40
    Los Angeles Times | Glenn Whipp

    Abduction is just the third movie John Singleton has directed in the past decade, and it contains neither the passion nor the competence of his two previous genre efforts - "2 Fast 2 Furious" and "Four Brothers." Read full review

  • 40
    The Hollywood Reporter | Todd McCarthy

    Singleton's action thriller has a decent sense of propulsion but, after a faintly intriguing start, the convoluted plot mechanics overwhelm everything else, making you feel you're watching a detailed blueprint for a movie, and an increasingly far-fetched one in the bargain. Read full review

  • 38
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Filled with laughable dialogue, Abduction goes nowhere. Read full review

  • 25
    The Globe and Mail (Toronto) | Liam Lacey

    Taylor Lautner puts the abs in Abduction, but not much else. Read full review

  • 20
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

    A sloppy, exploitative act of star worship created (if that's the right word for cynical hackwork) around Mr. Lautner, the pouty 19-year-old heartthrob of the "Twilight" franchise. Read full review

View more reviews for Abduction on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 14+ Underwhelming action thriller has deaths, violence.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this action thriller stars Twilight hunk Taylor Lautner and rising star Lily Collins, so it's sure to attract teens. But there's a fair bit of violence, language, and intrigue that might make it too mature for tween members of Team Jacob. The more intense sequences include several character deaths, execution-style shootings, sniper kills, and a couple of brutal beatings, one of which results in a man being chucked out of a speeding train. Even the teen girl is terrorized and beaten. (All of that said, there's not a lot of blood here.) Swearing includes "s--t," "ass," and one "f--k"); sexuality is mostly flirting, hand holding, and slow dancing -- plus one heated make-out session between teens. An early scene shows teens drinking, including the main character, who gets very drunk.
  • Families can talk about the amount of violence in the film. Is it cartoonish and unbelievable or realistic and disturbing? How does that affect its impact?
  • What are some other movies that feature the "hidden identity" theme? Why do audiences respond to orphaned characters? Name some other famous pop-culture orphans.
  • How does the movie portray teen drinking? Does it have realistic consequences?
The good stuff
  • message true1 Positive messages: The only positive message in the movie is when Nathan's birth father says "I may be your father, but I'm not your dad," indicating that the couple who raised him are Nathan's true mother and father.
  • rolemodels true1 Positive role models: Nathan and Karen stick together, even when it would be easier for him to go off on his own, and they're courageously willing to put themselves in harm's way for each other. Nathan comes to understand why his parents demanded that he know how to defend himself and why they kept his true identity a secret.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Suspense and action-movie violence featuring hand-to-hand brawls and weapons (mostly guns, but there's also a bomb). Nathan and his father have an extended "sparring" scene that bruises them both up and makes a hungover Nathan vomit. Although many characters are killed -- people are shot both execution style and from a sniper's distance, beaten mercilessly, thrown off a train, and blown up in an explosion -- there's very little blood. One of the most upsetting scenes is when a young girl is forced into a room and punched and terrorized by a hit man.
  • sex false2 Sex: Parents are especially affectionate and do a touchy-feely slow dance that their son sees. A guy keeps staring intently at a girl and vice-versa. At a pool party, some girls are shown in bikinis. Nathan is shirtless in a few scenes. After an intense couple of days of hand holding and near-death experiences, Nathan and Karen share a passionate kiss that ends up with her straddling him and his hands creeping up the back of her shirt.
  • language false3 Language: One "f--k," plus regular use of words including "bulls--t," "s--t," "ass," "d--k," "hell," "freak," "Jesus" (as an exclamation) and "damn."
  • consumerism false2 Consumerism: An Apple laptop makes a few close-up appearances, as do an Amtrak train, an Audi, a Mustang, a BMW, and a Lexus. Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates must have cooperated with the film, because a game is part of a climactic sequence; PNC Park, Pirates paraphernalia, and the stadium's famous Roberto Clemente statue are all on full display, and Nathan wears a Clemente jersey.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false2 Drinking, drugs and smoking: In the opening sequence, a bunch of high-schoolers drink at a weekend party. Nathan gets drunk and wakes up shirtless on the hostess' lawn. He later vomits after being forced to spar with his father.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Interview SD Comic Con Video Interview: Taylor Lautner Taylor Lautner joins us to chat in a baseball stadium about studying film with Jon Singleton, working with an all-star cast, his martial arts background and how Abduction changed him as an actor.