Abducted

There's a whole lot of nonsense in the reviews for this film so far.

So let me add mine! Oh boy! The film is definitely low budget, but that in and of itself is not a problem. The makers use their budget fairly well and do a lot of good things with it. The movie was easy to watch, the scenes were well shot with the camera. The music selected is also very appropriate from scene to scene.

As far as the acting goes.. well some people would criticize it, but the reality is that not much acting was required of the cast. The roles were very static; you are either a good guy or bad guy, scared little girl or rational cop. In that light, the cast performed very well.

The hero was really not the best actor, unfortunately. He appears to be bi-polar, as he leaps into dramatic emotional moments in the space of a few heartbeats. And some of his reactions to the tragedy that befalls his family are.. not believable at all. His real strength was punching his way through mobs of bad guys, which wasn't very well thought out. The fight scenes were rather blah.

Or meh. If you prefer.

The subject matter of the film (kidnapping, the child sex trade, forced prostitution and murder) is very deep material and deals with a world that most of us know nothing about. The actors attacked their roles with gusto, making for some believable bad guys. But the film fails to really pull you in. There are simply too many factors that destroy the illusion. Things that seem to defy common sense.. You find yourself saying, "If I was the bad guy, I wouldn't do that." In fact, most of the setup behind the baddies' operation seemed very out of place. Almost third world. Everything from their methodology to their holding places to their business methods.. It all seemed like it was sloppy and easy to break apart.. Like something the police could have handled easily years ago had they just been trying a little bit. Believability is the heart of movie making, and if the illusion is weak, all of the film's strong points become lost.

Errors jump out at you. Things that a good editor should have caught. For instance, vicinity errors (when things aren't in the right place from scene to scene). Blood where there shouldn't be blood, or the hero's face having bruises and scratches when he received NO hits to the face in the scene previous. Things of that nature are generally easy to catch if you are watching carefully. The fact that these were left in film rather than being fixed is testament to the low budget constrictions, as there was probably not enough money to re-film scenes that needed fixing. But they do ruin the atmosphere a little.

All in all, I wanted to like this film, but it's just very.. average.

I applaud the makers though, I hope that they try again. I feel like they really have it in them to be great.

Don't listen to rubbish views on this film. Suspend the low budget and imagine if the Taken budget had been available to these guys. The drama of the story is brilliant. I loved the English guy in America concept. The comeuppance of the low-life traffickers was welcome. The ending for the "good guys" is refreshingly realistic. It is raw and lacks the Hollywood gloss but so what?

Some may feel the family element is a little old fashioned but no more than the genre popularised by Sylvester Stallone or Bruce Willis. Somebody will make a brilliant movie out of this story one day... If they dare!!

The acting was wooden, the plot was poor. 1h26 of my life I won't get back. I guess they were trying to make something like Taken but unfortunately failed way short of both Taken films. The difference being that Liam Neeson has screen presence and can work his character with much more ability. The whole premise of the film was to play on Mark Harris' boxing career and his name as a local hero and warrior, but the fight scenes were terrible. Mark Harris' acting was probably the worst in the whole film, but that was a tightly run contest. It's very rare of ex-sportsmen to make a successful job of acting, and I think only Vinnie Jones has got anywhere close. Do yourself a favour, watch something else instead.

Overall an enjoyable revenge flick - if you're killing time before doing something else. If you've set this one up as the feature of a movie night, you will go to bed disappointed. I found the performances of most to be fairly believable with the exception of Mark Harris himself. I'm sorry to any fans who may read this but the over the top emotional monologues, I found quickly entered comical territory. So, if you haven't seen the film - then you can probably guess the plot line - and as a bit of fluff entertainment it fits the bill nicely.

There are loose plot lines, some moments of utterly absurd dialogue, and some satisfying revenge violence - but I won't watch this one twice.

Worth a look, just don't alter your schedule.

Aside from the lead actor not being anywhere near up to the standard of being in a film let alone the lead, there are too many holes in this story that needed to be answered. It was an important topic matter but it was a dealt with in an amateurish way that really only offered some violent scenes of retribution that felt good for a moment. A wasted opportunity.