DVD Abducted
Rating: 3.9
Genres: Action | Thriller
Director: Mark Harris
Writers: Davie Fairbanks, Mark Harris
Stars: Mark Harris, Anna Nightingale, Honor Kneafsey
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Storyline In an attempt to rebuild his marriage after the death of his son, Matt Hollis decides to take his wife and six year old daughter Lara on a trip of a lifetime to LA, to escape the constant reminders of their loss. Shortly after their arrival Matt’s world is turned upside down when his wife is attacked in their holiday home, leaving her in a coma and their daughter LARA kidnapped by a child trafficking ring. Hunted by the police who mistakenly believe Matt has absconded with his daughter, he must evade capture and pursue the criminals responsible for Lara’s abduction. Realizing he only has a 72-hour window of opportunity if he ever wants to see his daughter alive again, he enlists the help of Syan an old forces buddy, Matt tears a path of bloody vengeance through the streets of LA on a collision course with Lara’s captors. Written by Anonymous |
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Plot Keywords: child abduction | |
Details: Country: UK Release Date: 17 March 2014 (UK) |
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Box Office Budget: $3,000,000 (estimated) |
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4 comments
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.
To the guy knocking others using fake ID's. I see 2 other 10 star reviews who are obviously associated with the film in some way.
I honestly don't see how this movie won any awards. I wasn't expecting a "Taken" quality movie, although was hoping it would be, but it was definitely worse than I expected. I watched about 20 minutes or so and then started skipping through the movie hoping it would get better and then just gave up and skipped to the end since I hated to at least not finish it. If you like British movies or like Mark Harris then you "might" like this, but I wouldn't recommend it to my friends. I enjoy these types of movies, so I'm hoping the next one will turn out better.
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.
Sadly I have to agree with the last reviewer. And I also agree that British low budget films should be supported but surely they could be (and are) better than this. The acting of the lead character was glaringly bad but the rest of the cast were alright. The first part of the film was quite good really but once the location moved to LA it went downhill, didn't add up and was unnecessarily violent with the camera dwelling overly long in in some scenes, particularly in the final scene. This film should put people off doing a house swaps and has painted a very ugly and depressing picture of Los Angeles. I don't think there is any comparison with "Taken".