DVD Reviews: Abduction | Red Scorpton

By ALISTAIR HARKNESS
Published on Monday 13 February 2012 00:00

The Scotsman’s film critic Alistair Harkness gives us his take on the latest DVDs

Abduction

Lionsgate, £19.99

TWILIGHT’S abdomen-flaunting teen wolf Taylor Lautner makes a laughable attempt to become an abdomen-flaunting action star in the abominably directed spy drama Abduction. Pitched as a tween Bourne, but with all the charisma of a Ken doll Steven Seagal, Lautner plays Nathan, a high-school student suffering from insomnia, rage and a recurring nightmare (even though he’s an insomniac) in which he sees a woman gunned down by a masked man. That his shrink (a slumming-it Sigourney Weaver) doesn’t think it necessary to get to the bottom of this should tip you off that the people in Nathan’s life might not be who they say they are. One hilariously contrived plot turn later, and Nathan is on the run from the some Euro-villains and untrustworthy CIA agents. Leaving in his wake exploded houses, forgotten subplots and the dignity of fine character actors (Weaver, Jason Isaacs, Maria Below, Alfred Molina), Nathan’s main objective seems to be winning the heart of girl-next-door Karen, played by Lily “daughter of Phil” Collins. With an almost crippling crush on her, he has a tendency to engage in Zoolander-esque moments of introspection that are all the funnier because a clearly clueless Lautner performs them with such unswerving sincerity.

Red Scorpion

Arrow, £24.99, Blu-Ray only

There’s more amusingly awful abdominal acting in Red Scorpion, a largely forgotten one-man-army actioner from 1988 starring Dolph Lundgren as a mostly shirtless Russian special forces operative who turns against his country when he realises the anti-communist rebel leader he’s been sent to Africa to assassinate is actually a freedom fighter. Best known for playing the Russian boxer who killed Apollo Creed in Rocky IV, Lundgren was being primed as the next big action hero at the time, with Red Scorpion intended as his calling card. Alas, the film’s release was largely buried when it emerged the production may have broken the anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa. Addressing this in the extras, Lundgren suggests there may have been something to this charge, referring specifically to the fact that the film’s co-writer and producer was Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who went on to be convicted of fraud in 2006. All of which, sadly, is infinitely more interesting than anything in the film, although as straight-to-video B-movie action stars go, Lundgren wasn’t half bad in his day.

• To order these DVDs, call The Scotsman on 01634 832789

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