Lead actor too green to carry ‘Abduction’

It takes all of five minutes for Taylor Lautner to lose his shirt in “Abduction” – and about 10 more before the film becomes so awful that the uncontrollable laughter bursts forth.

Lautner, who shot to superstardom virtually overnight playing the werewolf Jacob in the “Twilight” series, was paid a whopping $7.5 million to star in this generic action picture, although it would be unfair to single him out.

Everyone involved in this ridiculous film, from co-stars Alfred Molina and Sigourney Weaver to director John Singleton (who was once the youngest filmmaker ever nominated for a Best Director Oscar, for “Boyz n the Hood,” but has since sadly become a hack-for-hire), is in it strictly for the money.

The movie centers on Nathan (Lautner), an ordinary teenager who discovers a photo of him taken as a child on a website for missing persons. With the help of his classmate Karen (Lily Collins), Nathan discovers everything about his life is a lie.

His parents (Jason Isaacs and Maria Bello) aren’t really his parents. He tells his shrink (Weaver) he feels like a stranger in his own life. The fact that there are only two photos of him as a kid in the family album is also a clear indication something weird is afoot.

Soon, some very bad men come calling, and Nathan and Karen are forced to go on the run.

The central premise of “Abduction” isn’t intrinsically bad, but every aspect of the execution borders on the atrocious.

Nathan tells his shrink he suffers from severe insomnia, then in the very next line tells her about a dream he had the previous night. The dialogue constantly induces so many winces, I feared my face would be permanently frozen into a grimace.

Although he’s unable to get much out of his actors, Singleton still knows how to pull off an effective action sequence: There is a good fight scene set inside the tight quarters of a train compartment that is well orchestrated and capped off by a surprisingly vicious payoff.

But “Abduction” rests on the buff shoulders of Lautner, who is simply too green and inexperienced to carry a movie on his own. You feel for him even as you’re laughing at him.