Blu-ray Review: ‘Detention’ is Relentless Assault on Intelligence

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CHICAGO – “Detention” has style to spare. There’s no denying it. Director Joseph Kahn takes no prisoners in the style department. In every other department, his aggressively annoying “Detention” fails. Character, dialogue, plot — most things that you have come to take for granted in a film — they’re mere afterthoughts here. “Detention” is a film for and by people who end every sentence with an emoticon, have typed “LOL” more often than they’ve actually laughed, and think Wikipedia is a verb. Some will view it as an eventual cult classic (and, for the sake of critical balance on your favorite website, that’s how Adam Fendelman feels). Others will want to tear their eyes out.

Rating: 1.0/5.0

I’m very forgiving of style over substance as a critic. Almost to a fault. I believe you can reach a point where the style becomes the substance. But Kahn’s ode to ’90s teen and slasher movies isn’t even smart enough to pull that off. It’s the kind of film that thinks someone doing an interpretative dance to The Backstreet Boys is inherently funny. It’s not. I can’t stress this enough — a reference alone does not count as actually writing a joke. If it did, “Epic movie” would be a comedy classic. “Detention” is filled with references but very few actual jokes. It feels like a movie within a movie within a movie, to the point where it’s virtually referencing its own perceived cult classic status before it’s over. Very few of the references are smart enough to allow you to forget that you just don’t give a damn about what’s happening.

It would have helped significantly if Kahn had found a more interesting cast or known what to do with the stars he did have. Josh Hutcherson can be totally effective in the right material — “The Kids Are All Right,” “The Hunger Games” — but he’s just boring here. And neither of the female leads are memorable. The ’90s movies that Kahn references without end were built on the charisma of their stars. None of that can be found here. One of the movies within the movie, “Cinderhella III: Blood Ball,” is called a “craptasterpiece.” What was I saying about the movie referencing itself?

Detention was released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 31, 2012
Photo credit: Sony

Synopsis:
Josh Hutcherson, Dane Cook and Spencer Locke star in Detention, a hipster, teen horror-comedy where the local students of Grizzly Lake must survive their final year of high school. Standing in their way is Cinderhella, a slasher-movie killer who has seemingly come to life and is preying on the school’s student body. As the clock ticks and the bodies pile up, the likely suspects are embroiled in a race against time to stop Cinderhella and ultimately save the world… if only they can get out of Detention.

Click here to buy “Detention”

Special Features:
o Cheat Mode: The Unbelievably Mind Melting Making Of Detention
o Screen Tests
o Fight Sequence Rehearsal
o Riffing With Dane

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com