rivertam26 (17 May 2013)

Very cool

Yes this is a convoluted, over the top, cinematically offensive mess ofa film but it's also one of the coolest films I've seen in quite sometime. Embracing every tired cliché and exploiting the hell out of themDetention is a hard movie to even sum up. If in fact you can even callit one. I'm sure as many people will hate it as love it. The bizarresocial subtext and plastic infusion of stereotypes flipped on theirsides while on acid lends itself to an always surprising and creativevibe that works more than not. Sure the film feels a little long init's three ring circus finale trying to make insane sense of the eventsthat proceeded it but the film works best when just making clever stabsat modern teen thinking and astute observations on the trendiness oftrends. Joseph Kahn redeems himself of the cinematic stink from hisprevious eye popping but soulless feature Torque even adding in a fewjokes at his expense.A music video director magnet of Britney Spearsfame he unleashes Detention with a visual pizazz and over the topcinematic foray into smart thinking for 90s bad cinema buffs. Being achild of that era I couldn't help but appreciate all the references andthe way it all added up, seeing the blatant irony in the films entiretyit's hard for me not too overly praise the films bombastic effect but asecond more in tuned watch I feel would expose the films faults andmaybe a sense of brilliance I may have created. but at this pointDetention is just really cool!

AmbiguousFangirl (16 May 2013)

Just...Wow.

Sure, we not talking elegant artistry here – and if you expect it froma teen flick, you're better off steering clear. I was completelysurprised by how fantastic this movie was... and it was fantastic. Thecasting was spot on and the screenplay brilliant. The cinematographywas awesome for a movie of this "type" if you can even put this into agenre...which you can't. Everything from the little details, thecredits, the music, the clothing – it was precisely what this movieneeded. I watched the movie, the special feature which was the moviewith trivia and talking to cast, crew, etc. about the project, and Iwill most likely watch the movie again. It's genius. I wound up buyingit. Some people say "Older people just don't get it" or "You have to be12 to like this movie." Neither are true. I'm 28, and the 90sreferences that essentially define the movie and make up 60% of thescript are hilarious. It makes no sense and complete sense at the sametime. There is literally no way to describe it; but you want to watchit again. And that is why Detention rules.

Fred Topel (05 May 2013)

If you're a film lover who watches movies all the time, it's nice to have a film or two out there that elevates the craft of watching a movie. I know I need to go to the next level sometimes.

Scott Weinberg (05 May 2013)

A migraine-inducing endurance test.

Laura Clifford (22 April 2013)

Joseph Kahn directs his movie like a ADD kid with a hammer and a xylophone. "Detention" just wears you out.

Beer de Haas (22 April 2013)

Hilarious

First off: If you doubt to watch this movie, Definitely watch it.Detention is one of the first movies that actually made me laugh. Atfirst sight I thought that Detention was some kind of 'Scary Movie'like movie, but it wasn't. It contains 'real' humor.at the beginning of the movie I found it fun immediately. with the bigmoving on-screen titles, But the film is fast, and sometimes even toofast, but that is one of the nice things about this film. I also reallyliked the music, even the worst music, a cover of MMBop, fitted well inthis film.I watched detention 2 times already and I'm planning to watch it againwith my friends. I hope you find my review use full, it's my first.Cheers.

Adam Fendelman (22 April 2013)

Kahn's fast-paced, Aaron Sorkin-like "Detention" deserves cult-hit status. Just as "The Social Network" embodies our Facebook culture, this SXSW film-festival favorite rewrites today's high school movie bible.

Michael 'Hallows Eve' Smillie (21 April 2013)

A fast paced Genre jumping Comedy/Horror!

This is a fast paced comedy/slasher type film. It uses references fromdifferent genre's and different movies. For me, this is part of theattraction as it jumps from one genre reference to another all whilepaying homage to some classic horror films. The story, although forsome seeming to be all over the place, all makes more sense towards theend of the movie. I can't go in to the how or why because I will begiving away the plot, but it comes together and travels along quitequickly. It's no 'Shaun Of The Dead' (that will hard to beat), but itis different and also takes the p!ss out of the teens of ourgeneration, and who doesn't like that? So I give this film a 7 out of10.

Linden Davis (12 April 2013)

Detention is outrageous, pop-culture heavy, exhaustively self-aware and also lots of fun

This has got to be one of the most absurd films I've seen in a longwhile, and I really liked it because of that. It's so meta and pop-culture laden at times it feels like a sugar-high that's worn on toolong, but the sheer amount of different directions it goes in and theinsanity of it all I found really refreshing.Most self-aware movies I've seen seem to emphasise and reflect on pop-culture conventions as a way of grounding the story - acknowledging theunbelievable as a way of adding believability. Detention is the exactopposite. It goes so out of it's way to not portray real life, itverges on the surreal. I'm sure a lot of people will really dislikethat about it, but I found it really entertaining.There are a lot of issues with it, though. It's directed in such a waythat everything seems unnaturally theatrical, which works in somescenes but I couldn't tell if it was deliberate or not. This overtoneaffects the whole movie, especially the dialogue. Sometimes thecharacters' lines are effective, but they're so rapid-fire andpop-culture heavy they often feel stilted. I also think the styleemulates Scott Pilgrim too heavily. I'm not sure if it was deliberateor not, but stuff like the kinetic typography, cinematography and ADDpacing seem far to similar to be a coincidence. It worked in SP becauseit was a faithful adaptation of the graphic novels; here it often feelsout of place.Still, I definitely enjoyed it. It challenged my expectations, and ranjust the right side of parody for me to suspend my disbelief. I'd sayit's worth watching if you didn't find my description of itoff-putting.

Ethan Alter (11 April 2013)

Once you get past the movie's rough beginnings and adjust to its goofy spirit and episodic randomness, Detention becomes a good deal of fun.

gregeichelberger (10 April 2013)

A waste of time and brain cells

I do not know Joseph Kahn. I have no idea what kind of person he is. Iwould like to assume he's a pretty square fellow and all, but if hisability to direct a feature-length motion picture were solely basedupon what he did with "Detention," I would strongly urge him to pursueanother line of work — as quickly as possible.Nothing more than a bad hybrid of the overused teen slasher movie("Scream," "Friday the 13th," "Final Destination," take your pick)mixed in with "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer," "The BreakfastClub," as well as bits and pieces of "Donnie Darko," "Back To theFuture," "Saw" and other better cinematic endeavors, this is a totalwaste of time and brain cells.And, after seeing press screenings of this movie and "The ThreeStooges" back-to-back, who would have thought the idiotic slapsticktrio would come out on top? In fact, "Detention" made the antics of thenew Moe, Larry and Curly look like "The Shawshank Redemption." We cannot totally blame Kahn for this travesty, however. After all, hedid have some help in the writing with newcomer Mark Palermo. I nowhave a new-found respect for the horrendous dialogue behind such filmsas "Twister," "Independence Day" and "Chronicle." To add the cherry tothe icing of this garbage cake, it also stars Dane Cook.We are first introduced to this effort with a beautiful young highschool coed (porn "actress" Brooke Haven) speaking directly to us andusing a series of obscenities and cartoon-like on screen letters andgraphics to describe her "miserable" existence. Thankfully, however,she is soon slaughtered by "Cinderhella," a character in amovie-within-a-movie-within-a, oh, who cares?! The students at Grizzly High School find out about the murder, buttheir emotions range from immediate acceptance to downrightindifference. A group of them, including Clapton Davis (JoshHutcherson, fresh from "The Hunger Games," he does not improve hisstock with this role), Riley Jones (Shanley Caswell, variousappearances on TV series, including "The Mentalist," "CSI: NY" and"Bones"), Ione (Spencer Locke, "Resident Evi: Afterlife"), Billy Nolan(Parker Bagley, "A Nightmare On Elm Street" remake) and Elliot Fink(Walter Perez), among others, are sent to detention by Principal Verge(Cook) — for some reason.While serving this punishment — and after a few more of the fellowpupils are sliced, diced and axe-murdered — they try to piece togetherclues as to why it's happening and who exactly Cinderhella really is.They come up with such concepts as a bomb that threatens to blow up theworld — 19-years ago; an argument over vegetarianism, a guy who has"fly blood" in his body and a time-traveling stuffed grizzly bear.If you think that is ridiculous, try keeping track of the charactersthat shuttle back and forth between the present day and '92, theinsipid dialogue, the terrible acting (once again, Cook leads thecharge, just like with many of his other roles) and the complete lackof direction.I will say one good thing for this enterprise, the soundtrack is not sobad, ranging from tunes by the the Backstreet Boys to House Of Pain toBob Dylan to Sting. That small solace, though, is nowhere near enoughto give this motion picture any kind of recommendation.To Mr. Kahn: If you want to take a fresh approach to the slasher filmgenre, just take a look at "Cabin In the Woods," a movie that wasoriginally made in 2009, when you were still directing Britney Spearsand Blink 182 videos.

jerrywright15 (10 April 2013)

Could see this as a weekly show

You know to be honest with you this movie wasn't half bad. No, its notgoing to win any Oscars or become a box office hit, but its definitelysomething I wouldn't mind in my DVD collection. This movie is by allaccounts strange and all over the place but you can't help but like it.You smile at the awkwardness and at points it does make you stop andrecall your own fond, or embarrassing, moments in high school andalmost miss them.I like the slasher aspect of it though it does play a back burner tothe film. Which is odd because there is no real plot in my mind itsjust a bunch of random silly funny scenes thrown together that somehowwork. The cast was spot on Shanley Caswell does an excellent job atplaying the social outcast that you can't help but love and laugh at,at the same time. Josh Hutcherson, who is one of the reasons I watchedthe movie, plays a laid back skater just looking to enjoy life while itlasts, a kind of live in the moment guy (who still has messages ofwisdom), and does it to perfection. Spencer Locke was also veryentertaining to watch, playing not only the popular girl of the schoolbut.....well watch the movie and you'll see.I love the fast pace that the film has,I have seen a couple reviewersmention that and I agree, the film never takes a break or slows downand you love every minute of it. The movie is rated R but to be honestaside from a TON of cussing you won't see anything that wouldn't be ina pg-13. I mean yes there's blood but it screams fake. You won'tbelieve it for a second though still entertaining. Other then that Ithink there is maybe one disturbing scene and it takes place in a movietheater on a movie being watched. As for nudity you get a five secondboob shot. Other then that you'll see implied scenarios with peoplemaking the motions and such but their covered from the bottom down andthe women have tops. To me, its a lot of what they say and imply thattake this movie beyond a pg-13.I was also surprised to see DummbfoundDead, who I watch on YouTube on apretty regular basis. Its always cool to see YouTube sensations onscreen.As far as letdowns go I'd say at times it does become a bit complicatedwith the plot and you end up going "huh?". If you stick through itthough, and maybe rewind here and there you'll get the gist of it but Iswear if you leave for a moment and come back you'll be lost; andprobably miss some hilarious scenes. The motive behind the killingsalso seemed rather dumb, there is not a lot of killing by any means,they added in this weird side story about a boy with fly genes orsomething that did nothing for the movie and I'm not exactly sure Iunderstood the resolution as to how some people lived and others didn'tbut that's just something I'll have to go back and figure out.All in all this movie is funny, silly, embarrassing and yetunforgettable. Underneath its comedy were some interesting morals andbeliefs, that I enjoyed seeing. I could honestly see this being aSaturday morning show. (not on a kids channel of course) It couldfollow the friends as they go through weird high school adventures suchas this one all the while trying to figure out their place in the world(like a comedic Degrassi). Course of it was a show I would want to seethe entire original cast back as I really loved their characters andhow they were portrayed. This movie is for anyone who is just ready toenjoy a film with a smile on their face from beginning to end. Its forthose who look back on high school with dread and happiness. Watch itby yourself or watch it with friends either way your sure to enjoy theride. 7/10.

Andrew Barker (05 April 2013)

What starts as a bracing rush quickly devolves into a deadening assault of stimuli.

yourwarmembrace (04 April 2013)

All involved in this film deserve detention, suspension & expulsion!

Unless you are 12, you can skip this one. This is not at all thethinking man's film. it tries to be both Napoleon Dynamite & Scream butit ended up being something that made myself and at least two otherpeople walk out. This one is so obnoxious that it's ripe for a SouthPark parody. What bubble do these writers live in? What school is thisbased on?? I'm far from my teens but if my High School years wereanything remotely like this, I would have looked into home schooling.No soul, no charm, the comedy feels forced and the characters are alldweebs. I fell asleep and then awoke to sit it out for another 5minutes. I couldn't have been out for long because the guy next to meup and left shortly after I came to... I wasn't too far behind him. Acomplete farce for anyone over the age of 15.

Connie Ogle (25 March 2013)

Somebody somewhere forgot that a film needs a streamlined story to make visual chaos palatable.

lathe-of-heaven (24 March 2013)

Gee, I Wonder Why the Reviews Here are so Polarized...? Duh...!

Come on... By just a brief glance at the reviews here it is glaringlyobvious that half the people love it and half the people hate it.Soooo, obviously this is gonna be one of those films that if it indeedis your kind of thing (as a few of the reviewers here clearly state intheir summaries) and if this kind of writing and humour is up youralley, so to speak, then yes, you WILL love it as I did.This film is probably one of THE sharpest and cleverest 'Teen Comedies'ever written; yes, a lot of the humour is crass and obvious also, butthe sharp stuff is frigg'n great! And just the TOTAL and I mean TOTALoff the cliff, absolutely NON-sequitur scenes are so damn funny, suchas the time traveling bear and alien angles. Hilarious! And, within thedialog are some really clever self-referential comments so amazinglybent back upon themselves multiple times, that you REALLY have to payattention (assuming you are at all interested in the first place) inorder to catch most of them. AND, if that is not enough, you have somepretty good atmosphere here and there tossed in at odd places that alsoworks pretty dang well.Just think of 'SCREAM' as a very, VERY primitive, rudimentary startingpoint; then, mix in huge quantities of crack, x-tacy, and liberalamounts of David Lynch Lite, and that's pretty much what you have. Iwould say that probably the main criteria as to whether you will likethis movie or not will depend on how much you enjoy razor sharp,lightening fast dialog and concepts, BUT, also mixed in with a fairamount of crude teen humour too. If, say, 'ANIMAL HOUSE' is your ideaof clever, than you probably should just keep on moving because there'snothing to see here... But, if you like your humour sharp and way, Way,WAY the hell off the wall and coming from minds that are CLEARLYpharmacologically enhanced, and I DO mean enhanced, then this is indeedyour kind of stuff...

Aidiera (15 March 2013)

Hodgepodge of pop culture nonsense.

My sister and I love to talk about how our even favorite actors havebeen in some terrible movies, and this is a perfect example. This movieis 95% misleading. It's about detention, sure, but only for ten minutesof the movie. The rest of it is ludicrous time traveling, ridiculouspop culture references, and wholly unattractive boob flashes. It'slisted as a horror, but nothing was even remotely scary. (And just forthe record, Clapton Davis is a pretty kickass name.) If this seriously toned down the pop cultures 'jokes' and removed thehorror aspect, it might have been a funny time-travel themed teencomedy. Instead, it's a low-brow, unclever attempt at... I don't reallyknow. Nothing is clear about what this movie is trying to be, except ahuge failure.

Joshua Rothkopf (14 March 2013)

The whole thing comes off like 200 commercials smashed together, selling you your own obsolescence.

MovieReviews101 (08 March 2013)

Worth A Watch

The beginning was bad. I felt like turning it off but it became moreinteresting afterwards. It's actually quite a fun movie to watchhowever it is the sort of movie which you can only watch once becauseit is not fun the second time. It doesn't really have a plot apart frompeople getting randomly killed and people serving detentions for thekilling. You should watch it on a rainy day or just when your arebored. I don't think it's as bad as the critics says it is. JoshHutcherson from The Hunger games is in this movie as Clapton Davis Ithought he did okay but not as good as in The Hunger Games. It's justanother comedy slasher movie which you enjoy but you know it's notoriginal. It's worth a watch however don't expect to much because youwill be disappointed.

scruffy_dog101 (08 March 2013)

Never before has a movie tried so hard only to fail so miserably

I went into Detention having no idea what the movie was about. Mygirlfriend had wanted to see it and told me that it was an 80's styleteen slasher, with comedy elements. Nothing about that sounded bad.Within minutes it was obvious the makers of this movie were tryingREALLY hard to achieve... something. I'm not sure exactly what thatsomething is, so without knowing that it's difficult to tell if theyachieved it or not, but I'm fairly certain they failed. I haveseriously never thought to myself 'wow, these guys are really tryinghere' in a movie before this one, ever. That's probably not a goodthing either.This movie is like the result of putting Donnie Darko, Scott Pilgrim VsThe World, and Scream into a blender. Now, you might think that soundsgood, because (especially if your tastes are anything like mine) youmay think that all those movies are great, and therefore a mixturewould be good too. However, I also like cheesecake, steak and SpaghettiBolagnaise. I'm fairly certain if I put all of those into a blender, Iwouldn't enjoy the result. The result would be a disgusting mess; muchlike this movie.I can't really fault the acting in this movie, and the 90's 'retro'elements (Hanson, oh yeah!) were fun. Also, some of the ideas seemed tobe on the right track, and like I said, they obviously really weretrying to make this into something special and VERY occasionally theypulled something off. So I can't give it no stars. That isunfortunately the only praise I can give this movie.The story lines (not 'storyline', because to say this has a singularcoherent story would be a lie) are just insane messes, and while you'llkeep waiting for things to 'get good', the only reward you'll get forcontinuing to watch this movie is that it'll get more and moreconfusing. I can't really give too much away without spoilers - so I'lljust say this 'what the hell???'So in closing, I would recommend this movie if... every other movie iserased from the face of the Earth. It was painful.