Review of Detention (2012) by Phillip M — 10 Aug 2012

Simply put, Detention wastes all its potential on being too self-aware and spewing out pop culture references from the 90s. It's like an animated Dreamworks movie, the pop culture jokes are funny, but when they become overused the novelty of it all goes away.

Overall, the movie dies quickly. The movie is in your face from the very start, and begins in an hilarious and gory manner. Although the energy exerted in the first 5 minutes of the movie is still seen in bits and pieces throughout the film, it's the first 5 minutes that is the most memorable. Almost everything else that comes after is easy to toss away.

Detention has a lot going for it. It has hastened dialogue that is sprinkled with witticism you'd likely hear in a Diablo Cody film, the certain quirkiness and self-references that doesn't turn the audience away. However, much like the overuse of pop culture jokes, Detention is heavy on trying to be quirky and is too self-referential. You'd think the screenwriters have never heard of the word 'moderation'.

Also, the visual techniques employed in Detention are quite dynamic. But there's a sense that the cinematographer tried to incorporate every single shot known to film making into this brief time frame. The editing is also succinct... all the time. It's obvious those involved didn't think the audience had a long enough attention span. There are title cards that precede every part of a new story that are unnecessary, not only interrupting the pacing of the film, but shows that the film is a little too self-conscious. I think you see where I'm going with this.

The movie tries too hard.

Forget the fact that the director Joseph Kahn doesn't know how to create suspense, the screenplay is so poorly written, the movie is riddled with underdeveloped characters who we do not care for, the horror aspect of the film is missing from 80% of the film, and that none of the movie makes sense or goes anywhere. Those things don't matter (they do, but right now they don't), what matters is that Detention thinks it's something brilliant. And it's this sense of brilliance that is so off-putting; in a word Detention is pretentious.

I know that movie goers who haven't seen the movies that Detention references will think this is the best thing ever, and those can believe whatever they want to, but there isn't a single try-hard film like Detention out there.

The movie isn't without it's graces though. Detention is at least moderately funny: Gord, the Canadian is stock character, but hilarious nonetheless; the movie is packed with tons of dynamism and some competence in editing; and Shanley Caswell who plays Riley Jones is not half bad. The pacing of the movie is a little off, but it breezes by pretty quickly that you won't even remember what you watched. 4/10.