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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

[6.25/10] Detention (2012)


Detention (2012)

Brief review: "Detention" is a slasher / time travel / sci-fi / teen comedy mash-up that has too much going on, but still manages to keep you thoroughly entertained throughout, even if the movie itself often can't cope with its own ambitious creativity. From the sarcastically hilarious opening scene and super-cool opening credit, you could tell that Joseph Kahn's "Detention" intends to be one "smart ass" of a horror movie. And it kind of is. Aside from its talky script it successfully makes fun of most stereotypical teen characters and some overused horror cliches in an ironically cruel, yet funny way, and that alone makes it quite enjoyable to watch. "Detention" has tons of cool gore and blood splattering, but it lacks scares big time, as it relies purely on its visual impact, instead of trying to build any sort of tension. Technically, "Detention" is a hit and miss. Even though there are some truly interesting directing choices and some flashy editing, Joseph Kahn's direction ends up being all over the place. The lack of focus may confuse some viewers, but at the end of the day it becomes pretty clear that this directional chaos is completely intentional, and Joseph Kahn deserves credit for his risky, yet innovative approach. "Detention" also boasts a colorful cast of young actors, but sadly none them can act decently, maybe with the exception of TV series star Shanley Caswell and the wildly underused Josh Hutcherson.

Overall summary: More funny than scary, Joseph Kahn's "Detention" is a creative, yet rather messy and unfocused horror comedy, devoid of any proper scares, that shouldn't really work at all because of its head spinning over-the-topness, but in the end, it somewhat does.

This review is also featured on TVFilmNews.com

8 comments:

Unknown said...

This sounds like an interesting little film that I will have to check out. Not a Hutcherson fan per se, thought he was dreadful in the Hunger Games, but he was decent in Journey 2. Thanks for sharing this film as I'd never heard of it before. :)

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Mel, you're either gonna love it or hate it. It's that type of film. If you're open-minded (which you always are) you'll definitely enjoy it for what it is. I agree about Hutcherson - he's a so-so actor, but here he was the most popular name of them all, so they should have used it better.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

A little humor can go a long way - I'll look for it.

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Alex, not sure if you're gonna like this, but at least you can give it a try. :)

FilmMattic said...

I'm with Melissa and Alex. This looks like a worthy experience. I can ignore the messiness if there is proper humor. Solid review, buddy!

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Matty, I think you might enjoy this one quite a lot. It's funny, that's for sure, but the lack of focus underwhelms.

Thanks! :)

Kaijinu said...

Finally! it's out! YES! DANE COOK!!!!

now, that I got out of m system. Woohoo!

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Kaijinu, give it a shot as soon as you can. I reckon you're gonna love it! It's exactly your type of film. ;)