Directed by: Joseph Kahn
Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Shanley Caswell, Spencer Locke, Dane Cook, Parker Bagley
MPAA Rating: R
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Release Date: July 31, 2012
Running Time: 93 minutes
Film: 2 out of 5 stars
Extras: 2.5 out of 5 stars
If I have to say nothing else about “Detention”, it is definitely original. This comedy-horror takes aims the specifically at the current generation and misses all other targets by a long shot. Director Joseph Kahn is known for the completely forgettable “Torque” and even spoofs his own film in this. While watching though, I just wasn’t 100% sold, I couldn’t get over the feeling that if I was in high school that I might have liked this much more. I am big fan of the horror genre, but maybe I didn’t fit the demo. I just wish that you can choose to watch a Dane Cook free version of it.
“Detention” is comedy-horror hybrid, which follows group of high school seniors must prevent themselves from becoming the victims of a slasher movie villain terrorizing their small town of Grizzly Lake. Of course they have to do all this while in Detention. Get the title placement there?! This is not your typical high school comedy-horror though visiting aspects of body switching, time travel, and even a human-insect hybrid. This is the aspect that sold me since obviously it wasn’t the appearance of Dane Cook.
The Blu-Ray presentation looks and sounds great and comes with some decent bonus materials, including a feature-length featurette. The 1080p transfer looks good for a low budget film and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track works well with the film’s music soundtrack. The special features included are “Cheat Mode: The Unbelievably Mind Melting Making of Detention”, it is pretty detailed on the production. There are a featurette focusing on the key fight scene in “Fight Rehearsal”. “Riffing with Dane” is a montage of Dane Cook, aka press skip. Lastly there are three screen testes for Shanley Caswell, Aaron David Johnson and Yves Bright.
