What's on Redbox?--Detention

          Most people don’t know the director Joseph Kahn, but most have seen his work in the world of music videos.  He’s worked with Blink 182, Brittney Spears, The Backstreet Boys, Eminem, and U2.  His only feature film was in 2004’s “Torque”, a failure at the box office, and in my opinion a little misunderstood as a film.  What was slotted in with the Fast and Furious and Biker Boyz flicks, is more in the realm of “Kick-Ass” and “Scream” where it pokes fun at a genre while trying to be a part of it.  “Torque” is not a great movie, but a fun B-movie.  And hey, where else can you experience “bike-fu”?

Kahn’s latest film which according to a studio that once again did not understand how to sell this kind of picture, only had a small theatrical run, has just been released on DVD/BluRay.  It’s called “Detention” and stars a huge group of young relatively unknown’s Dane Cook as the principal, along with Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) as the lead and also one of the producers.  Must be a “Torque” fan.  The film starts off as a mash up of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Scream”.  On acid. Played at fast forward.  Then it veers off into “Donnie Darko” territory.  Still at fast speed.  It’s littered with teen and horror movie cliché’s and 90’s pop culture references throughout.  The plot listed on IMBD is “a killer named Cinderhella stalks the student body at the high school in Grizzly Lake, a group of co-eds band together to survive while they’re all serving detention.” That is only two of the plots of this movie that has over a dozen storylines going on, many are told in flashbacks like superhero or in some cases villain origins.  Hutcherson is great in the role as Clapton Davis, who is the coolest kid in school, so much so, that everybody says his whole name when referring to him, including him.  I don’t want to give too much more away as it has to be experienced.  I’ll just say that if you can hold on it’s worth the ride.

Much like “Torque” before it Kahn, brings a rapid fire of insane images, and even faster goofy dialogue to the screen.  It doesn’t always work here, and when it slows down for the last act, I found it pretty entertaining.  Silly for sure, but fun enough for a film that all but skipped the theater to go straight to video.  If you can get over the first half which is so senselessly fast and try to follow the intentionally ridiculous plot, you may enjoy “Detention”.

--Robert L. Castillo