Detention
Samuel Goldwyn Films | Release Date: April 13, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
7
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Slant MagazineJustine EliasApr 8, 2012
High school students (the jocks, the brains, the princesses, the criminals, the basket cases), long the favored prey of serial killers, somehow manage to fight back from the brink yet again in Detention, a bright, witty new genre mash-up. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriApr 14, 2012
You admire the movie for refusing to ever, ever slow down, but you also wonder what might have happened had Kahn dared to settle, even just a bit. Instead, what we get is a mad kaleidoscope of genre, with occasional glimpses into the mysteries of the exploding teenage heart. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeApr 10, 2012
Moves at an absurd pace and dares anyone above 25 to keep up, yet the stream of genre-hopping jokes and sight gags makes the movie an entertaining ride. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisApr 12, 2012
The movie itself is never truly clear. If it's also never intentionally bad, its unintentional badness keeps blasting into shockingly clever places. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanApr 12, 2012
It's as if the TV character Dawson directed "Heathers," or another one, Parker Lewis, remade "Scream." Who'd have guessed that would be a can't-lose idea? Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinApr 11, 2012
Detention is ballsy, audacious, and uncompromising, but the overall effect of Kahn's Hellzapoppin-meets-Twitter aesthetic is exhausting rather than energizing. It's an ice-cream headache of a movie-movie that's so relentlessly "fun," it's borderline obnoxious. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubApr 13, 2012
The high school comedy/drama morphs into a slasher movie, then morphs into a time-traveling/body-switching/world's-about-to-end science fiction story. Everyone on the set must have been chugging Mountain Dew between takes. I suspect that the editor was hooked up to an IV of the beverage. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldApr 12, 2012
Horror fans will probably grow impatient with the unevenly executed "Scream"-style self-awareness, and Mr. Kahn ultimately loses control of his referential plate-spinning, in what might be another illustration that catering to short attention spans leads only to mutually assured distraction. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleApr 12, 2012
Detention has a frenetic visual style that's fun and appealing in a lot of ways, but there are way too many elements fighting for attention. Read full review
50
VarietyAndrew BarkerApr 1, 2012
What starts as a bracing rush quickly devolves into a deadening assault of stimuli. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleApr 13, 2012
Exhausting before its first few minutes of whip-pans, smash cuts, coarsely self-referential jokes and on-screen text visuals is over, the teen horror-spoof Detention is a patience-trying exercise first, energetic genre-jumble comedy second. Read full review
38
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeApr 13, 2012
Detention does have imaginative editing and a stylish, candy-colored look - that is, so long as no one's vomiting, an activity that takes up an ungodly portion of the running time. Read full review
20
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 10, 2012
From the auteur of "Torque" (2004) comes this instant headache: a panicky snark-schlock horror-comedy that reduces everything to a hyperactive squall of white noise. Read full review
10
Village VoiceNick PinkertonApr 10, 2012
It's one of the most obnoxious movies ever made. Read full review
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