Detention (2003)

Director:

Sidney J. Furie

Writers:

Paul Lynch (story)
John Sheppard (writer)

Release Date:

5 September 2003 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

At this school today's lesson is survival.

Plot:

A heroic high school teacher leads a band of students trapped in school by violent drug-runners.

Plot Keywords:

School | Teacher | Drugs | Surveillance | Interracial Relationship

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Dolph Lundgren	...	Sam Decker
Alex Karzis	...	Chester Lamb
Kata Dobó	...	Gloria Waylon
Corey Sevier	...	Mick Ashton
Dov Tiefenbach	...	Willy Lopez
K.C. Collins	...	Hogie Hogarth (as Chris Collins)
Mpho Koaho	...	Jay Tee Barrow
Larry Day	...	Earl Hendorf
Jennifer Baxter	...	Margo Conroy
Danielle Hampton	...	Alicia Roberts
Nicole Dicker	...	Charlee Turkle
Joseph Scoren	...	Viktor
Mif	...	Alek
Roy Lewis	...	Lyle Neeson
Shawn Roberts	...	Corey Washington

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and language, and for some drug content.

Runtime:

USA:98 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English | Hungarian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #39228) | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-15 | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16 | Germany:18 | South Korea:18 | UK:15 | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Nu Image Films

Quotes:

Chester Lamb: Don't go away mad, Earl, just go away.

Movie Connections:

References First Blood (1982)

Soundtrack:

Habanera

Entertainingly bad!

Dolph Lundgren is back! Detention marks Dolphs first film in nearly 2 years, and that is following the delayed Hidden Agenda. This film still marks an improvement for Dolph over his cheapie trilogy of Jill Rips, Agent Red and Stormcatcher. However this film is well below the standard of Hidden Agenda, which was better in almost every respect. What this film does have in it's favour from Dolph's previous outing, is a sense of cheesy fun. The film also has a rejuvenated Dolph back in a high action role, and it's good to see Dolph doing his own stunts again.

The films story is ludicrous and prime B-movie material. An ex-military man is now a teacher and on his last day of teaching, whilst taking a Detention class, he runs into some Slovakian bad guys who have taken over the school to use as cover for a big drug deal. The film has no originality but in a movie of this type you need to have a sense of fun with all the cliches. If you take it too seriously the audience will find little to enjoy. Thankfully the filmmakers don't take matters too seriously and along with all the action cliches you can think of and the predictability, this film has a so bad it's enjoyable kind of vibe.

Where the film is let down is miss-using a fairly decent budget. The budget of around 10 million has not been well spent. It's all up on screen with plenty of carnage and big explosions but a lot of the shootouts lack imagination. The opening action is okay but after that the good moments become more sparse. There are some good moments. You have a car careering through school hallways for example and a decent shootout at the beginning, with plenty of destruction. The rest of the shootouts are fairly mechanical but there is plenty going on onscreen.

As for the cast. Hidden Agenda boasted the best cast Dolph has worked with in ages. There was a good standard of actors for a DTV film. This however has problems. The actors are on the most part bad. The bad guys are terrible, but the lead bad guy has a kind of enjoyable cheesiness because Alex Karsis plays it so over the top and without the hint of any menace that you can laugh at the pure badness. The teenagers of the piece are actually good but they are playing such cliched characters. They all hate authority, each other and all have bad attitudes and of course by the end they learn important life lessons, but generally they are decent and Chris Collins in particular has a likeability. This movie is all about Dolph though. While this film is nowhere near his best, it is nowhere near his worst. It also marks a turning point in his career. He is now back in good shape, and will be in even better shape in his next film Direct Action. Dolph looks enthusiastic here, he does all his own stunts and it is good to see him play the typical action man (running from explosions in slow-mo, one liners, and handling large weapons) again in a movie like his older ones, albeit with less flair and imagination than cliched films like Army Of One. It is good to see Dolph looking energised. His films of the last 8 or so years have seen Dolph looking a little more weary, and using doubles a lot (he still does all the fights himself though) but the new streamlined Dolph seems up for it.

Overall this is watchable if only for the cheese value and Dolph in prime action man mode. There's not a single surprise but it has a laughably inept kind of charm. **