Detention (2003) User Reviews

A brain dead action romp

[breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com · 5/10 · 12 June 2013]

To most, Dolph Lundgren isn't the best of movie performance material. It also doesn't help when a fairly well known actor goes into hiding by making hit or miss films because of outside problems. What's odd though, is that Dolph Lundgren hasn't had any publicity issues. And if he has, it's been well covered up because there have been no reports about it. You would think that after making popular films like Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) and Universal Soldier (1992), he would have continued to make big hit screen movies like his other muscle counterparts. Instead Lundgren went into an almost two decade absence on the big screen.

So, because this movie was released in 2003, this is half way through his absence. At this point he was making Direct-to-Video films and Detention (2003) is one of these. Problem is, it didn't do anything for me. Even worse is that the title only exists because of the setting that its in. The story is about a group of criminals who break into a school to get a vanload of cocaine out of the country. And the only man that will get in their way is a gym/history teacher who's holding a detention after school. His name is Sam Decker (Dolph Lundgren).

This already doesn't sound very promising. Here's what works, which isn't all too much. If you (the viewer) want to see Dolph Lundgren play a role that is in his genre but dressed like he's going to work at a cubical, this is it. It's very interesting to see Lundgren be a character without armor and big weapons. Another notable part of this movie is the supporting cast. Even though they aren't memorable characters, they do carry some charm because of how various individuals act in different situations.

One actor who I found to be putting a lot of effort to make his character stand out was Alex Karzis as the main villain. A lot of the time Karzis would make strange gestures, faces or remarks that made me look at the screen and say (while chuckling) - "What was the point of that?" But hey, it kept my attention. The only other piece that worked in this movie was the music by Amin Bhatia. But even that I don't favor all too much because there was no theme, even if the music sounded average. It did lose me now and then so ehhh.

Now to the bad. In all honesty, there was a very thin story. The premise is just a setup for Dolph Lundgren to go jumping through windows and shooting handguns. There is a little bit of a flash back that involves post traumatic stress but is only to be given away one more time for a brief moment to reveal a connection. What's even weirder is that even when this movie doesn't have much of a story to go by, it manages to drag itself at various intervals. Which brings me to the last point, the action was very sporadic. It really wasn't present all too much. It felt very diluted, which I think is rare for a Dolph Lundgren movie.

I'm also going to guess that the direction to this movie wasn't great since it was headed by Sidney J. Furie, the director of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). It's hard to say. I was on the fence for this one. It doesn't please me like most of Lundgren's movies but it doesn't disappoint that badly either. I hope I don't run into anymore Lundgren movies like this.

It offers a few interesting concepts but its concentration is lacking. Its cast also tries to show some charm but its script and minimal action provide little to work with.

Mediocre "Die Hard" Meets "The Breakfast Club" Melodrama

[zardoz-13 · 5/10 · 9 November 2010]

All hell breaks loose in Lincoln Memorial High School at the end of a long day when a group of armed thugs take over the premises as a part of their elaborate plan to hijack a shipment of narcotics destined to be incinerated by the police. Problems arise when the thugs discover that they are not alone in the high school. Former military man Sam Decker (Dolph Lundgren of "Rocky IV") is spending his last day as a teacher when the principal persuades him to supervise detention. Sam is fed up with teaching school and getting nowhere with his students. He calls the high school a 'prison' rather than a school and has no regrets about leaving. Meantime, the thugs thought that they would have only one man, the school security guard, to contend with but they have to clash with a group of high school teenagers and their indestructible teacher. The memory of losing a child in a hostage crisis in Bosnia still lingers in Sam's mind so he cannot just escape by himself from the high school, he must free all the kids, too.

"Iron Eagle" director Sidney J. Furie and scenarists Paul Lynch of "Prom Night" and John Sheppard of "Bullies" have contrived a preposterous potboiler set primarily in a high school with the villains wasting more bullets than people in their futile efforts to kill the kids and Decker as well as getaway with a large amount of narcotics. They have set things up so that the local authorities believe that the vice president of the United States is going to arrive the next day for a speech. The Secret Service man pulls all available policemen off the narcotics convoy to protect the vice president so the villains can strike the van when only two cops are in it. The biggest surprise is that the cop on the beat patrolling the area is one of the bad guys, too, but he informs his trigger-happy accomplices that the teacher served on his A-team in Bosnia and knows his stuff. The villains wing Dolph at one point. In "Rambo" style, however, our resourceful hero cauterizes his wound with a blow-torch. Naturally, one of the teenagers trapped in the school is pregnant and is about to deliver when all the shooting starts. When the head thug, Chester Lamb (Alex Karzis of "Direct Action"), sees that he is getting nowhere with his own guys, he calls up Sam's girlfriend Margo Conroy (Jennifer Baxter of "Land of the Dead") and lures her onto the premises so she can serve as his hostage. Mind you, none of this is remotely believable, but Dolph emerges triumphant and decides not to quit on his pupils. Essentially, "Detention" combined elements of "Die Hard" with "The Breakfast Club" with mediocre results. The helicopter crash looks particularly phony. Director Sidney J. Furie has done better, but considerably how low-budget this melodrama is, it is tolerable compared with most of the junk out there. There is one good scene when Dolph's ex-military buddy turned policemen hands him a flask that he took off a suspect. Later, when the cop shoots Dolph in the chest, the bullet bounces off the flask and our hero survives to keep on fighting.

Far from Dolph's best, not the worst either but ...

[destroyerwod · 4/10 · 16 December 2014]

I watch pretty much all those B action movies i can find, even tough i know some will be mediocre and very low budget. More often than not they got a little something to catch me in, no matter if its Seagal, Van Damme, Lundgren or some others like that. Sometimes i actually enjoy them a lot.

This movie is just below the middle of those. I tough the plot was really "streched" to fit the movie, the character over the top overacted but not in a good way. Take Van Damme's Ennemies Closer bad guy character, he was over the top but hilarious and kick ass. Here the bad guy was just getting on my nerve from being so retarded.

But the movie has a couple little surprises and Dolph even tough pretty "ordinary" do a correct job as the lead. Somewhat i just didn't felt for the other characters at all, either because the villains where so corny and cartoon or the character development was just too poor.

Also i must note i didn't saw such bullet spraying all over the place and target missing since Commando... Seriously the bad guys couldn't hit the characters 10 feet away barely moving. It was sad to look at. Its like the bullets where just deflecting on an invisible barrier...

In any case like i said, i saw worst from Dolph, but i saw much better, and im only counting his low budget DTV movies, not expendables and such.

Great Action Trash

[Crap_Connoisseur · 14 June 2006]

Detention is like a cross between "The Breakfast Club" and "Die Hard", only without the character development of the former or the special effects budget of the latter. The result is surprisingly entertaining and often wonderfully tasteless. In short, Detention is one of the better lightweight action movies to hit video shelves in some time.

Dolph Lundgren has spent the past few years mainly appearing in relatively gritty low budget action films like his directorial debut "The Defender" and its follow up, "The Mechanik". While I enjoyed both of those films, it comes as a nice surprise to see Dolph appear in something as stupidly entertaining as Detention. Make no mistake about it - this film is dumb in a very big way. You could get a bad case of RSI from writing down all the goofs and plot holes. However, what it lacks in credibility, the film more than makes up for in enthusiasm and an almost 1980s approach to action. There are very few dull computer effects here, just a lot of old fashion shootings and a couple of decent explosions.

The story involves Dolph's character, Sam, struggling with his disillusionment as a teacher at an inner city high school. Sam decides to resign but is asked to supervise detention on his last day. Unfortunately for Sam, he finds himself locked in the school building with a bunch of his delinquent students and an incredibly camp and violent crime boss called Chester. Conveniently, Sam is an ex-soldier and he calls on his military training to fight the intruders. The story is as clichéd and derivative as it sounds. Nevertheless, it allows Dolph to flex his action hero muscles and provides plenty of opportunities for senseless violence.

Detention benefits greatly from an undercurrent of black humour and a touch of irony. The characters are all pretty amusing, from the crack smoking, foul mouthed students, to Chester and his woeful to the point of being funny one-liners. The film also contains one of the funniest and most ridiculous chase scenes ever captured on film when one of the bad guys chases a wheelchair bound student (Dov Tiefenbach in another interesting role) on a motorbike. Sam's ability to turn a trolley into a metal covered battering ram, complete with metallic spikes, in a matter of minutes is similarly mind boggling.

The special effects are generally pretty basic but there is enough blood and shooting to keep action fans happy. Sidney J. Furie's direction is lively and he keeps the pace mercifully brisk. Sidney has been making genre films since the 1960s and he's still churning out good work. Detention is not a great film and it never pretends to be one. It is, however, 90 minutes of hugely enjoyable, dumb fun. If nothing else, watch it for the wheelchair chase sequence.

A REALLY poor man's „Die hard"

[Maziun · 1/10 · 28 December 2014]

*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS

"Detention" is another in the long line of "Die hard" clones. It unfortunately belongs to the very worst of them. The story is a mix between "Breakfast club" and "Die hard". There are some potentially interesting elements : a closed-for-weekend high-security high school, four teens in detention with a war-veteran teacher and a group of ruthless criminals trying to get in. It all however fails spectacularly because of COMPLETELY IDIOTIC screenplay. Maybe if you're in the right mood you will get some cheap laughs of this movie.

• Why did the villains decided to use the school in first place ? - A lockdown on the school closes the fire exits as well ? - If the fire exits are closed how did the characters got to the roof ? - Why are the local cops arguing with secret service agents about their authority ? - When Dolph finds a dead body of security guard , why he DOESN"T TAKE his gun ? Is he blind or something ? - Why instead of using a first aid kit to heal a wound (a minor one) Dolph wastes time heating up the pipe to cauterize the wound - When one character holds a shield why doesn't the second one just shoots him in the legs ? - Why when a bad guy is down on ground the good guy runs away instead of kicking his ass ? - Why when the good guys hide in the gym it turn out to be an archery so they could protect themselves with the equipment ?

The story is full of unbelievable situations, lots of clichés and stereotypical characters. Lundgren is not one bit convincing as an ex-military turned a history teacher assigned to a rough school. The other actors are bad too , especially the bad guys who look like straight from "Police academy".

Action ? What action ? The bad guys wouldn't hit a sleeping elephant – their aim is SO BAD. The most iconic action scene in this movie happens when a bad guy with a sub machine gun and Harley Davidson tries to catch a handicapped kid (on a wheelchair) and FAILS TO CATCH HIM !

The budget of this crap is supposed to be a 10 mln $ , but I honestly don't see all those money here. I only noticed a very bad dialogues like : "Sorry, teacher! You get an 'F!"

This is crap. Dumb action movies like "Passenger 57" or "Sudden death" are far better. I give "Detention" 1/10.

Laughable from start to finish, A+ comedy.

[dickvein · 1/10 · 2 May 2005]

I should preface this by stating that I am a Dolph Lundgren fan. The man turns out some of the funniest action clichés imaginable and Detention is probably my personal favorite. *Spoiler* even though there is no such thing as a Dolph spoiler since the scripts are so absurd to begin with: a chase scene with a handicapped kid carrying a pistol versus a guy on a Harley with a sub-machine gun, through a high school hallway and the kid wins? Good game, the Oscar goes to Detention. Dolph, if you're reading this, thanks for the laughs, old friend.

In summary: Terrific movie that is a guaranteed laugh. I recommend inviting some friends over for this and forcing them to sit through it. Hilarious.

I'm in shock

[austencfritz-21143 · 1/10 · 4 October 2016]

If I could give a lower rating I would this was complete garbage I've never seen so many missed shots in my life these people couldn't hit the broad side of a barn you can tell the guns are pellet guns not even try prop guns they do not have any blowback in the action The beginning of this movie sounds promising but it's complete trash I can even watch it all the way through A scene in this movie is in a gym it has bales of hay stacked and bullets can penetrate hay bales which is completely asinine Another scene the woman and a student are less than 100 feet Apart and northern can hit each other with a bullet This was just awful I like a lot of lundgrens movies this is definitely not one I will ever watch again

This could be used for torture and interrogation

Don't be fooled by its rating.

[halopes · 3/10 · 30 November 2003]

I wasn't expecting a lot from a film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Dolph Lundgren but I was surely expecting more than a got. A one-liner user comment - 2nd rate action movie - didn't seem too depreciative to me for a Lundgren film. On the other hand, I wouldn't have bothered to watch this film if its rating was below 5.0 but hey, the movie had a 5.9 out of 10 score, which seemed pretty acceptable to me for this kind of production.

Now I understand that the 37.5% of people who rated this film a 10 (excellent) was clearly a publicity stunt because DETENTION is the regular Nu Image garbage you have seen before, over and over.

Lundgren does not convince as an ex-military turned a history teacher assigned to a rough school. His acting is just plain terrible, emotionless and contrived. Lundgren's inability to act becomes more visible in the scenes with the juvenile delinquent kids. Either they are great actors or, compared to Lundgren, they seem great actors - just because they seem natural and believable.

DETENTION has some elements that could have been potentially interesting for this low budget movie - a closed-for-weekend high-security high school, four teens in detention with a war-veteran teacher and a group of ruthless criminals trying to get in - but the story (something like THE BREAKFAST CLUB meets DIE HARD, or is it PANIC ROOM?) is full of unbelievable situations, lots of clichés and stereotypical characters. And let's not forget Dolph Lundgren is the main actor.

Alex Karzis and Kata Dobó play a Bonnie and Clyde couple in love and they deliver the most acceptable performances of the movie, even if he seems a low-budget version of Sam Rockwell and she, a Milla Jovovich wanna-be. In a movie where everything fails, their craziness and style supplied enough fresh air to prevent my interest from dropping to ground zero.

Not Real Bad

[whpratt1 · 4/10 · 6 February 2006]

Interesting story about a soldier in a war who misses out on saving the life of a young girl from the enemy and is haunted by this event, even though he did save many other captive children. The film flashes a head and this soldier is now a teacher in a high school that is managed mostly by policemen patrolling the hallways, bathrooms and even class rooms. In other words, the High School is a prison and most of the kids pay very little attention to their teachers or principal. Dolph Lundgren,(Sam Decker) plays the soldier/school teacher and decides he is going to quit teaching and go into another field. However, the principal asks him to have a Detention Class as his last duty as a teacher. It is at this point in the film when all Hell breaks loose and the story becomes a complete BOMB. Try to enjoy it, if you decided to View IT !

enjoyable enough action flick

[daworldismine · 7/10 · 9 March 2010]

this dolph lundgren vehicle is a fun die hard throwback action flick, it isn't going to win any awards and its not very original but it delivers the goods you would want to see from a dolph lundgren movie. our man dolph is an ex soldier who is now a teacher at a tough inner city high school and when it gets taken over by terrorists its up to him to save the day. sure the script isn't going to win any Oscars its good fun and it has its fair share eplosive action. dolph lundgren gives a good enough performance but he comes alive more in the action scenes, and the rest of the cast are not the best actors but they hold it well. all in all detention is an enjoyable action flick, but youv'e seen it a million times before.

Be True to your school

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 4 May 2018]

Detention has Dolph Lundgren former army ranger and now history and gym teacher getting stuck with supervising Detention on his last day of school. Lundgren is kind of disillusioned with teaching and surely babysitting for some of the worst motivated kids in his school is one find sendoff.

However on this day after 3:00 pm the school figures prominently in the plans of Alex Karzis and his gang of criminal misfits to pull off a robbery of drugs confiscated by the police. There's even crooked cops in on it.

Between Lundgren's kids and Karzis's gang it's quite the struggle. The whole scheme is something you might find in a Mel Brooks film and in the case of Karzis he never figured some folks would be staying after school or it would be someone like Lundgren. It's like an episode of the old A-Team series.

In the spirit of that old show, you might enjoy this rather goofy film.

It is certainly a cool fun movie.

[FuturistiK · 8/10 · 18 February 2004]

I just viewed Detention last night and i liked what i saw. It was a cool fun movie.Dolph looked superbly cool on the Bike.He also looked good in this movie as compared to his other recent movies.He is now in a pretty good shape.The story was ok and the other actors were also passable.I wouldn't call this movie his best but its still a good movie.

But it also had its share of Problems. The first one was the way bullets were flying everywhere and even when they were being fired at point blank range they missed the target.They should've had shown the ppl escaping the bullets in a better way. Another problem which i had was the way the students were swearing. I dont know in which school the students can swear in front of their teacher and even in the classroom. The third problem was that the bad guys were very few in numbers. There should've been more bad guys. Last problem was definately the fact that the set looked cheesy , but that was due to the small budget. Overall the movie was a good Movie.I enjoyed it.I would recommend others to watch it. P.S. Now u r a DEAD beat cop. (Some One-liners were also cool)

Not bad, in fact... The venue was exploited well

[BeneCumb · 6/10 · 9 October 2012]

I mean the school premises and its different rooms like chemistry class, assembly room, long passageways... And selection of actors was better than in most low-budget action movies - apart from Dolph Lundgren, there were some other outstanding personalities (Alex Karzis, Kata Dobo).

In spite of constant gunshots-bursts that almost never hit, and neurotic activities, the scenes began to develop and make sense as the movie went on. And the good ones had their tragic as well. Thus, as a whole, Detention-movie was not totally blunt and predictable, although several actions lacked logic and looked ridiculous (not Lundgren-related, however). But if you have 1,5 hours to kill and not fond of flaking out in front of screen, then this movie is just OK. Not a profound experience, but a kind of violent entertainment.

My oh my...

[richieandsam · 4/10 · 11 March 2013]

DETENTION

You know it is never a good sign when you can honestly say the best actor in the movie is Dolph Lundgren.

This film is bad... the story is nothing new. The acting was terrible. and there were so many things in this film that were so pathetic is was unbelievable. I mean, the bad guys looked like they belonged in Layztown. They could not shoot a non moving target, let alone students running away from them.

There was one scene where it felt like the A-Team. The students were hiding out in the Gym at their school, but in the gym just so happened to be an archery set all ready for them.

I still don't fully understand why the bad guys were in the school in the first place.

Honestly, this is a really bad B movie... funny in places, but not for the right reasons.

I will give this film 4 out of 10.

Dolph is lucky Stallone even called him for the Expendables after this film.

For more of my reviews, please like my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl

It could be used as punishment!

[Wizard-8 · 22 January 2004]

A bunch of Canadian exploitation legends were put together to make this movie - writers Paul Lynch (PROM NIGHT, BULLIES) and John Sheppard (BULLIES, AMERICAN NIGHTMARE), as well as the legendary director Sidney J. Furie (IRON EAGLE IV), who lost any directorial ability he may once have had a number of years earlier! Not that Lynch and Sheppard have had exactly stellar careers.

The movie appears to be a rip-off of the 1987 movie TERROR SQUAD, which was goofy fun. You think that with more at their disposal, this movie would be better than that one. Think again. Despite the considerable budget ($10 million), movie looks extremely cheap, with the production values of Canadian TV dramas that are typically made for about a tenth of that value! That might have been forgivable had the movie been exciting, but it isn't. None of the action scenes is particularly good. In fact, a number of them have stupid touches. (Why, when Lundgren holds a shield, doesn't the shooter just shoot him in the legs? Why, when one of the protagonists knocks a bad guy down, do they immediately run away instead of using the chance to beat on them more?)

In fact, the whole movie is full of stupid things. Why would a lockdown on the school lock down the fire exits as well? If the school is locked down, how did they get to the roof? Most importantly, why on earth did the bad guys think using a high school was their best choice? In fact, the more I think about the movie, the more dumb things come to my mind. I could go on and on, but I won't. Lundgren understandably doesn't seem that enthralled by it all, but you have to give him credit for at least putting some effort in his performance. At one point, his character reads a Clive Cussler novel. Do that instead of watching this movie - you'll be a lot more entertained, I assure you!

I always wonder how they get money to shoot those films...

[michinine · 3/10 · 28 January 2007]

I like Dolph Lundgren. And I like a lot more of that "A Minus-Movie" stars. I never understand how they do movies like this. (Maybe that's the reason Dolph Lundgren started to direct his own movies recently) This movie is a mimic of the old "Die Hard" theme. This time in a school. But the supposed "terrorists" are total freaked out punks. Some could do some decent movie out of this plot, but here it fails. Dolph plays an ex-soldier, but then he makes the same errors a frightened normal person would make. If you had a very bad day and need some cheap fun, you can watch Dolph running around in a High School set kicking other peoples 'back'. But just ignore the blatant goofs and this truckload of illogic that seems to be common in "that type" of movies.

Skip this one....you'll thank me

[MidniteMikey · 1/10 · 19 September 2010]

This was probably one of the DUMBEST action movies I've seen in years! The only really decent part was the opening sequence prior to the title credits.

Examples of just how dumb this flick was include when our (combat vet)hero discovers the dead body of an ARMED security guard after already having been shot at by bad-guys, the hero chooses to ignore the guard's gun and then run and hide instead of arming himself with a gun.

Then, after getting a minor gunshot wound, our hero decides to use welding equipment to heat up a pipe in the school's workshop to cauterize the wound....like there there are no first aid kits in a shop area, not to mention the wound appeared to be EXTREMELY minor.

Then when the local cops are being "hijacked" by the secret service for executive protection, not only do they balk, they actually argue with the secret service agent about his authority to "hijack" them...

The other REALLY good part of the movie was....the final credits....

Best dialogue ever

[gene_freak · 1/10 · 3 July 2005]

Normally I wouldn't feel qualified to review something I only saw a half hour of, but I'll make an exception for this one.

Let the dialogue speak for itself! Here's some of the bad guy's lines: "I smell...teacher!" "Sorry, teacher! You get an 'F!'"

Bad guy and bad girl ( right after killing 2 cops and stealing a van full of drugs, they're getting hot and heavy):

Him -"So how do you feel about shooting some innocent bystanders?"

Her- (purrs) "You sure know how to show a girl a good time..." One generic kid who ran for his life instead of helping someone, gets to sum up his life and personality in this line -"I AM a CHICKEN-TWIT! (this was the USA network version) My old man was right! No wonder he left us..." Boo-hoo.

(Not actually a spoiler ) Bad guy (on fire) screams "Aargh! Fire!"

Pretty bad

[dbborroughs · 2/10 · 28 April 2009]

Cheezy action movie starring Dolph Lungren. Lungren is a one time military man who has retreated into a teaching job. But the changes in the neighborhood and the student body have left him frustrated and he decides that he?s going to hang it up. Things get dicey when while watching over a bunch of students in detention some robbers take over the school as a base of operation for an armored car robbery. Its Dolph versus the baddies in a fight to the death. Jaw dropping throw back to the exploitation films of the late grindhouse era where bad guys dressed as punks and some of the bad women had day glow hair. What a stupid movie. Watchable in a I can?t believe people made this sort of way, this is an action film that was probably doomed from the get go before the low budget, fake breakaway sets and poor action direction were even a twinkle in a producers eye. Watch how late in the film as cars drive through the school (don?t ask) they crash into the security turret (don?t ask since it looks more like a prison then a high school) and smash its barely constructed form apart(it doesn't look like it did in earlier shots). What hath the gods of bad movies wrought? Actually I?m perplexed since this was directed (?) by Sydney J Furie, a really good director who made films like The Boys in Company C. Has his ability failed him, or was this hopeless from the get go and he didn't even bother? It?s a turkey. A watchable one but a turkey none the less.

Sorry to say that but this movies terribly sucks

[beretta92fs_inox · 1/10 · 4 January 2005]

This is the kind of movie that wants to be good but sucks. First thing, what the hell are those punk trying to do with the school? I think the kids doesn't seem to realize the gravity of the situation. Deker guy say to the girl that they under his responsibility when she ask why he wants to go back for them but right after this he gives a gun to the wheel chair dude and wants him to go alone repair the phone line. Where is the responsibility there? I understand poor actors must pay their food but why not just give them the money that takes to make a stupid movie like that or give that money to a charity. Oh yea and none of them knows how to aim. The stupid punk guy shoots in the cafeteria nowhere like a crazy. They all want to look professional but they all suck. One more thing I don't believe that there's no emergency exit in the school the kids are trying several doors but they all locked. What happens if there's a fire and the dumass security guard is dead? It is illegal to not have an emergency exit in school. Anyway there's a lot more to say but it would be too long. I spent some time of my life to watch a crap.

I like it!

[crystalart · 7/10 · 20 January 2011]

I'm not sure where this genre got it's start. 'Blackboard Jungle'? It's also reminiscent of Tom Berenger's 'Substitute 1' and '2'.

Dolph's lean, and in top form, as he takes on recalcitrant students and a gang that's bent on taking over the high school.

The gang members have lots of strangely colored hair, assorted tattoos and body piercings, if you like that sort of thing, but when they shoot they can't seem to hit anything.

I especially enjoyed watching the thug on a motorcycle in a high school hallway who could neither catch nor hit with a machine gun a cripple running away in a wheel chair.

Grab the popcorn and settle back for an hour and a half of not too serious fun.

2nd rate action movie

[stikkanen · 1/10 · 19 September 2003]

I just rented this movie to see Dolph Lundgren, whom I hadn't seen in any movies since Rocky IV. Unfortunately this movie was a big disappointment. The acting of all the parties was bad except for Mr. Lundgren, who was okay-ish. Kata Dobó was something nice to look at despite her ridiculous outfit and make-up.

The plot is not at all clever, it's something that's been repeated a million times in different movies. The crooks were utterly stereotypical, and Lundgren's character hadn't any depth in it. I didn't really expect a movie masterpiece, but unfortunately this is not even decent action. Every turn in the plot is extremely predictable and the unbelievable amount of over-the-top unrealism and comic-book like characters started to annoy me strongly pretty soon.

I would recommend this to young kids wanting some comic-like action, but only if nothing else is available.

1/10. (I guess the current average vote of 7.0 with 6 votes must have been influenced by somebody involved in making this movie)

does justice to nowaday violence

[chambara8112 · 10/10 · 12 February 2004]

This film is focused rather on the growing contemporary youthful violence in America: take notice how these youngsters act when they got a gun and how they kill people with ease. I don't think this film in 80's would be with kids as bad guys like this(i don't know but they seem to me as kids). It's hard to say that's a bad film, it's not so effective, almost no plot, no twists (there's really a problem with screenplay) but in spite all of that,its interesting entertaining guilty pleasure B-movie with always charming DOLPH LUNDGREN. According to plot and superior Furie's direction i hope Direct Action will be little comeback for Lundgren.

Entertainingly bad!

[supertom-3 · 7/10 · 7 February 2004]

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. **

Good news lots of action! bad news it's ALL HORRIBLE!!!

[job-matt · 1/10 · 3 January 2018]

First fight scene the bad guy sprays the school cafeteria MP5A3 (9mil compact machine gun) The bullets can't penetrate the napkin holder 50 rounds later and Dolph is playing peek a boo from 20ft away, First half of the movie like a terrible adult version of Home Alone. The poor students can't catch a break, between their bad acting and ridiculous dialog they are doomed, SPOILER ALERT! This movie starts out bad and falls downhill from there,I was just ready to change the channel when I looked up to see the student in a motorized wheelchair was spotted by the bad guys, turns out driving your wheelchair down the middle of the main hall with 4 armed bad guys looking for you, isn't a great idea. Don't worry he ends up out running the bad guy on a motorcycle and the 20 or so bullets. Yes that's right, scene goes from all 4 spotting the kid 20' away to, wheelchair popping wheelies and being chased by a motorcycle. If the screenwriter and director found work after this masterpiece I'd be shocked! The bad guys were completely out gunned. Their bullets couldn't penetrate a garbage can somehow the kids arrow sends a 200# man 5 ft back and stuck to the bleachers.All looks hopeless until the leader of the bad guys decided enough is enough and calls the hero's fiancee, cleverly posing as a detective tells her she must come to the school.(that's not fair) How he knew Dolph was engaged, her name and her number is a mystery. To be fair they may have explained it during one of the many times I looked away laughing, don't waste your time