Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com 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.

zardoz-13 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.

Crap_Connoisseur 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.

Stephan Klose To slightly correct my summary line: It's not all bad. It begins portraying a High-School in what I can, as a European Citizen, a very bad neighborhood. Every Kid has an attitude. Well after a phone call it gets clear that Lundgren got a very good offer for another job in a good neighborhood. So he gives his resignation immediately. The Pricipal sticks him with Detention for some very bad kids. Well then some drug dealers arrive and are planning a big deal and have a good plan for an exit. Which would by the way be totally unnecessary in real live and is completely a lot of stress for nothing.. I don't know why they planned that. Well what shall I say.. Bad guys in the school (since they want to make there drug deal there because they think nobody would suspect anything). Well guess what: Dolph Lundren and the brats (well older ones but still brats) unite to get out of school alive. In the beginning nobody likes anyone else but then.. well guess what.. They find a way to work together and do what is always being done. Kill one of the bad guys after the next. Since the badguys wisely go around alone... They would have a much greater chance if they went together in higher numbers they could take their enemies. But of course then the kids couldn't take them and the movie would be a lot shorter. But now: 1 Guy against some kids plus sometimes Dolph when he is not alone doing, well what he does.. Oh and I forgot: In the real beginning.. when the DVD Player says: 00:00:01 you begin to see him as part of a special unit in bosnia ten years ago where he is helping children out of a building that's going to be bombed. But with one kid he is too late, the kid is taken by a terrorist.. Well after that it switches to the school and so it begins... regards, Stephan from Austria But: It's not boring to watch.. you just have to sit there and watch. You don't have to think.. If you are looking just to be entertained, well this movie is kinda like Die Hard, but cheaper.