Detention 2012

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The movie itself is never truly clear. If it's also never intentionally bad, its unintentional badness keeps blasting into shockingly clever places. Read more

New York Times: Read more

Nicolas Rapold, New York Times: In this universe people seem composed of 1 percent water and 99 percent '90s references and genre expectations. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Resembles a movie less than it suggests an evening of determined, incoherent channel-hopping - with the help of a remote control that's apparently stuck on "random." Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Detention suffers from a giddy overabundance of ideas rather than a dearth. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: ADHD take on the teen comedy incorporates slasher comedy and pop-culture obsession, and will entertain those it doesn't alienate. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: Exhausting before its first few minutes of whip-pans, smash cuts, coarsely self-referential jokes and on-screen text visuals is over... Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Somebody somewhere forgot that a film needs a streamlined story to make visual chaos palatable. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Some viewers will be understandably put off by its aggressive lack of focus, but Kahn is so excited about cramming in every idea that ultimately the originality trumps the obnoxiousness. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: Here's another sardonic look at the hell of the American high school, where countless American filmmakers believe our souls are locked no matter how long it's been since we graduated. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Tries way, way, way too hard. A directorial drum solo that quickly wears out its welcome. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: There will be young moviegoers who proclaim this genius, and more stodgy audience members who find it torturous. If you're not tweeting and texting a combined 50 times or more per day, you're probably in the latter camp. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The whole thing comes off like 200 commercials smashed together, selling you your own obsolescence. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Neither good enough to impress as a meta mashup of horror and comedy, nor bad enough to hoot and throw popcorn at, it slides into a gray area of unfocused ideas and unrealized potential. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: What starts as a bracing rush quickly devolves into a deadening assault of stimuli. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: It's one of the most obnoxious movies ever made. Read more