Theatrical Release Date: January 1, 2003

Run Time: 1 Hour 24 Minutes

Sam Decker (Dolph Lundgren) is a former Special Forces operative who spent a tour of duty in Bosnia. During which the films opens with Sam on a rescue mission, where a single child gets left behind, something that will haunt him in the future. Ten years later we find Sam as a History and Physical Education teacher at Lincoln High School. Lincoln High School isn't your typical school; it's plagued with all sorts of trouble. The students are punks for the most part and have absolutely no desire to seek a basic education. Some of the students are criminals and some are just there.

Today, Friday marks a special day in Sam's life. He's just recently received some good news about a better position, one that can make him feel like he's doing more than babysitting. So Sam turns in his letter of resignation, without any two week notice, as today is his last day in this awful place. Unfortunately for Sam he gets coerced into staying after school to manage detention. Here Sam gets stuck with four of his students, Hogie Hogarth (Chris Collins) a disenchanted hero, Mick Ashton (Corey Sevier) a coward who hides behind a tough guy facade, Alicia Roberts (Danielle Hampton) a pregnant high school student who is near labor, and Jay Tee Barrow (Mpho Koaho) who is unwilling to admit to being the father of Alicia's child.

Well at the end of the day in preparation for the weekend, the single security guard with a few keystrokes locks down the entire high school. The place is like a prison in terms of security, you can't get out. There are some other students who don't quite realize what time it is and before they know it, they're stuck as well. Down in the boiler room Charlee Turkle (Nicole Dicker) and a friend (who doesn't last too long) are having a little party. In the library wheel chaired Willy Lopez (Dov Tiefenbach) studies as he hopes to get a scholarship.

It also just happens that today is another special day as the vice president of the United States of America is visiting town and the local police department is transporting a very large quantity of heroin to get destroyed. However in the shadows lurks Chester Lamb (Alex Krazis) and his small crew of three. They have alternative plans for where the heroin filled truck is going and since the entire police department will be focusing on protecting the vice president, it makes for the perfect crime. Their plan is quite simple, take over the high school and use it as their base of operations, as the small convoy (one van with two police officers) will pass just across the street. Next they take the van by force and transports the contents under the seat of their four door sedan and get away without any problems.

Little did Chester expect to find a former Special Forces operative turned high school teacher locked in with a small posse of high school students who overcome their individual fears and disadvantages to stop the bad guys from killing them and thwarting a much larger criminal conspiracy.

The DVD

Spoken Languages: English

Non-Spoken Languages: English, Spanish

Video:
The video is presented in 1:85 ratio widescreen color. The picture is fairly good, but there are slightly noticeable color defects and the picture is a little grainy. However these issues with the picture quality do not interfere with the viewing of the feature, as they are very minor. The overall picture is fairly dark, since most of the lights are turned off as the main setting which is the high school has been shutdown for the weekend.

Sound:
The audio is presented in English 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. The sound is quite good; all dialogue can be easily heard throughout the feature.

Subtitles:
The subtitles are presented in both the English and Spanish languages. The English subtitles stay in sync with the English dialogue throughout the feature. The subtitles appear over the picture and are easily read, nor do they interfere with the feature itself. There are also burnt in subtitles for when various actors speak Hungarian.

Extras:
Featurette: This featurette features nine minutes of exclusive content in regards to the actors (brief) opinions about theirs and other's roles in the film.

Final Thoughts:
I must admit I'm a fan of bad action films like Sylvester Stallone in Judge Dredd [review], Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser [review], Steven Segal in Exit Wounds [review]. Without a doubt the pre-mentioned films aren't top grade, in fact I'd say they're pretty bad. But needless to say they've all got quite a bit of action, which provides for the entertainment. Similarly to those films Detention does not have a well written plot and quite frankly it's probably one of the worst story in a film I've seen recently.

However there is quite a bit of fun entertaining action, as Lundgren plays typical-action-hero-guy-who-shoots-first-ask-questions-later type very well. The role of the villain played by Alex Krazis wasn't as convincing. Krazis apparently had this diabolical foolproof get rich quick plan that he claimed to have mapped out perfectly. In my opinion a criminal mastermind would take into account any kind of after school activities, like detention, but of course he didn't. Also similar to every action movie you may wonder why more people don't die, simply because during most of the film the teacher and students do not have firearms and are being shot at with automatic and semi-automatic firearms. Of course bullets only connect with their targets when it's supposed to happen.

So if you're into those cheesy bad action film types you'll definitely want to check this out. It's really not a bad watch, but it's definitely not a keeper. However if you've never cared for films that mainly consist of bullets being fired or things being blown up, this isn't quite for you.