Twenty sum years ago Will Smith had a song called Parents Just Don’t Understand. The title says it all really; different generations have different interests and quite often will not ‘get’ each other.
Where Detention is concerned consider me as Will Smith’s dad. I am the very definition of ‘don’t get it’, the opposite of ‘understand this’.
Grizzly Lake High seems chock full of the requisite ‘teen film types’. There are jocks, nerds, hunks, cheerleaders and wallflowers. Only here they don’t seem to conform to the usual stereotypes. Almost every student, regardless of sub-genre, is a slogan spewing, buzzword breathing, talking to camera example of teen vacuousness. When one says – all tres cool like – “duh. I listen to Aerosmith!” I have no idea if that is supposed to be cool, not cool, ironic, dismissive, counter-cultural, alternative, or… like… whatevs man.
Then I see Dane Cook’s corn tin shaped head round the bend, and I lose all hope.
Eventually a slasher emerges to wreak havoc amid the teeming mass of quick witted yuksters. While it is instantly gratifying to see them thinning out the ‘teen-pool’, they swiftly prove just as aggravating as their perfect skinned prey. And I return to cluelessness once more.
This might be good. Could even be great. I’m not the one to be asking. To me it is a noisy blur of obnoxious well heeled, perpetually yapping beings – all of whom I would happily tell to get off my lawn at some point in the apparently all too near future.
Like Gossip Girl, Instagram, the allure of the selfie, Flappy Birds and the musical stylings of Pitbull, I will never comprehend the entertainment value of Detention. Gen Y is here, and I am merely one of those that no longer understands…
Final Rating – 6 / 10. The slasher bits are ok. The rest is evidence of my advancing age.
