Author Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” is my favorite short story of all time. Accidentally spawning a brilliant concept for the perfect action film, author Connnell’s short story about two men matching wits in the jungle is fantastic and action packed. I still remember reading it so many years ago and being blown away by the vivid prose and deep characterization that was set within only fifteen to twenty pages. As with most Hollywood productions in the early 1900’s much of this cinematic adaptation is altered from the story source and sadly not always for the better. One of the most irritating changes to the story is allowing the character Rainesford a damsel in distress. With all due respect to the great Faye Wray (who is absolutely stunning in this picture), as the character Eve offers nothing as a supporting character except emotional bait for Rainesford to cling to while fighting for survival.
Composer Jon Brion has managed to deliver fans of “Paranorman” quite the enticing and entertaining original soundtrack for the upcoming film, with a series of tracks that will perfectly relay the atmospheric story being told about kids fighting the walking dead.
Director Joseph Kahn basically creates the “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” of slasher movies, a movie so meta and so self-aware that a subset of audience members may be convinced this movie is actually an affirmation of the fads this movie tackles. I imagine some folks will smile thinking “He really gets us” while Kahn is pointing and laughing at them in the background. Kahn seems to have little respect or regard for people in to fads and spends most of the movie skewering just about everyone in this odd vacuum of cyclical nostalgia and retro crap with a modern age lacking an actual identity of its own. “Detention” is a film that many movie fans will either love or hate. I often fell in to the category of despising it but also kept dabbling in the area of admiration for being so unpredictable and original.
