Detained

The closest Detained comes to getting under the skin is that hours later, you might slap your head with exasperation as the sudden memory of yet another implausibility pops into your head.

This is a finely tuned ride ideal for toss-the-brain-aside weekend consumption.

There’s something charming about its single-setting stupidity, dropping a bunch of idiots in an impossible situation and bouncing them off each other until most of them are dead.

On the whole, the audience would be happy to be Detained for this film’s hour and half of thrill and chill

Nothing is terribly believable, partly because it's played as high melodrama.

There is such a devious sense of uncertainty at the start of Detained that it’s a shame the film turns out to be as patently ridiculous as it is.


A twisty indie crime thriller.

The mildly clever concept is hampered by ill-timed twists and shallow characters, never mustering sufficient incentive for emotional investment in who lives, dies, or gets paid.

Detained bets too much on its ability to con and surprise us.

Banks a lot of its narrative on coincidence, and it certainly asks a lot of its audience, but the confidence it has in gradually accepting its own ruthlessness allows this single-location thriller to elevate beyond its clear limitations.