D-Tox


D-Tox is a 2002 American psychological thriller film directed by Jim Gillespie and starring Sylvester Stallone. The supporting cast features Tom Berenger, Charles S. Dutton, Polly Walker, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang, Jeffrey Wright, Courtney B. Vance and Kris Kristofferson. The film had a limited release in the United States on September 20, 2002, under the title Eye See You by DEJ Productions.
The film is based on the 1999 novel Jitter Joint written by Howard Swindle.

Plot

While FBI agent Jake Malloy pursues a serial killer who targets police officers, his former partner becomes a victim. At his partner's home, the murderer calls Malloy from Malloy's home. The killer says Malloy pursued him earlier for a series of prostitute murders; in revenge, he kills Mary, Malloy's girlfriend. Malloy pursues the killer, only to find that he appears to have committed suicide. Three months later, Malloy descends into alcoholism. After a suicide attempt, Malloy's best friend and supervising officer, Agent Chuck Hendricks, enrolls Malloy in a rehabilitation program for law enforcement officers run by Dr. John "Doc" Mitchell, a former cop and recovering alcoholic. Hendricks stays in Wyoming to ensure Malloy will be okay.
Malloy meets several other officers who are patients in the clinic, including Peter Noah, an arrogant and paranoid ex-SWAT officer; Frank Slater, a cynical, opinionated British police officer; Willie Jones, a religious homicide detective; Jaworski, an alcoholic narcotics cop who attempted suicide; Lopez, a foul-mouthed LAPD officer; and McKenzie, an elderly member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who witnessed his partner's murder. He meets several staff members, including Doc's assistant and mechanic Hank and compassionate resident psychiatrist and nurse Jenny Munroe, with whom Malloy develops a bond.
A blizzard seals everyone in the rehab center without outside communication. Jenny finds the body of Connor, a troubled patient who apparently killed himself, but Jenny believes Connor would have sought help. The next morning Hank finds another apparent suicide, but Malloy believes otherwise. Doc locks up the surviving patients while he reviews their files. Jenny informs Doc that Jack Bennett, an orderly who was a former patient, is missing. After an axe-wielding man kills Doc, everyone but Malloy and Jenny suspect Jack. Malloy returns the cops' sidearms. Hendricks finds a dead cop in a frozen lake and returns to the clinic with the owner of a nearby fishing shop.
Hank, the clinic's cook Manny, and helper Gilbert, volunteer to drive through the blizzard to get help. While driving away, Hank veers away from something. The truck slides off the icy road and crashes. Malloy and Jenny hear the crash, and Malloy hands a gun to Jenny before investigating. Malloy finds Manny murdered and that Jack's body caused the crash. Gilbert, alive but scared, flees while Malloy rushes back to the clinic.
The killer electrocutes McKenzie, deactivating the building's power and heating system. Malloy forces everyone except Jenny to their cells, realizing a murderer is impersonating a cop. Suspecting this is Mary's killer, Malloy finds evidence on Connor's body to support this. As Malloy and Jenny return to the cells, Hank, suspecting Malloy, knocks him out. He locks Malloy in Slater's cell and releases everyone else.
Malloy finds a matchbook in Slater's cell from a Seattle restaurant frequented by cops, identifying him as the killer. Malloy realizes Slater has been observing him and other policemen at the restaurant. Malloy escapes and finds the missing badges above Slater's room, which he collects as trophies. After establishing his innocence, Malloy has Jones and Lopez conduct patrol while Jaworski stays with Jenny. Malloy heads into the tunnels beneath the facility. Unaware that Slater is the killer, Hank and Noah help him retrieve logs in the tunnels for heating. Slater convinces them to split up before killing each. As Malloy patrols the tunnels, Slater taunts him over a CB radio and lures Malloy to Noah's hanged body, where he finds the other radio. While leaving the clinic, Slater hears Jenny call Malloy. Malloy learns Slater is at the tunnel's trapdoor and rushes to save Jenny.
Outside the installation, Hendricks and the fishing shop owner find Gilbert alive and take him to the rehab center. Hendricks follows Jenny's footprints. Jenny runs to a nearby quonset hut, hiding from Slater. Malloy arrives, telling Jenny to stay inside the shed. Slater catches Hendricks before Malloy catches him from behind. Slater jumps into the shed, knocks Jenny out, and wounds Hendricks. After a fight, Malloy finally kills Slater. Jenny regains consciousness and helps Hendricks walk to the clinic with Malloy. Malloy puts his engagement ring on a tree branch and walks away.

Cast

Filming

The film was shot in Washington, DC and Vancouver.

Post-production

After the film was finished in 1999, Universal decided to screen it to a test audience but all the screenings of the first cut were met with negative reception from audiences. The film was then shelved for quite some time while re-shoots and story changes were being done. Composer John Powell wrote two complete scores for the film, one of which was rejected. With the film delayed and relegated to a European release by Universal due to the studio's dissatisfaction with the film in general, most of Powell's score was replaced with additional music by William Ross, Geoff Zanelli, and Nick Glennie-Smith as an attempt to make the film salvageable. A new ending was also filmed in which the main villain is killed in a different way. Even after re-shoots and title changes, Universal did not care for the film and after test screenings for the new version also got negative response from audiences, they shelved it. DEJ Productions acquired domestic distribution rights from Universal and released it over three years after it was originally finished but in a limited release.
In an interview with Ain't It Cool News in December 2006, Sylvester Stallone was asked why the film did not get a wide release and then answered:
It’s very simple why D-Tox landed in limbo. A film is a very delicate creature. Any adverse publicity or internal shake-up can upset the perception of – and studio confidence in – a feature. For some unknown reason the original producer pulled out and right away the film was considered damaged goods; by the time we ended filming there was trouble brewing on the set because of overages and creative concerns between the director and the studio. The studio let it sit on the shelf for many months and after over a year it was decided to do a re-shoot. We screened it, it tested okay, Ron Howard was involved with overseeing some of the post-production… but the movie had the smell of death about it. Actually, if you looked up, you could see celluloid buzzards circling as we lay there dying on the distributor's floor. One amusing note: It was funny, when we were met at the airport by the teamsters they'd have a sign in front of them saying DETOX, and all these actors like Kris Kristofferson, Tom Berenger and myself looked like we were going into rehab rather than a film shoot.

Release

Critical reception

The film has an approval rating of 19% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews. Danny Graydon of BBC Films said: "Clearly, Hollywood's confidence in this film is lower than Pee-Wee Herman's Oscar chances, and their instincts are right: a boring, formulaic mix of serial killers and stalk'n'slash, this will not reinvigorate Sylvester Stallone's action hero status or loosen his maniacal destruction of the quality control button".

Home media

The DVD release of the film includes eight deleted scenes as bonus feature, but the original ending is not included. Theatrical trailers show several deleted and alternate scenes, including some that are not included in DVD, like more nudity by Dina Meyer during her shower scene.