D-Tox (2002)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Jim Gillespie

Writers (WGA):

Howard Swindle (book)
Ron L. Brinkerhoff (screen story)

Release Date:

4 January 2002 (Denmark)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Survival is a Killer.

Plot:

Stallone plays a cop who comes undone after witnessing a brutal scene on the job. He checks into a rehab...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Alcoholic | Group Therapy | Wyoming | Serial Killer

US TV Schedule:

Sun. Nov. 15	12:50 AM	SHOW
Fri. Nov. 20	3:30 AM	SHOW

Cast

Sylvester Stallone	...	Jake Malloy
Charles S. Dutton	...	Hendricks
Polly Walker	...	Jenny
Kris Kristofferson	...	Doc
Mif	...	Brandon
Christopher Fulford	...	Slater
Jeffrey Wright	...	Jaworski
Tom Berenger	...	Hank
Stephen Lang	...	Jack Bennett
Alan C. Peterson	...	Gilbert
Hrothgar Mathews	...	Manny
Angela Alvarado	...	Lopez (as Angela Alvarado Rosa)
Robert Prosky	...	McKenzie
Robert Patrick	...	Noah
Courtney B. Vance	...	Jones

Also Known As:

D-Tox (Australia)
D-Tox - Im Auge der Angst (Germany)
Detox (USA) (working title)
Eye See You (USA) (video title)
The Outpost (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence/gore and language.

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | South Korea:18 | USA:R (certificate no. 37474) | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Canada:R | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Philippines:R-18

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

John Powell, the composer of the film wrote two complete scores for the film one of which was rejected. With the film delayed and literally banished 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.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Malloy is kissing his girlfriend after bringing her the toy monkey, his nose is on the right side of her nose. The POV changes and his nose is now on the other side.

Quotes:

[first lines]
911 operator: 911, what is your emergency?
disguised voice: I'm tired of the way things are, as opposed to the way they should be.
911 operator: Is this an emergency? Where are you located?
disguised voice: That really doesn't matter, so hear me out.
911 operator: Can we have your name please?
disguised voice: Of course, "Common Denominator", your man in the street. Now don't ask a another question or I will be obliged to do bad. Doing bad, you would have to assume responsibility. No interruptions. That's natural selection. Born to win, born to lose, born to die...

Movie Connections:

References The Thing (1982)

Soundtrack:

Freezer Burn

Like a diesel engine takes awhile to get humming

The exposition was the worst and least helpful portion of this monster of a film, without it this would have been a Beckett with action and with it just another pell mell hodgepodge of a movie with solid twists and enough gore to disgust or excite the most cynical watcher.

Sylvester Stallone (its no Copland or Rambo), Charles Dutton (doing his best Scatman Cruthers from the Shining), Stephen Lang (underutilized unlike in Gods and Generals), Robert Patrick (intense but weak beneath the veneer is well done) Kris Kristofferson (was alright as the doc) Courtney B Vance (the deacon) Tom Berenger (a phenomenal janitor) and Polly Walker (great, reticent, countenance cadenced voice, nurse) comprise the expensive cast among many others that I simply don't know from other works.

I actually liked this movie, I did not expect much, but overall given a few things I would have done differently could have made some money at the box office, though the critics would attack it like blood to sharks.

Fluid transitions with flashbacks, personal vignettes and dark mysterious catacombs of an air force radar station converted to a rehab facility, those cold war cutbacks really hit hard, create an honestly creepy environs that most directors and screenwriters skip for a graphic sex scene, profanity or a non-sequiter bout of over acting... I liked this movie the more I saw it and the more I thought about why such terrific actors had agreed to appear in this, aside from the money of course.

Allusions to the Thing, Switchback, the Shining, Sliver (which had Berenger and Polly Walker in it), Crimson Rivers, and a myriad of other horror, sci-fiction and thrillers while running the gambit of the serial killer genre 'cliches' and Sam Peckinpah features later in his life.

With a little more life this would have been a great movie...but instead I liked it no rhyme or reason why, I just liked it.