D-Tox
USA 2001. Director: Jim Gillespie
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Charles Dutton, Robert Patrick, Polly Walker

When his career staggers Sylvester Stallone bites back with the oddest of choices, he should at least have a big credit for that. Instead of Rambo 4 or Rocky 511 we get an original movie about cops in rehab. D-Tox has a great ensemble of Hollywood's finest bad boys (apart from the leads, add Kris Kristoferson, Tom Berenger, Robert Prosky and Courtney B. Vance) and it's a bit weird that all these great guys have taken part in this film considering that Stallone is not exactly box-office gold these days. Perhaps they regret it now, it took three years and several name changes (they settled for the worst) for the film to reach its audience. In USA it even went straight to video. But, lucky for us, it's not half as bad as all of this indicates, far from it. Stallone delivers his best acting work since Cop Land and proves once again what an underrated actor he is (oh, am I gonna have to eat that up).

Stallone plays FBI agent John Malloy who has his wife butchered by a serial killer and goes for the bottle. Eventually Malloy's boss (Charles Dutton) forces him to go to a remote rehabilitation clinic for suicidal policemen run by Kris Kistofferson in the middle of nowhere, way up in a snowy Canada. A great snowstorm arrives which shuts down the clinic and closes all roads leading to it. Soon the trapped men are found dead one after another and it becomes clear that someone is trying to kill them all. And the killer is one among themselves.

The first half hour drags a bit, but once the team hits rehab the film hits home. Scottish director Jim Gillespie
(I Know What You Did Last Summer) know how to make this type of film and he delivers the suspence and the action like a pro. The problem, if we must go into that, is that Gillespie is directing another horror pic while the story tries to reach some more serious issues. The dialogue slightly borders on self-parody and is a little at odds with the dark gloomy style of the film itself. Most of the actors are also left with little to do except looking suspicious, complaining about their health problems and waving guns in each others faces. There's too many undeveloped characters lurking around acting red herrings and it becomes annoying since they are played by so many familiar faces. Especially Robert Prosky (Hill Street Blues) is wasted shamefully while Courtney B. Vance (Boys Next Door) seem to be in the film only because they had to have the obligatory black actor in it and is left to do just about nothing whatsoever. Much of the meat was obviously sacrificed in editing as evident by the many deleted scenes on the DVD, which lets us know some of the main participants and their motives better. Nevertheless, D-Tox is not made for nitpicking critics, it's a fair atmospheric late night chiller well worth your time and money. And NO, Robert Patrick is NOT the killer.

© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.