Compte à rebours mortel

The real mystery of D-Tox (hereinafter referred to by its video tile, "Eye See You") is why it never found a distributor in North America. I thought it was a good movie. You have to give star Sylvester Stallone a little credit for trying to shed his Rambo he-man image and playing a distraught and tragic hero.

The story involves a serial killer who has been murdering cops and whose murders will be investigated by FBI agent Jake Malloy (Stallone). When the killer murders Malloy's girlfriend Mary (Dina Meyer) he goes into a funk and finds solace at the bottom of a bottle to the point of contemplating suicide. Malloy's friend and partner Hendricks (Charles S. Dutton) convinces him to go to an isolated D-Tox center in Wyoming run by shrink Kris Kristofferson.

Malloy is thrown in with other cops from various locations who also have demons to exorcise. Among them are Christopher Fulford as Slater who tries to befriend him, Noah (Robert Patrick) who has a chip on his shoulder, McKenzie (Robert Prosky), Jones (Courtney B. Vance), Brandon (Mif) and Lopez (Angela Alvarado) among others. Polly Walker plays Jenny a sympathetic nurse and Tom Berenger and Stephen Lang as two suspicious workers at the facility.

It turns out that the serial killer that Malloy thought he had killed earlier, has in fact infiltrated the D-Tox Center and has begun systematically murdering the people there. But who is he or she?

Director Jim Gillespie gives us a murder mystery rather than an action film. It has the isolation and claustrophobic feeling reminiscent of John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982) except in this case the killer is human and not alien.

Stallone is good in the lead role experiencing a wide range of emotions. Its one of his better performances in recent years. Of the supporting players, Patrick stands out as well as Fulford, Dutton, Prosky, Vance, Alvartado and Lang. Berenger hardly has anything meaningful to do and is wasted here. And watch for Ron Howard's dad Rance Howard as the proprietor of the lodge that Dutton stays at. "Eye See You" is an under appreciated film and deserves a chance to find an audience. It is hoped that the video release will give it proper visibility.