D-TOX

US, 2002, 96 minutes, Colour.
Sylvester Stallone, Charles S. Dutton, Polly Walker, Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Fulford, Jeffrey Wright, Tom Berenger, Stephen Lang, Alan C. Paterson, Robert Prosky, Robert Patrick, Courtney B. Vance, Sean Patrick Flanery, Rance Howard.
Directed by Jim Gillespie.

D-Tox is a Sylvester Stallone vehicle. Here he plays an FBI agent whose wife is brutality murdered by an unknown killer who has been killing off police officers.

Stallone’s character is overcome by grief as well as by anger and is advised by his boss, Charles S. Dutton, to go to a detox centre. There he finds a number of police officers also undergoing treatment. However, the killer is disguised as a policeman and starts murdering the officers at the detox centre.

Stallone is his usual self. Charles S. Dutton is sympathetic as his superior. Kris Kristofferson is in charge of the detox centre with Polly Walker on the staff. The rest of the cast portray the various officers who are undergoing treatment.

The film is rather dark, has its brutal touches, builds up to an atmosphere where everybody is suspicious of the other, various members of the detox patients being eliminated. There is a final confrontation – where the killer is revealed to be British!

1.The popularity of Sylvester Stallone as an action hero? Police? Agent? Investigations? His collapse and his going to the detox centre?

2.The city, the precincts, homes, the bars, murder sites? The contrast with the detox centre, isolated, winter, ice and snow? Cold atmosphere, dark? The musical score?

3.The title, its focus on the centre, the people there, staff and patients? The killer inserting himself into the detox centre?

4.The basic plotline, Malloy and his status, investigations, friends with other police? Their deaths? The celebration and the aftermath with the murder of the policeman? His relationship with Mary, going home, their discussions, the gift? The brutality of her death? The cumulative effect on him? Hendricks and his advice for Malloy to go to the detox?

5.Hendricks, a sympathetic superior? The advice about the centre? His visiting the town, trying to get to the centre – and his participation in the trick to catch the killer?

6.Doc, his police background, his running of the centre? The rules? His severity? Reliance on Jenny? Other people on the staff? The number of murders, Doc and his wanting to heighten security? Jenny, her concern, with Malloy, the threats?

7.The range of officers, as individuals, the treatment? The build-up to the fear? The gradual murders? The lack of clear delineation of particular characters? Some appearing stronger and more personalised than others? The build-up to the climax – the further deaths, trying to get out of the detox, the weather? The build-up to the confrontation?

8.Jaworski, a strong character, the clashes with Jones? Connor as a young man, his fragile character, his death? The contrast with Noah, his harsh attitudes, his insulting McKenzie? His confronting Malloy? His being taken by the killer, his fears and weeping?

9.Slater, his being part of the group, contributing? The revelation of the truth? His past, Malloy and his tracking him in the past? His killing the real Slater, inserting himself, madness, the final confrontation with Malloy, his talking about what he had done, his taunts about Mary?

10.The final confrontation, Slater’s death? Malloy – and a possible healing?