Review of D-Tox (2002) by Oliver K — 14 Oct 2010

D-Tox, this is one of my father's favourite films, but not mine. Here we have the average thriller/slasher, with Sylvester Stallone as the main character. The plot does boast some creativity and has great potential, but the prologue and overall character development is poor and too fast-paced to compensate.

The plot follows Molloy (Stallone) a federal officer investigating the murders of nine police. The serial killer is centred on Malloy; he is his main target, so he calls him before a murder etc. The serial killer then kills his girlfriend-possible-fiancé-wife; they then find him after he commits suicide by hanging himself. After a suicide attempt, Malloy goes to a detox centre (rehab) in Alaska, for police and run by police. Here the patients begin to slowly be picked-off one by one. At first, it seems like suicides, but they soon find-out its murders, and one of them is he serial killer (he's alive!).

The plot is very good I must say, it is very creative and shows potential. I believe it could have been recognised as one of the great slasher films, if executed correctly, unfortunately it was not. There are many problems with this film. The acting was average; you had average actors and bad actors. The bad actors were not too abundant, so it was not horrible acting. Stallone does average, he is the same as usual, but he takes on a cliché role and for an average actor, it is hard to add extra to such a role. The serial killer once revealed is quite good, but he just was not enough to be a memorable one. I think he had potential to become a memorable one, more script writing and a better actor.

The plot suffers mainly from the lack of detail. The patients are badly developed, one or two are developed at a pass mark, but being the 'strong' characters really needs a lot more. The other patients were deeply under-developed, the most you had for some was a reason for their being at the rehab.

Overall, a slasher/thriller that boasts a good plot and great potential, crumbles under fast-paced plot points and under-developed characters. The acting is not great, but is passable, and could be well-liked f the rest was done properly. I would recommend to Stallone fans, and slasher fans, for they are not usually worried if a film is good or not.