The March 2002 issue of Empire magazine has the following review:
D-Tox
Some three years after filming began, D-Tox is finally here. That delay, coupled with the presence of former box office heavyweight, Stallone, means that it must be crap, right? Well, actually no, it is better than crap. In fact it is surprisingly watchable. Which for a film delayed longer than Toen & Country, is saying something.
It’s a hybrid of Seven, The Thing, and Scottish helmer Gilliespie’s I Know What You Did Last Summer [right down to the killer’s fur-lined parka and ability to be in two different places at the same time]. But thanks to an ominous mood and some surprises – an attempted suicide is all the more shocking for its sheer matter-of-factness – the blend works.
However when Stallone arrives at the detox center, Gilliespie surrenders to cliche, wasting [literally] a pantheon of good actors in distressingly similar fashion. Sly, though, is on impressive, if not career-resuscitating form – at least until convention dictates that he run around dark corridors waving a gun.
Chris Hewit
Any Good?
D-Tox is probably best enjoyed on video. But that a serviceable thriller like this struggles to get a release, when certain nameless dross gets rushed into cinemas is, frankly, bewildering.
***
“Sly, though, is on impressive, if not career-resuscitating form…” Music to my ears!
Thanks to Ernest “Jazzman” Resendes for sending in the info!
– Craig Zablo (February 17, 2002)