Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Eye See You (D-Tox)

What was Sylvester Stallone thinking? A quick look at this script should have scared him off. Eye See You was also released as D-Tox internationally. Whatever they call this film, it seemed like a complete waste of Fifty-Five Million dollars. Looking at the cast and looking at the quality of the film, it is obvious to me that the majority of that money went to pay the actors. It certainly did not show up in the special effects. I’m still perplexed that Director Jim Gillespie and Producers Karen Kehela, Ric Kidney and Kevin King were able to talk any of these actors into participating in this film.

Eye See You was adapted to screenplay format by Ron L. Brinkerhoff. The screenplay is based on a book written by Howard Swindle. I have not read the original book, but wonder how many indecent liberties were taken with this one. What surprised me was that this screenplay was bad on so many levels. The dialogue was especially bad. The character development was non-existent and the entire film lacked credibility. When I look at Brinkerhoff’s later work The Guardian, I have to wonder what went wrong here. The Guardian was an excellent movie. Eye See You had very little to offer.



Eye See You tells the story of FBI Agent Jake Malloy (Sylvester Stallone). Malloy has been tracking a serial killer that targets police. When the killer strikes close to home, Malloy spirals out of control with binge drinking and a suicide attempt. I would think the FBI has the resources to assist an agent experiencing this type of trauma. Instead, he is referred to a treatment center by his cop friend, Detective Hendricks (Charles Dutton). The treatment plan involves sending Agent Malloy to a remote bunker converted to be a rehab clinic. Several other shell-shocked officers are attending group therapy sessions set up by a former cop known as “Doc” (Kris Kristofferson). But all is not as it seems to be as cop suicides set everyone on edge.

There were plenty of problems with this plot. But the biggest problem was that it simply lacked believability. A fundamental foundation was never established to help viewers buy into the premise. The lack of character development could not be countered through the casting, which included some well known names. The dialogue was horrendous, hackneyed and simply inconceivable at times. The interaction between the characters seemed to be forced, as did the attempts to create a twist. The treatment center becomes the house of old-time “whodunits,” where any number of eccentric guests keep the audience guessing who the killer is. That genre didn’t work with this script. It was obvious that certain characters were created to keep viewers guessing the identity of the killer. The problem is, I really didn’t care. I wasn’t buying into the plot to begin with.


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