The career of Sylvester Stallone has rollercoastered over
time. The peaks and valleys have found him in good and bad movies and movies
that were good that got overlooked by the public. F*I*S*T was a dynamite film
that the public avoided and showed what a good actor he actually is. The same
holds true for this film, a movie caught in development hell that from what I
recall went straight to disc. EYE SEE YOU is a taught little thriller with a
great cast that few know of.
Stallone plays Jake Malloy, an ex-cop turned FBI agent on
the trail of a serial killer taking out police officers. Malloy is about to
propose to his longtime girlfriend Mary (Dina Meyer) but before he has the
chance he’s called to the scene of another cop killing, a man he was arguing
with the day before. At the crime scene he gets a call from the killer, just
outside of the house he shares with Mary. Before he can get home to save her
she becomes yet another victim of the killer.
Time passes and Malloy is not a raging alcoholic on leave.
His boss Hendricks (Charles S. Dutton) confronts him in his favorite bar and
informs him that he’s taking him to a rehab clinic. The clinic is in a remote
building in Wyoming during the middle of a snow storm. Run by Dr. John
"Doc" Mitchell (Kris Kristofferson), a former cop and recovering
alcoholic, the location is new to this use. It was formerly an asylum. On their
test run the location is working with just 7 patients, all law enforcement
officers with various issues.
Peter Noah (Robert Patrick) is a paranoid SWAT officer with
anger issues. Frank Slater (Christopher Fulford) is a snobbish British officer
with an opinion on everything. Jaworski (Jeffrey Wright) is an alcoholic
narcotics officer who attempted suicide. McKenzie (Robert Prosky) is an aging
Mountie who witnessed his partner’s death. Willie Jones (Courtney B. Vance) is
a homicide cop with deep religious convictions. Rounding out the group is Lopez
(Angela Alvarado), an LAPD officer with a mouth to shame a sailor. Along with
Mitchell running the place are nurse Jenny Monroe (Polly Walker), Jack Bennett
(Stephen Lang), the locations orderly and a former patient in the facility, and
Hank (Tom Berenger) the mechanic for the location and Mitchell’s assistant.
With these few people in this remote location sparks are
sure to fly and they do. Anger issues, paranoia and the DTs take hold of the
different members of the group as therapy sessions take place and detoxing
kicks in. Each of them is battling their own demons and those are compounded by
the testosterone fueled infighting among them.
Things go from bad to worse when the members of the group
being dying off. At first it appears these are suicides committed by troubled
individuals seeking a way out. But this is a group of police and it isn’t long
before Malloy realizes they’re not suicides but murders. It becomes a locked
room mystery then at the only guilty party has to be one of the people located
in this remote facility.
The body count begins to rise and after one apparent
“suicide” Malloy realizes something similar about the death. Looking beneath
the eyelids of the victim he finds the letters “I” beneath one and “CU” beneath
the other. The killer he was chasing long ago is part of the group in the
facility, there to taunt and possibly kill Malloy. The game of cat and mouse is
on as the clues mount up, the number of suspects dwindles and Malloy gets
closer to the man who killed the woman he loved.
The movie was originally attached to Ron Howard but he left
the project to direct HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS. It would have been
interesting to see how he would have handled things. In the hands of director Jim
Gillespie it still is a solid film that should have been released and done
great business. Unfortunately sometimes the studio heads seem to have little
faith in great movies and far too much on more mediocre ones. Had they backed
this one up with a decent ad campaign and a wide release it might have proved a
hit.
The pedigree of the stars involved in this film is long.
That a movie with this many solid and popular actors sat on the shelf is
stunning. Better yet all of them bring along their A game and turn in some
fantastic performances. And the cinematography is wonderful as well, never
going too dark in scenes where less light is involved. It all comes together
brilliantly.
Made in 2002 and released before on DVD the movie is now a
part of the MVD special collection series and has been done right. Their
version offers a High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the main
feature in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and the film has never looked
better. I was stunned by how crisp an image it was. In addition to that they’re
including several extras like 8 deleted scenes, interviews with the cast, DETOX
director Gillespie’s never before seen original version of the film with its
original title, a photo gallery and the original theatrical trailer.
If you’ve never seen the film before it’s worth seeking out.
Fans of Stallone will want to add this one to their collection. This is one of
those solid films that was overlooked and deserves a second chance. Thank
goodness MVD is giving it one.
No comments:
Post a Comment