Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		1.5

Eye See You Blu-ray Movie Review

DOA

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 28, 2020

In a way, it’s maybe ironically appropriate that Eye See You has a homonym and/or a homonymic acronym in ICU, since this film was evidently in the cinematic equivalent of an Intensive Care Unit virtually from the get go. Despite a relatively starry cast which included Sylvester Stallone, Polly Walker, Tom Berenger, Charles S. Dutton, Sean Patrick Flanery, Robert Patrick, Jeffrey Wright, Courtney B. Vance, Stephen Lang and Kris Kristofferson, and one of those setups which includes an isolated setting with an apparently crazed murderer on the loose, Eye See You reportedly encountered trouble early on with some disruptions in the producing team, and then test screenings that didn't exactly go well. The film then evidently sat on the shelf for several years before it was even granted a short and limited theatrical release. Eye See You also evidently at one point sported the title Detox (a number of online sources cite the title as D-Tox, but at least as evidenced by the so-called "Director's Cut" which is included in SD as a supplement on this disc, it wasn't always spelled that way). That title at least hints (as does the current title, albeit more subliminally) at the fact that the aforementioned isolated location in this instance is a rehab clinic that caters specifically to law enforcement types.

The first half hour or so of Eye See You is a study in clichés, which is not to suggest that things get materially better in that regard as things progress. But starting with an underlayment of newspaper headlines beneath the opening credits, headlines which document the serial killing of police by a crazed murderer, a “been there, seen that” feeling definitely emerges. The FBI has been called in on the case, and Agent Jake Malloy (Sylvester Stallone) is featured in some of the news articles seen under the credits. When what appears to be Malloy’s former local police partner (several salient plot points are not made overly clear) is taken out by the madman, things seem bad enough, but then (just to make things really personal, not to mention predictable) the killer targets Malloy’s fiancée, calling Malloy just to let him know what's going on. That understandably sends Malloy into a tailspin marked by heaving drinking, so much so that his friend Agent Chuck Hendricks (Charles S. Dutton) feels an intervention is necessary, and drives Malloy to a bizarrely isolated clinic in the wilds of a snowbound Wyoming.

Now the film has already documented the supposed death of the killer of Malloy's (work) partner and (domestic) partner, which is just the first of several obvious cheats that are employed. But once Malloy arrives at a facility run by the kindly Doc (Kris Kristofferson), things quickly start spiraling out of control, with a series of supposed "suicides" that Malloy of course doesn't think are. Now in some ways this whole setup may remind some of better plotted outings like Agatha Christie's iconic And Then There Were None, with a bunch of characters thrown together in an isolated locale where they all are getting picked off one by one. And unless you are prone to subscribing to the theory that first time screenwriter Ron L. Brinkerhoff is as accomplished as Christie or at least smart enough to steal from her in terms of having one of the deaths be faked, you're left with a slowly dwindling supply of suspects, one of whom by default has to be the killer.

The film attempts to offer little vignettes documenting the backgrounds of the other people at the facility, including some sequences actually set in "group therapy" moments. But the acting styles are all over the map in this piece, with Jeffrey Wright as a (literally) scarred policeman seeming to be in a totally different film from some of the more relatively restrained performers. There are some angsty moments here, to be sure, with the snowbound locale adding to an overall claustrophobic feel. But there all sorts of unanswered questions in this piece, perhaps some due to what were reportedly massive reshoots and then re-edits, and even the big "reveal" of the killer seems routine, with the villain's motivations particularly obscure. The film does offer a few gory death scenes, for those who like that sort of thing, but even those elements seem weirdly out of place with some of the other supposed "psychological" underpinnings that were apparently aimed for.

Eye See You Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Eye See You is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Marquee Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. When this film features brighter moments, either outdoor or nicely lit interiors, it pops with some warmth and with generally excellent detail levels. Unfortunately as can probably be made out in many of the screenshots accompanying this review, the bulk of the film takes place after a blizzard shuts down the rehab facility, and a lot of the subsequent story is drenched in deep cobalt blues and less than optimal lighting a lot of the time. This appears to be an older master, with some occasionally rough looking moments (see screenshots 18 and 19), and detail levels that can kind of ebb and flow depending on how well lit any given scene is. No substantial restoration seems to have taken place, and numerous flecks and specks (some of them kind ironically white specks that show up in scenes already laden with white snows) occur throughout the presentation.

Eye See You Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Eye See You offers a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 which features a lot of whipping winter winds as one of its regular surround activities. A lot of the film takes place outside (it's yet another example of "stupid horror movie behavior" with one person after another trekking off into the wilderness by themselves, or at least ostensibly by themselves), and the track regularly provides good, realistic placement of ambient environmental effects. Composer John Powell reportedly wrote two scores for the film (and SD presentation of the so-called "Director's Cut", below, does contain different music), and the one in this film often surges into the side and rear channels. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track.

Eye See You Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes

  1. Cold Shoulder (480i; 1:38)

  
  

  2. The Tour (480i; 00:42)

  
  

  3. Eye Opener (480i; 2:10)

  
  

  4. Fireside Chat (480i; 3:33)

  
  

  5. Moby Dick (480i; 00:31)

  
  

  6. Faith (480i; 2:19)

  
  

  7. Left Behind (480i; 00:55)

  
  

  8. Slater Concern (480i; 00:48)

• Interviews

  Charles Dutton (480i; 2:43)

  
  

  Kris Kristofferson (480i; 1:00) n

  
  

  Polly Walker (480i; 2:51)

  
  

  Christopher Pulford (480i; 2:02)

  
  

  Robert Patrick (480i; 2:12)

  
  

  Robert Prosky (480i; 1:54)

  
  

  Courtney B. Vance (480i; 2:25)

  
  

  Jeffrey Wright (480i; 1:56)

  
  

  Angela Alvarado Rosa (480i; 1:52)

• Photo Gallery (1080i) is authored without a timecode, but does advance automatically, so have the Pause button on your remote handy if you want to linger on any given image.


• Detox (480i; 1:34:41) is advertised as the "Unreleased Director's Cut" and displays this listed spelling of its title. This is quite a different piece, from both structural and tonal standpoints. This is sourced from some pretty iffy looking video, but may still be of interest to some.


• Trailers includes Eye See You (480i; 1:53) along with other releases from MVD.

Eye See You Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm still not quite sure about several rather significant plot points in Eye See You, not the least of which is why the killer targeted Malloy and why therefore other cops were targeted, many of whom Malloy had no real connection to other than that he was investigating their deaths. I'm also curious about the first supposed dead bad guy Malloy finds after a chase. This is a film that had a decent enough premise that probably just couldn't survive its studio's meddling hand, though some of this chaos seems directly attributable to both screenwriting and direction. Technical merits are generally okay (video) to excellent (audio), and some of the supplemental interviews kind of cheekily amusing, for those who are considering a purchase.