Daylight (1996) Reviews

• The Po-Sly-don Adventure

  flickershows2004-07-13

  Geez, that cab driver sure knows a lot about rescue procedures. Hey, he's Sylvester Stallone! Sly plays Kit Latura, a disgraced EMS hotshot who was fired for a major men-killing mistake (even though he's still clearly the #1 guy in this particular line of work) and happens upon some major trouble. A couple of thieving imbeciles inadvertently cause an explosion in a tunnel under New York's Hudson River, trapping a multi-culti band of survivors between a rock and an impossible place. Latura volunteers to shimmy into the proverbial hell and lead the bedraggled few to---say it with me---'Daylight'. Would he have been as gung ho if he'd known he'd get so wet? Label this one 'Die Hard' in a tunnel or 'The Po-Sly-don Adventure'. In fact, director Rob Cohen probably screened 'The Poseidon Adventure' a few times while prepping his film. That's my favourite of the absurd '70s catastrophe flicks and 'Daylight' strikes the same notes, often successfully. There's water and fire, rats and stereotypes, it's dank and dark, and you're never sure which mid-level movie star will die next. And credit where it's due, there's even plenty of pathos in the "we all gotta work together" vein and touching scenes of quiet humanity that stop an inch short of treacle. I was moved more than usual by a Stallone picture. The movie made squat at the box office back in December '96, but it's worth a DVD rental for its solid craftsmanship. The F/X and sound design are money. As for the acting, the lead characters (Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen) aren't especially memorable, but some of the lower-billed performers (Stan Shaw & Colin Fox, to name two) escape the movie with some dignity. The only real villain is human idiocy---people go where they're not supposed to go and do things they're not supposed to do. 'Daylight' is formulaic, but it's still better than most disaster crap I've seen.

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• Very much a genre movie with all the clichés and problems you'd expect but it is enjoyable enough to be worth seeing

  bob the moo2005-06-28

  Trucks loaded with toxic waste. A stolen car being pursued by the police. Separate events that come together in a New York city tunnel when the latter crashes into the former starting a chain reaction explosion that sends a fireball sweeping through the tunnel and sealing it at both ends. A handful of survivors are left trapped with burning toxic waste and only enough air to last a few hours. Only a few meters short of entering the tunnel himself, cab driver and disgraced former fire chief Kit Latura recognises a disaster when he sees one and, thanks to a drill he ran years ago, knows that the standard rescue methods will not work. When his replacement dies ignoring his advice, his former colleagues turn to him and he agrees to enter the tunnel and try to rescue the survivors. From the opening ten minutes we know just where we are. The brief pictures of characters does enough to set up their roles within the disaster genre and it is not long before one massive explosion and we are back in the disaster films that were so popular in the 1970's. To many this will be a bad thing because while meeting all the genre requirements this film also repeats all the old problems as well – I guess it is about what you like, if you like the genre then you'll enjoy this. The plot is the basic stuff, focusing on one small group and throwing up one obstacle after another for them to get over. At each stage we'll have losses, tragic deaths, heroic sacrifice, emotional panic, headstrong jerks etc etc – it does everything you would expect. Of course this also brings with it the problems of being rushed, the characters being cardboard cut outs, the drama being staged and never being able to stop without making things look bad and the fact that the film is a bit too close to being a cloying weepy for comfort. None of this stops it being exciting enough to be worth seeing though. The modern effects are impressive and the sets etc are convincingly real. The actors hardly have a lot to work with but they do well enough to make it work well. Stallone holds back from being an invincible action man and he is better for it, producing a good lead. The support all fill their genre roles but most of them do it well enough so that they are actually emotionally engaging rather than just being fodder. Hedaya, Sanders, Brenneman, Mortensen and others are all solid enough to make it work – sure they are a bit corny at times but this is more to do with the genre writing than the acting. Overall this is a disaster movie very much in the genre mould set in the 1970's and it has all the weaknesses you would expect from the genre. The writing is where the clichés come in but these are almost carried by the solid acting and enjoyable special effects. A genre movie then but one that is enjoyable if you like that sort of thing – just don't expect anything original or new and you'll be OK.

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• Enjoyable Sly Action Flick

  mjw23052006-12-30

  An accidental explosion rips through a tunnel beneath the Hudson river, sealing off both ends trapping the survivors inside. In steps Stallone, a disgraced former emergency services chief, who hopes to save the day in usual hero style. Daylight has a good blend of interesting characters, suspense, drama, action and special effects that all add towards the entertainment of the movie. Overall it's good fun to watch, and it does refrain from becoming silly or over-sentimental. 7/10

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• Good watch all around...

  TerminalMadness2004-02-11

  Reminiscent of the seventies disaster flicks, mostly of "Poseidon Adventure", a group of people are stuck in a tunnel after a horrible explosion traps them underground; now its up to a washed up EMS worker to get them out alive before the mayor and rescue workers finally blow everything up assuming the survivors aren't alive. Though the story is very predictable and nothing new, this does make for an entertaining and interesting survival flick. Sylvester Stallone doesn't play a commando or soldier, but for once plays a regular guy who is really clueless at times when it comes to escape. We also get some great performances from excellent character actors including Dan Hedaya, Danielle Harris, Amy Brennamen, and the underused Viggo Mortensen before he became a household name in "Lord of the Rings" films. Though there is a lot of good stuff here, there's a lot of contrived plot twists and predictable storylines. We know who will be killed, who won't, we know the under developed people will be killed and the emphasized characters will survive. In spite of all that, this is one of Stallone's best before he began making bomb after bomb. (*** out of ****)

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• Best Disaster Movie since the golden age

  R_O_U_S2004-02-03

  By 1996, no-one held out much hope for a Sylvester Stallone action movie. Where Daylight scores is by bucking expectations and being a good old-fashioned disaster movie. The opening scenes are spectacular, as we are introduced, one by one, to a couple of dozen protagonists, who all then enter a New York tunnel and get blown to smithereens. The rest of the film concerns the survivors' efforts to get free, aided by Stallone. It's a lot better than it has any right to be, and uses all the genre cliches to its advantage.

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