zkonedog
For the first (and so far only) time in his career, Sylvester Stallone tackles the disaster movie genre with "Daylight" and crafts a surprisingly effective and poignant film.For a basic plot summary, "Daylight" focuses on the collapse of the New York-New Jersey tunnel. When the tunnel collapses due to a chemical explosion, only Kit Latura (Stallone) has the knowledge/skills necessary (as the former transportation chief) to breach the collapse and try to rescue a small band of survivors.What really works in this film is the character development. Before the main plot is set in motion, viewers are given some background information on each of the characters that ultimately will battle to escape the collapse. Thus, by the end, you'll truly be rooting for the characters to succeed in their monumental task.About the only thing that fails to work in this movie is director Rob Cohen's attempts to create un-needed drama. The underlying backstory of Latura only serves to create unrealistic, reactionary drama, while a Die Hard-like theme of "greedy, arrogant police chief" permeates the drama/action. All of this would have been completely unnecessary, and actually drags down the overall effectiveness of the film, as a few scenes will make you roll your eyes.Overall, though, is is a solid film that is one of Stallone's best. A more accurate rating would be 3.5 stars, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for the thrills and emotional moments it provided me.
Leofwine_draca
A textbook example of how a disaster movie should be, this has plenty of outlandish situations, a varied range of hazards threatening our group of survivors, action by the bucket load and a typical B-movie cast, including: the token black guy; the resourceful heroine; the stressed out father; the old couple; the dog; and Stallone himself as the muscular, caring hero of the piece. All are present and correct, making this pic solid enough entertainment.Okay, so the plot is pretty basic, and consists of characters escaping from one danger to another, and another, but with this budget what do you expect? The cast are all adequate, with Mortensen probably being most memorable as the cop. Stallone basically sleepwalks through his role, but it's the mumbling action man persona his fans know and love, and it's good to see him as an actual human hero (he's gasping and clutching his chest through exertion).There's plenty of excitement to be had from numerous explosions, the old staple of the trapped survivors being in a location filling up with water, and also you get the opportunity to play the "who's going to snuff it?" game, where viewers place bets on who will be the next one to die. Let me say, it's not the dog, but then you could probably have already guessed that. With good SFX and some exciting, tense scenes, DAYLIGHT amicably passes the time if you want a film to relax and unwind with.
FlashCallahan
When an explosion blocks New York's Hudson Tunnel at both ends, ex Emergency Medical Services Chief Kit Latura is the only one with the know-how and experience to save the day. Risking his life to join the survivors in the tunnel; he finds a feisty writer, an elderly couple, a famous action-man, a quarrelling family, some young hoodlums, a security guard and even a dog. Can he put his own past tragedies behind him and bring this desperate group to safety?At the time of this movies release, Stallone was at a strange point in his career. He was still making decent action movies, but his star was falling, and people were not turning up for his movies, just like this one.Yes, Dredd wasn't the best movie, but Assassins and The Specialist were solid movie, just like he made in the eighties, but people wanted something different, and Stallone wouldn't have a bona-fide hit until ten years later, when it was cool to be retro.But the film in a while is not a bad effort. The opening is brilliant, the pyrotechnics and the choreography of the disaster sets the film up to be an awesome ride, but as all disaster movies go, you really have to care about the characters in order to have a care about the movie, and to be honest, many of the characters trapped, are so boorish and pretentious, I couldn't care less.And this is the films main problem.Stallone is wonderful, and the set pieces are spectacular, but other than Brenneman, Harris, and the dog, I want bothered about anyone else.And this is a shame, because if the makers had taken the time to consider the characters, as much as the spectacle, this would have been one of the best disaster movies ever.But, it's just a really good Stallone movie...
Desertman84
Daylight is a disaster film that stars Sylvester Stallone together with Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, and Danielle Harris.This echo of 1970s disaster flicks that tells a story of Kit Latura,a disgraced former head of New York City's Emergency Medical Services, a loser who is nevertheless a compulsive rescuer of people in danger.It was directed by Rob Cohen.A truck containing dangerous chemicals explodes in the Holland Tunnel, trapping those New Yorkers not killed in the explosion. Authorities know there are survivors, but cannot figure out what to do to save them. Ruptured water mains and leaks in the tunnel itself, which is beneath the Hudson River, will cause it to fill with water in a few hours. Of all the colorful characters trapped there, only Roy Nord, a mountain climber, has any ideas about what to do, but he quickly dies while attempting to save the others. However, Kit Latura is a former city Emergency Medical Services director who was in the area of the explosion, and he knows the tunnel's construction quirks. He quickly convinces city officials to let him wend his way through the tunnel's maze of exhaust fans to help the exhausted survivors confront the obstacles that await them.This has Stallone as a miscast who outrageously pushes the envelope of his martyr persona to near-religious levels. He throws himself, quite literally, into this part, and between that entertainment factor and the unnervingly convincing effects.Nevertheless,it is a pretty watchable film.
AD
