# Daylight (1996)

### reviewed by
Joe Chamberlain

    Daylight
    A review by Joe Chamberlain

Starring Sylvester Stallone; Amy Brenneman; Viggo Mortensen; Dan Hedaya & Jay O. Sanders

At first glance, Daylight would seem like your typical disaster movie. On second glance it looks that way too. Although, as typical disaster movies go, Daylight isn't that bad. Admittedly, it seems to rip off a great deal of its plot devices from disaster flicks of days gone by (think Poseidon Adventure). But the decent dialogue and surprisingly good acting make up for the "haven't I seen this scene somewhere before?" feeling that creeps up all too often during the film.

Sylvester Stallone stars as the recently fired head of New York's Emergency Response team. By sheer luck, he is in the right place at the right time when disaster strikes the unaware inhabitants of this little film. "What disaster is that?" you ask, as you inch ever closer to the edge of your seat. Glad you asked. Through a whole sequence of entirely probable events (about as probable as hitting the lottery) a large explosion takes place in the Lincoln tunnel running under the Hudson River in New York City. The explosion results in the tunnel collapsing at both ends, which causes not only massive loss of life, but traps a dozen people inside the wreckage of the tunnel. Good old Sly, who is only feet away from entering the tunnel when it collapses, offers his services to the rescuers, who gladly accept it. Sly then enters the tunnel through a vent shaft (think Judge Dredd) which he can only go in, and not out off, and proceeds to try to rescue those trapped inside. So begins the fun, but the fun has to be quick, because this tunnel has started to spring a leak.

The acting is about what you would expect of a Stallone movie. Not superb by any means, but far above some of his other films (think Judge Dredd again). Daylight's acting is probably average, or a little above, in terms of this sort of genre, starring this particular star. Amy Brenneman is the only actor of any note, and she does a pretty good job as Stallone's reluctant helper. Oh yeah, Stallone's real life son, Sage, is in this too. Sage -- nice name. I guess it could be worse, he could have been named nutmeg or parsley. Note to Sage -- you are still young. Go to school and get a good education -- you don't have a future in acting.

The plot runs along the same lines as the acting -- interesting, but predictable. Mostly due to the fact that it was pretty well recycled from a dozen other action flicks. The biggest problem with a film of this nature is that they try to cram too many things into the movie. As soon as the cast clears one seemingly impossible hurdle, another one seems to pop right up, even worse than the last one. I realize that it wouldn't be much of a movie otherwise, but it does make the movie a bit predictable. Adding to the predictability is the cast of characters, which of course, has to include at least one or two difficult people who want to do things their own way and think the qualified guy (in this case Stallone) doesn't know what he is doing. Why is it in disaster movies we can never have everyone agree with each other and all work together? Would this be too much to ask? Can't we all just get along?

Special effects weren't bad -- but I've certainly seen better. Some of the scenes, while fun to watch, were such blatant rip-offs that you had to wonder if scripts from old movies were just copied verbatim. Especially all of the scenes that involved anything underwater (the tunnel, of course, starts to flood). I really expected Gene Hackman, Roddy McDowell and Ernest Borgnine to appear at any minute -- I wasn't sure if I was watching Daylight or The Poseidon Adventure. I suppose if you have to rip off a movie for good ideas, The Poseidon Adventure is a good one to use. The underwater sequences (aside from the deja vu) were very well shot and worked fairly well. They were the best part of the movie by a long shot.

Better than average Stallone flick. I realize that's not saying much when the man has Judge Dredd on his resume. But certainly not up to the standards of Cliffhanger. Daylight is a fun movie, and as long as you aren't expecting a whole lot you might even be pleasantly surprised.

    7/10

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