Daybreak

There has to be a worse movie than this - R.O.T.O.R. and CHICKEN PARK spring to mind... Nah, this takes the cake! So God-awful amateurish, trite and laughable, I would think any first-year film student would be failed on this effort. Some wannabe Bruckenheimer has figured "Lets re-make DAYLIGHT with a subway wreck...Oh and by the way guys, we only got $500 tops!" I could have made a better and more entertaining film with my old cam-corder, the postman and the moth-eaten bitser next door: CUJO 2: THE POSTMAN NEVER CALLS TWICE You're talking crap plus. Special effects so un-special as to be the laughing stock of Hollywood......make that Anchorage, Alaska! An earthquake, consisting of a camera on its side, a few hazy photographs and someone tossing dust over the lens. A train-wreck you never see. Actors can't act, a script that was hand-written on cue-cards some 10 minutes before the crew turned up......and sadly, Roy Scheider embarrassing his entire career, his agent, his family and anyone who ever attended an acting workshop.

Speaking of which, I was once asked to strip to my undies, lie on the floor and portray a rose unfurling its petals in the morning sun. "Improvise," my drama teacher said. From memory I embarrassed not only myself, but every rose that ever bloomed. STILL I topped any and every performance in this inconceivably juvenile loser of a movie.

If you paid more than $1 for this trash in any bargain-basement-bin, you've "done" your money cold!

I had to check this out because I'm a huge Roy Scheider fan & have loved the guy since growing up watching the Jaws films & Roy Scheider always stood-out to me as a great screen presence & top actor.

Roy Scheider means alot to me as an actor, his face is a welcomed comfort in any film & he's in my top 3 actors of all-time.

Scheider will always be remembered as Cheif Brody from Jaws & Jaws 2 because the character is such an iconic role within movie history but Scheider is pretty much great in anything, Checkout his Blue Thunder, The Seven-Ups, The French Connection, Sorcerer & more as the guy was a lead star & everyman hero through the 70's & 80's & became a "Character Actor" in his later part of his Career through the 90's & starred in many low-budget productions & B-movies in smaller roles but he always delivered a strong performance & does so here in this low-budget Disaster movie called "Daybreak" it's pretty much similar to Stallone's Daylight in a way but it's just as entertaining & i like it better.

I got a nice sense of Nostalgia whilst watching this with it's pure 90's look & fashion. The colours are vibrant & everything is so 90's direct-to-video style but i love it as these types of films were everywhere on the shelves of Blockbuster video back in the 90's & i loved that place.

Daybreak puts a small group of survivors in the subway systems after an earthquake hits Los Angeles & their train crashes. We are shown each character at the beginning of the movie & each with their own drama that happened to them & then they all end up on the same train together. I love little survival Thriller's like this & the cast do a fine job together as they encounter more danger as they search for a way out. Adam Whylie plays the boy, Newton & he's a good actor & i recognised his face from Childhood faves of mine, Child's Play 2 & Kindergarten Cop.

The effects are typical low-level for a small production like this & expected but the action & danger are handled well & keeps things suspenseful.

Roy Scheider plays the head of the Train Authority as Stan Marshall & is a very good presence & lifts the B-movie material higher-up with his strong performance & his Awesome voice as he talks to the survivors on the radio & tries to guide them out of the subway whilst dealing with corrupted government officials & Scheider gives a no-nonsense performance.

Daybreak is a fun little B-movie, nothing more & nothing less.

Enjoy folks lol.

In modern day LA some bright city planner came up with the idea for a mass transit subway system in downtown LA. If you build it, they will come.......

Inevitably, an earthquake shakes the Los Angeles area, and hapless victims are trapped inside the subway tunnel. Ted McGinley is the transit maintenance scheduler - conveniently trapped as well, so that he can come to the rescue.

Sub plots include a dirty deputy mayor who wants the folks in the tunnel to stay put so they don't find the chemical waste he's been hiding down there while pocketing the disposal fees. Roy Scheider is the head of the transit authority, and deserves better. He makes the most of what he has to work with.

Mix equal parts of the Poseidon Adventure and Daylight, mix in some really bad dialogue and acting = Daybreak.

That is how bad Daybreak is. Of course there may be some novelty value if you're in a good mood, but if you are screaming with laughter it is because of how unintentionally funny the movie in its awfulness is. Daybreak is very poorly rendered visually, it is very choppily shot and edited and the effects look as though they haven't even been finished. The sound doesn't do any favours either, coming across as bizarre and the lack of audio authenticity dilutes any terror anybody is meant to feel in this situation because the threat is instead unthreatening. The dialogue is cheesy and inane, and there is nothing exciting, surprising or suspenseful in the story with listless moments that are so ridiculous you can have £10 for each time you laughed(you'll probably find yourself at over £1000). The characters are annoying stereotypical cardboard cut-outs, especially the loudmouth constantly looking for a fight, and the acting is dire with a mixture of over and under acting and nobody even Roy Scheider can do anything with what they had to work with. In conclusion, an awful, unintentionally hilarious movie that should never have seen the light of day. 1/10 Bethany Cox

A movie that never should have been made. The acting is really bad. Everything is so embarrassing in this movie. It is really weak. Everything in it is poor. How do they make this nonsense?