Daylight

Stallone returned after a break from action movies to make "Daylight." Here he tried to make his character more three dimensional, a human with weaknesses and flaws rather than the mute and destruction minded heroes of some of his other movies.

Making Latura as a human was a good idea, and you get to like him, although the rest of the movie doesn't quite hold up it's end. It plays as some cross between the "Poseidon Adventure" and an Irwin Allen disaster film, with an uplifting musical score. You know pretty quickly who's going to live and die, and even though Latura is a mere mortal, only he can save those lives.

Still, "Daylight" makes a good diversion, and the "good guy really is a good guy" concept works for the most part.

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.

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

Not the greatest movie but also not bad. Lots of action by Stallone. Unrealistic as many action films are but entertaining enough. As an animal lover, I loved the dog addition and did not like the "s*** with legs" part. It's a little cheesy but watchable.

In the 90's the disaster movie had a mini comeback for a couple of years, but being the 90's they all pretty much played out like action hero flicks.

Daylight had Stallone heading up the man muscle, which is one of the movies plus points, he is a master of stunt work and he spends most of the movie tackling the ultimate underground assault course.

The group of survivors have a handful of your usual stereotypes and it's pretty easy to spot the obvious, 'you'll be squashed later', characters, but there are still a few surprises for other cast members that don't make it.

The movie falls a bit flat with these characters though as although it's a pretty large ensemble, they're all very quickly introduced to get the action going early on and are hyper versions of themselves throughout.

That said the character mix works well to get the plot moving, the action sequences are great and there's enough plot to keep you entertained until the end.

Daylight is definitely at the top of the 90's disaster game, (it's certainly no awful Volcano), and it's worth a watch on Netflix, it's just to 90's in a bad way to make it a great movie.