Daylight

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, Jay O. Sanders, Karen Young, Claire Bloom, Danielle Harris, Sage Stallone, Stan Shaw
Directed by: Rob Cohen
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
1996

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: An explosion in a New York tunnel traps a small group of survivors. In a race against time to rescue them, a disgraced emergency expert (Sylvester Stallone) risks his own life to go in and bring them to safety.

Review:

Tim: I think I enjoyed Daylight more the second time I watched it, if ever so slightly. This certainly is not a great movie, but it does have some charms, in a throwback, 90s disaster movie way. Rob Cohen directs an average film, but it does have a few strong moments. While I still wouldn't call this a particularly strong movie, it wasn't completely unenjoyable, either.

In general, I enjoy disaster movies. It was fun to see this one take place in a very claustrophobic-inducing tunnel. Our survivors have to battle raging fires, toxic fumes, rising water, explosions, and much, much more. It was somewhat fun seeing all these deadly events taking place in a fairly confined area. The special effects are pretty believable, and made the whole thing feel real. I enjoyed that aspect of the film.

The acting is pretty poor across the board, and a lot of this has to be due to the wooden dialogue and the weak script. Sylvester Stallone actually gives the best performance of the film, which is never a great thing. The rest of the cast is actually pretty good on paper. Unfortunately, the characters they play leave a lot to be desired. Viggo Mortensen was fun to see as a courageous explorer, but isn't in the film nearly enough. Amy Brenneman was fine, but she balanced her strong moments with quite a few forced, unnatural line readings. I like Dan Hedaya, but again, he doesn't have enough to do. The rest of the supporting cast was pretty forgettable (especially Sage Stallone, who really should never have been cast). The characters were fairly one-dimensional and predictable, which really sinks the film. Their portrayal is one of the weaker aspects of the film.

This movie does have some very intense moments. I absolutely loved the fan scene. It felt completely absurd and unrealistic, but I was biting my fingernails and felt genuine suspense during those moments. The explosion scene with the tanker trunk was impressive, and the big climax with the water rising and the cracking staircase was pretty thrilling. This film does have some strong individual moments. Unfortunately, there's also quite a few ridiculous, outlandish events that take place, too. The worst might be the "final" escape. I still don't understand how they pulled that off, or how it was even feasible. The movie didn't end in a particularly strong way.

While Daylight has some strong moments, these aren't enough to offset the numerous flaws during its 114 minute run time. I suppose I occasionally felt some guilty pleasure, but at the end of the day, this film is not nearly as good as it needed to be. It's an average film, and one that gets lost in the shuffle of the 1990s.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Cliffhanger, Volcano, Dante's Peak