Daylight (C or 2/4 stars)
A stolen car harboring a group of armed robbers crashes into several trucks carrying toxic materials in the underwater tunnel btwn. New York & New Jersey in 'Daylight' (an action/adventure flick & box office success directed by Rob Cohen). The resulting enormous explosion kills many people & traps many others inside said tunnel as it collapses on both ends in NY & NJ. Trapped deep inside include characters: Madelyne Thompson (Amy Brenneman, everywhere in 1995 & 1996), an aspiring playwright, George Tyrell (Stan Shaw), a transit guard, & quite a few others.
The former chief of the EMTs, Kit Latura (Sylvester Stallone), just happens to be on the scene & starts his hell bent rescue efforts. Making his way into the collapsed tunnel through a channel he can't return through, he sets-out to extricate all of the trapped people with his skills, knowledge & brawn. As the oxygen starts to run out & floods enter the tunnel, heroic Kit does all that he can to lead the survivors ... to daylight.
'Daylight' is one of those throwbacks to the Irwin Allen disaster flicks of the 1970s; like The Poseidon Adventure & The Towering Inferno. THIS film has its moments, but in no way is it anywhere near the echelon of those prior movies. Really, this film is pretty ho-hum. Everything takes place in the dark, dank, incendiary tunnel and, though there are many characters played by the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, Claire Bloom, & many others ... none of them are fully fleshed out enough to be effective. We actually cared about some or most of those characters in the other disaster flicks.
And because we're trapped in that dark, dank, incendiary tunnel, the suspense level wanes because there are only so many places the camera can go. Other than cheering on Sylvester Stallone & oohing & ahhing at some of the big explosions & collapse scenes, there is little to get worked up about. The screenwriters simply didn't provide enough interesting happenstance, or remotely interesting dialogue for these 2-dimensional characters to spout.
There's a subplot involving Kit having been fired from his prior position, but it's a useless sidebar. This just needed to be a much better 'edge of your seat' thriller and, as an eye-rolling capper to the film, Stallone must say the corniest & most predictable line of all. When responding a character stating that she'll ride with him to the hospital, he says: "one condition ... we gotta take the bridge" -- followed by an even cornier swell of celebratory music. Sigh.
The former chief of the EMTs, Kit Latura (Sylvester Stallone), just happens to be on the scene & starts his hell bent rescue efforts. Making his way into the collapsed tunnel through a channel he can't return through, he sets-out to extricate all of the trapped people with his skills, knowledge & brawn. As the oxygen starts to run out & floods enter the tunnel, heroic Kit does all that he can to lead the survivors ... to daylight.
'Daylight' is one of those throwbacks to the Irwin Allen disaster flicks of the 1970s; like The Poseidon Adventure & The Towering Inferno. THIS film has its moments, but in no way is it anywhere near the echelon of those prior movies. Really, this film is pretty ho-hum. Everything takes place in the dark, dank, incendiary tunnel and, though there are many characters played by the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, Claire Bloom, & many others ... none of them are fully fleshed out enough to be effective. We actually cared about some or most of those characters in the other disaster flicks.
And because we're trapped in that dark, dank, incendiary tunnel, the suspense level wanes because there are only so many places the camera can go. Other than cheering on Sylvester Stallone & oohing & ahhing at some of the big explosions & collapse scenes, there is little to get worked up about. The screenwriters simply didn't provide enough interesting happenstance, or remotely interesting dialogue for these 2-dimensional characters to spout.
There's a subplot involving Kit having been fired from his prior position, but it's a useless sidebar. This just needed to be a much better 'edge of your seat' thriller and, as an eye-rolling capper to the film, Stallone must say the corniest & most predictable line of all. When responding a character stating that she'll ride with him to the hospital, he says: "one condition ... we gotta take the bridge" -- followed by an even cornier swell of celebratory music. Sigh.