DAYLIGHT
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw
(Universal) Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Stan Shaw. Screenplay: Leslie Bohem. Producers: John Davis, Joseph M. Singer, David T. Friendly. Director: Rob Cohen. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, violence). Running Time: 115 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
It is one of the more trustworthy rules of popular culture that everything old must eventually become new again, and 1996 at the movies sure has looked a lot like the mid-70s. TWISTER and INDEPENDENCE DAY were less like contemporary action films than the were heirs to the disaster epics of twenty years ago, with plucky bands of one-dimensional characters trying to withstand barrages of special effects. With two volcano films and James Cameron's TITANIC on the horizon, it is beginning to feel like Irwin Allen has taken over Hollywood again, and that thought doesn't inspire much nostalgia. DAYLIGHT is a POSEIDON ADVENTURE clone with a few effectively tense moments, but it is so plodding and mechanical that it is rarely entertaining.
Sylvester Stallone stars as Kit Latura, a one-time Emergency Medical Services worker now working as a chauffeur after a tragic accident cost him his job. His training will come in handy, however, when a massive explosion involving toxic chemicals seals off an underwater commuter tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey. With only twelve survivors trapped in the tunnel -- including struggling playwright Madelyne Thompson (Amy Brenneman), athletic gear tycoon Roy Nord (Viggo Mortensen) and transit cop George Tyrell (Stan Shaw) -- Kit attempts a risky entry through a route from which he will not be able to return. That leaves him in danger as well, though the greatest danger isn't entirely clear. While rising waters and a collapsing structure place the clock against them, the group also finds progress threatened by internal dissent, as well as by a dangerous procedure undertaken by officials on the outside which could cost everyone their lives.
DAYLIGHT begins with a couple of red-herring criminal activities which end up causing the firestorm in the tunnel, but it is indicative of the shortcomings of the script that the bad guys then become cinders rather than sticking around to make any more sparks fly. The survivors are a predictably motley assortment, with the aforementioned individuals joined by a few petty criminals, a dysfunctional family and an elderly couple, and there are several squabbles as they try to decide what to do and who should lead them. There simply isn't enough to any of the characters to give the conflict energy; everything we know about each of them comes from a series of postage-stamp sized establishing scenes, and that's not nearly enough. With the vague bureaucratic malevolence aboveground and the muted mutineering below ground as the only antagonism in most of DAYLIGHT, the absence of a real villain becomes a distinct drawback, and results in a plot which grinds from impossible situation to yet-more-impossible situation.
That is not to say that there is no drama in DAYLIGHT, though little of it comes from the silly dialogue or thin characterizations. Surprisingly, it also doesn't come from the special effects by Industrial Light and Magic, which often have a strangely low-budget quality. The real drama comes from watching the dirty baker's dozen of our protagonists realize that their only chance at survival lies in cooperation, and from the difficult moral decisions of a crisis situation. Repeatedly, characters are forced to decide who can be saved, or whether someone is worth saving, and director Rob Cohen (DRAGONHEART) somehow makes those moments matter even though individual characters don't. When the entire group joins together to free one of them trapped under a car, the heroism of necessity gives DAYLIGHT a boost of substance.
That alone might be more than you would expect from a Sylvester Stallone action film, although Sly himself merely seems to be going through the motions. Screenwriter Leslie Bohem has handed him a character which even seems to be a barely re-worked version of his tragedy-scarred, redemption-hungry role in CLIFFHANGER, and he wanders grimly through most of the film without showing us any hint of a personality. He also has to carry DAYLIGHT on his broad shoulders, because this is one disaster film which doesn't blow its budget on putting an all-star cast in harm's way; Amy Brenneman and Viggo Mortensen are no Faye Dunaway and Fred Astaire. However, DAYLIGHT does try to follow up on one bit of disaster film trivia -- both THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and THE TOWERING INFERNO won Best Original Song Academy Awards -- by serving up a sappy romantic ballad called "Whenever There Is Love." The female half of the duet? Donna Summer. Yes indeed, folks, it sure does feel like the mid-70s all over again.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 tunneling infernos: 5.
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