DAYLIGHT
A Film Review by Brian Takeshita
Rating: ** out of ****
An explosion in an underwater tunnel connecting Manhattan and New Jersey leaves the few survivors trapped and nearly inaccessible. One man, Kit Latura, can save them. The problem is, Kit used to be head of the Emergency Medical Service, but these days he is a driver for a car service. What happened? Trying to effect a rescue, he made the wrong call and got people killed. Only the immediacy of the crisis can jolt him back into action. Sound familiar? A few years ago, a film starring Sylvester Stallone and based on a similar premise was called CLIFFHANGER. A couple of years before that, another movie based on the same idea was called DEMOLITION MAN. Stallone was in that one, too. This movie is called DAYLIGHT. Hey, Kit Latura is played by....Sylvester Stallone!
Ever see THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE? Apparently so did Leslie Bohem, who wrote the script for DAYLIGHT, since the survivors are all patterned after characters from the 1972 movie. We have Madelyne (Amy Brenneman), a frustrated playwright who's purpose is to be scared when Stallone needs to look strong, and to get into trouble when we need a lady in distress, much like Pamela Sue Martin's Susan. We have Steven (Jay O. Sanders) the brute who is there to question everything Kit does, just like Ernest Borgnine's Mr. Rogo. There's Eleanor and Roger Trilling (Claire Bloom and Colin Fox), an elderly couple who realize the importance of having each other. Did someone say Shelley Winters and Jack Albertson? Let's not forget George (Stan Shaw), the police officer who knows his way around the tunnels. It's good Stallone has this guy, just like Gene Hackman had Roddy McDowell as the steward who knew his way around the ship.
The borrowing from THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE goes beyond the supporting characters themselves. Even some of their fates are the same. Oh, and don't even get me started on plot points. The disagreement on which way to go, swimming underwater to find an exit, getting the medallion out to the loved one (okay, in this case it's a bracelet), they're all there. Halfway through the movie, I wondered if DAYLIGHT were a remake.
I should mention a key element which made the supporting characters of DAYLIGHT different from the ones in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. With few exceptions, the characters in DAYLIGHT are all unworthy of our sympathy. Madelyne is fed up with New York due to the roaches and rats in her apartment and her constant rejections from potential producers, but the last straw comes when the married man with whom she is having an affair can't get out of his marriage. Oh yeah, I really feel for her. Eleanor and Roger's biggest concern is why their Weimaraner won't breed. Sure, poverty in New York City's streets needs to take a powder and make way for the dog. You get the idea. At least you cared what happened to Red Buttons and Carol Lynley.
Stallone's performance in this film is much like the premise: The same as in previous movies. Not to say it's a bad thing. Stallone has always been a convincing action hero and has played that kind of part a lot better than the comedic roles he's tried in order to flex those acting muscles. It's just that we're not seeing anything new this time around. The supporting cast, on the other hand, turn in lackluster performances of stock characters. They might as well have phoned it in.
The action itself is all stuff we've seen before. Much of Stallone's hanging from the tunnel ceilings looks a lot like he wants to prove he can still climb like in CLIFFHANGER. There's a scene with Stallone and Brenneman in an underwater vortex which looks a great deal like the last few minutes of TWISTER. The most contrived of all scenes, however, is the set up for Stallone's famous slow motion run away from danger. It's usually from an explosion or collapsing building or some other such catastrophe, which invariably culminates in a leap toward the camera. Pained yell is optional. In DAYLIGHT, Stallone runs from a rolling flammable liquid trailer. It's not really in slow motion, but he's running in three and a half feet of water, so the illusion is thus created. Yes, yes, he makes the leap, but instead of toward the camera to spirit himself that extra distance from danger, he leaps to the side! One wonders, "Why didn't he do that when the trailer was much farther away?" To create a false sense of tension, stupid.
One thing that caught my eye was how director Rob Cohen handles the tunnel explosion. Unlike anything I've seen before, this film actually takes you into the explosion and keeps you there while the fireball rolls over the unfortunate motorists. Its debatable whether or not what we see is an accurate representation, but the visual of the whole thing is rather intriguing, and the notion of incineration from the heat or asphyxiation from the fire's consumption of oxygen is equally horrifying. However, that was the only part of the movie that was innovative. Oh, in case you're about to tell me that flooding a compartment in order to free yourself from Davy Jones' Locker is also innovative, I refer you to AIRPORT '77.
Overall, DAYLIGHT is not a bad movie for what it is, which is two hours of, well, Stallone. You don't go into one of his movies expecting great social commentary, so as long as you keep that in mind, you can actually enjoy it. I must, however, give credit to this film for actually making me believe that the death-defying dog didn't defy death after all. You see, the dog in question was thought to have died in the explosion, but soon comes trotting out from the wreckage when called. Fair enough. But then, when the band of survivors has to swim underwater to relative safety, the dog (seemingly) does not make it. I thought, "Wow, they killed the dog after all." Only after another tragedy does the dog resurface, unscathed. I'm beginning to think that dogs, not cats, have nine lives.
Review posted November 5, 1997
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