at first glance , daylight would seem like your typical disaster movie .
on second glance it looks that way too .
although , as typical disaster movies go , daylight is n't that bad .
admittedly , it seems to rip off a great deal of its plot devices from disaster flicks of days gone by ( think poseidon adventure ) .
but the decent dialogue and surprisingly good acting make up for the " have n't i seen this scene somewhere before ?
" feeling that creeps up all too often during the film .
sylvester stallone stars as the recently fired head of new york 's emergency response team .
by sheer luck , he is in the right place at the right time when disaster strikes the unaware inhabitants of this little film .
"
what disaster is that ?
"
you ask , as you inch ever closer to the edge of your seat .
glad you asked .
through a whole sequence of entirely probable events ( about as probable as hitting the lottery ) a large explosion takes place in the lincoln tunnel running under the hudson river in new york city .
the explosion results in the tunnel collapsing at both ends , which causes not only massive loss of life , but traps a dozen people inside the wreckage of the tunnel .
good old sly , who is only feet away from entering the tunnel when it collapses , offers his services to the rescuers , who gladly accept it .
sly then enters the tunnel through a vent shaft ( think judge dredd ) which he can only go in , and not out off , and proceeds to try to rescue those trapped inside .
so begins the fun , but the fun has to be quick , because this tunnel has started to spring a leak .
the acting is about what you would expect of a stallone movie .
not superb by any means , but far above some of his other films
( think judge dredd again ) .
daylight 's acting is probably average , or a little above , in terms of this sort of genre , starring this particular star .
amy brenneman is the only actor of any note , and she does a pretty good job as stallone 's reluctant helper .
oh yeah ,
stallone 's real life son , sage , is in this too .
sage -- nice name .
i guess it could be worse , he could have been named nutmeg or parsley .
note to sage
-- you are still young .
go to school and get a good education -- you do n't have a future in acting .
the plot runs along the same lines as the acting -- interesting , but predictable .
mostly due to the fact that it was pretty well recycled from a dozen other action flicks .
the biggest problem with a film of this nature is that they try to cram too many things into the movie .
as soon as the cast clears one seemingly impossible hurdle , another one seems to pop right up , even worse than the last one .
i realize that it would n't be much of a movie otherwise , but it does make the movie a bit predictable .
adding to the predictability is the cast of characters , which of course , has to include at least one or two difficult people who want to do things their own way and think the qualified guy ( in this case stallone ) does n't know what he is doing .
why is it in disaster movies
we can never have everyone agree with each other and all work together ?
would this be too much to ask ?
ca n't we all just get along ?
special effects were n't bad -- but i 've certainly seen better .
some of the scenes , while fun to watch , were such blatant rip - offs that you had to wonder if scripts from old movies were just copied verbatim .
especially all of the scenes that involved anything underwater ( the tunnel , of course , starts to flood ) .
i really expected gene hackman , roddy mcdowell and ernest borgnine to appear at any minute -- i was n't sure if i was watching daylight or the poseidon adventure .
i suppose if you have to rip off a movie for good ideas , the poseidon adventure is a good one to use .
the underwater sequences ( aside from the deja vu ) were very well shot and worked fairly well
.
they were the best part of the movie by a long shot .
better than average stallone flick .
i realize that 's not saying much when the man has judge dredd on his resume .
but certainly not up to the standards of cliffhanger .
daylight is a fun movie , and as long as you are n't expecting a whole lot you might even be pleasantly surprised .
Output: P