Once, behind the wheel, while being towed through the Holland Tunnel, there was a jolt, a clang, and Maeder's old Ford lost a wheel that rolled placidly down the left lane before wobbling and flopping to a halt. It must have held up traffic for half an hour, but that's nothing compared to what happens to the Holland Tunnel in this typical disaster flick.
Boy, if things can go wrong they surely will. Fortunately there is always the short chance of a last-minute escape, light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, and only a few dispensable characters must be left behind to pump up the sentiment quotient that the formula requires.
Some hazardous material blows up in the middle of the tunnel that links New York City and New Jersey. A huge fireball whooshes out of both ends of the traffic conduit, killing everyone except the handful of survivors who Sly Stallone, in his magnanimity, volunteers to reach from the outside and lead to safety.
You've met most of these trapped characters in one form or another. There is the beautiful young woman, terrified but still able to make wisecracks and perform improbable physical feats. There is the heroic black cop mortally injured while saving others and begs them to leave him behind and save themselves. There is the antagonist, usually dumb, who pipes up at every roadblock to castigate the only leader who can save them. "This is IT? You told us you knew what you were doing!" There's the endangered child. There's the elderly couple who don't think they can make it and the old lady doesn't. (Cf., "The Poseidon Aventure," here and everywhere else.)
The menace follows a predictable trajectory. First fire, then collapse, then monstrous rolling objects, then collapse, then water. At one point Stallone must slip through a series of three gargantuan exhaust fans, any one of which could slice and dice him if he doesn't get through it before his fourteen seconds run out. It's like playing a game in a video arcade.
Still, it's diverting enough, if that's the sort of thing you're looking for. It's total lack of originality keeps it from being an Ideal Type, but so what? It's only a movie.
Boy, if things can go wrong they surely will. Fortunately there is always the short chance of a last-minute escape, light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, and only a few dispensable characters must be left behind to pump up the sentiment quotient that the formula requires.
Some hazardous material blows up in the middle of the tunnel that links New York City and New Jersey. A huge fireball whooshes out of both ends of the traffic conduit, killing everyone except the handful of survivors who Sly Stallone, in his magnanimity, volunteers to reach from the outside and lead to safety.
You've met most of these trapped characters in one form or another. There is the beautiful young woman, terrified but still able to make wisecracks and perform improbable physical feats. There is the heroic black cop mortally injured while saving others and begs them to leave him behind and save themselves. There is the antagonist, usually dumb, who pipes up at every roadblock to castigate the only leader who can save them. "This is IT? You told us you knew what you were doing!" There's the endangered child. There's the elderly couple who don't think they can make it and the old lady doesn't. (Cf., "The Poseidon Aventure," here and everywhere else.)
The menace follows a predictable trajectory. First fire, then collapse, then monstrous rolling objects, then collapse, then water. At one point Stallone must slip through a series of three gargantuan exhaust fans, any one of which could slice and dice him if he doesn't get through it before his fourteen seconds run out. It's like playing a game in a video arcade.
Still, it's diverting enough, if that's the sort of thing you're looking for. It's total lack of originality keeps it from being an Ideal Type, but so what? It's only a movie.