For the first (and so far only) time in his career, Sylvester Stallone tackles the disaster movie genre with "Daylight" and crafts a surprisingly effective and poignant film.
For a basic plot summary, "Daylight" focuses on the collapse of the New York-New Jersey tunnel. When the tunnel collapses due to a chemical explosion, only Kit Latura (Stallone) has the knowledge/skills necessary (as the former transportation chief) to breach the collapse and try to rescue a small band of survivors.
What really works in this film is the character development. Before the main plot is set in motion, viewers are given some background information on each of the characters that ultimately will battle to escape the collapse. Thus, by the end, you'll truly be rooting for the characters to succeed in their monumental task.
About the only thing that fails to work in this movie is director Rob Cohen's attempts to create un-needed drama. The underlying backstory of Latura only serves to create unrealistic, reactionary drama, while a Die Hard-like theme of "greedy, arrogant police chief" permeates the drama/action. All of this would have been completely unnecessary, and actually drags down the overall effectiveness of the film, as a few scenes will make you roll your eyes.
Overall, though, is is a solid film that is one of Stallone's best. A more accurate rating would be 3.5 stars, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for the thrills and emotional moments it provided me.
For a basic plot summary, "Daylight" focuses on the collapse of the New York-New Jersey tunnel. When the tunnel collapses due to a chemical explosion, only Kit Latura (Stallone) has the knowledge/skills necessary (as the former transportation chief) to breach the collapse and try to rescue a small band of survivors.
What really works in this film is the character development. Before the main plot is set in motion, viewers are given some background information on each of the characters that ultimately will battle to escape the collapse. Thus, by the end, you'll truly be rooting for the characters to succeed in their monumental task.
About the only thing that fails to work in this movie is director Rob Cohen's attempts to create un-needed drama. The underlying backstory of Latura only serves to create unrealistic, reactionary drama, while a Die Hard-like theme of "greedy, arrogant police chief" permeates the drama/action. All of this would have been completely unnecessary, and actually drags down the overall effectiveness of the film, as a few scenes will make you roll your eyes.
Overall, though, is is a solid film that is one of Stallone's best. A more accurate rating would be 3.5 stars, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for the thrills and emotional moments it provided me.