Stallone's 'Daylight' an entertaining thriller
By Yenni Kwok
JAKARTA (JP): Given the usual no-brainer, blow-them-all-away, Rambo-superhero type films, I usually hate watching Sylvester Stallone films.
But surprisingly, I found Daylight, his most recent movie, entertaining and thrilling. It may not be an Oscar candidate, nor is it at all logical. However, thanks to great special effects, Stallone's actions will keep you on the edge of your seat.
A group of young thugs in New York City steals a suitcase full of diamonds. As they escape they are chased by police through the New York-New Jersey tunnel, where their car hits a truck carrying toxic waste. A massive explosion takes place, sealing off the tunnels.
Only a handful survive, including a tunnel police officer (Stan Shaw), a home-bound struggling playwright (Amy Brenneman), a sportswear entrepreneur (Viggo Mortensen), a constantly arguing family of three, an endearing old couple (that was taking its dog to a pet psychiatrist), and several delinquent teenagers on their way to detention.
Kit Laruna (Sylvester Stallone), a former Emergency Medical Services employee that resigned in disgrace, happens to be driving his taxi just outside the devastated tunnels. He insists on going in, arguing that he learned how to manage critical tunnel situations in a terrorism simulation exercise that he attended in 1994.
Trapped
After convincing the tunnel supervisors and the emergency team chief, Kit enters the tunnel and gets trapped. Racing against time, Kit, the survivors' only hope, has to find a way to reach daylight.
Danger after danger awaits, and as soon as Kit and the gang overcome an obstacle, another disaster occurs. The tunnel itself is like a time bomb, ready to collapse at any moment. The people also begin to collapse, and we are left wondering if Kit will succeed in saving everyone, including himself.
Stallone gets the hero-knows-best role. Haunted by a fatal decision in the past, Kit is still very self-assured. Not once does he ask himself if his risk-taking ideas will imperil the others. He turns out to be brilliant and able to save lives. True, some die along the way, but mostly by accident or because of their own stubbornness.
In the United States, the release of Daylight coincided with the 20th anniversary of Rocky, Stallone's box-office breakthrough. But unlike Rocky, Daylight does not have any human villains or human-to-human conflict, not even among the survivors, who are from various ethnic groups and social levels. True, one may be selfish or stubborn, but one is not necessarily bad. In fact, most are very humane.
One of the stubborn is Sage, Stallone's real-life son, who has a small role as Vincent, a delinquent teenager trapped in the tunnel.
Wise choice
Like other Hollywood films relying on a hot on-screen couple, Daylight features Brenneman (Bye, Bye Love) as Madelyn Thompson, Kit's most trusted friend. The movie, however, skips any smooching between the hero and his lovely assistant to not spoil the action. Wise choice. It seems that director Rob Cohen (Dragonheart) knows that most watch Stallone movies more for action than romance.
Cohen swamps us with thrills that feel like a roller-coaster ride. Just when we are about to breath in relief, another disaster strikes. The effects are the work of Industrial Light & Magic, which created the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the tornadoes in Twister, and the dragon in Dragonheart."
The action is convincing enough to make one think twice before taking the New York-New Jersey tunnel, or any other tunnel. After all, there's no guarantee that somebody like Kit Laruna might come along to risk his life and save mine.