DAYLIGHT (54)

Directed by: Rob Cohen

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya

The Pitch: A disgraced ex-Rescue Chief tries to save the trapped victims of a tunnel cave-in.

Theo Sez: Easier to take on video, more than a year after its high-profile release : it's a sharp, no-nonsense B-movie, without even the cast of second-division "names" that graced the 70s disaster movies it takes its cue from (which is just as well, since they'd probably have overbalanced it). Sly is virtually the only sympathetic character onscreen, stuck between the callousness and criminal negligence of city officials and the incessant whining of the most obnoxious bunch of disaster victims imaginable ; all of which may be why it's actually quite entertaining, featuring what you might call a cab-driver's view of the world, a certain gruff impatience with all things airy-fairy (our hero isn't particularly smart or resourceful - it's just that he's the only down-to-earth, level-headed type amid a whole bunch of hysterical prima donnas). Apart from one spectacular (and exciting) set-piece - entering the tunnel through the series of revolving ventilation fans - the FX are generally low-key, and in fact the whole film has an old-fashioned air (not unlike DANTE'S PEAK, also written by Bohem). Just the fact that it eschews a CLIFFHANGER-type prologue (which might've fitted nicely) in favour of the traditional disaster-movie build-up, a dozen cars gradually converging on the doomed tunnel, makes me well-disposed to it.