Believe it or not, Sylvester Stallone’s latest movie tried to be inspirational.
Let’s just take a minute and consider that. This is Sylvester Stallone we’re talking about here! Inspirational?
Even more astounding is the startling lack of machine guns. It’s been since the “Rocky” movies that Sylvester Stallone didn’t handle a machine gun for the majority of the film. Not only is Stallone the good guy, but he doesn’t shoot everyone to prove it.
Just to clarify, “Daylight” is an attempt at an inspirational in which Sylvester is the hero and wields no sub-automatic weapons. Does this sound as unrealistic to you as it does to me?
Not only is the basis behind the movie hideously contrived, but the plot of the movie is, as well.
To give a brief synopsis, a bunch of people are trapped in the New York-New Jersey tunnel after a speeding car crashes into a truck carrying toxic chemicals. Massive fires erupt, and everyone but about a dozen people die.
Each one of these characters is sort of developed, but none of them are all that believable. Among them is Amy Brenneman, who anyone can predict as Stallone’s love interest from the first five minutes of the film.
Stallone, who apparently used to be involved with some emergency rescue service but was fired because of a scandal, comes up with a plan to reach the trapped travelers and volunteers to carry it out himself.
Only one problem, though: he doesn’t figure out a way for he and the victims to leave the tunnel. He only develops a way to seal off the section of the tunnel in question, slow down the flooding, and barring a miracle, create a slower death for the survivors.
But this is a Stallone movie, isn’t it? So that miracle I just mentioned becomes a prime factor in the rest of the film.
In short, “Daylight” is a waste of time, a waste of money, and a waste of theater space. Not to mention a waste of perfectly good supporting actors.
Grade: F