Guilty Pleasures: Daylight
By Felix Quinonez Jr.
October 16, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
But even so, we all have our guilty pleasures. I’m talking about that song you stop humming when someone walks into the room. Or maybe it’s that movie you claim your significant other dragged you to. Whatever the case, we all have guilty pleasures and that includes me, of course. With this column, I’m going to try to encourage people to stop being embarrassed for liking things they normally wouldn’t or that aren’t considered cool. I’m going to do this by celebrating movies that are my personal guilty pleasures.
Okay, so I’m kind of a big Sylvester Stallone fan - I wrote about Judge Dredd in a previous entry - but for some reason a lot of his movies don’t get the critical respect they deserve. It seems people don’t really understand how to rate a Stallone movie. You can’t judge a Stallone movie by normal standards. Instead of thinking in terms like “good” or “bad”, a better way to rate a movie by the Italian Stallion would be; awesome or AWESOME! (Spoiler: It’s usually the latter.) That’s why for this entry I dug up an overlooked gem starring Balboa himself; Daylight (1996).
By its nature, writing this column can sometimes get a bit embarrassing since I am admitting to liking things that I know are bad. Since I began writing this column, I’ve had more than a couple of friends and family members make fun of my movie choices. To this day, any time I don’t want to go out, my friends joke around that I’m probably going to stay in and watch Little Black Book (my first entry for this column). And don’t get me started on the annoying reaction I’ve gotten to my last entry (Green Lantern). Even a picture used in the very column had a caption that made fun of me. Ahh…the gift and the curse, right? But remember; I do this for you.
Daylight, directed by Rob Cohen, is an old-fashioned disaster movie. In fact if we’re being honest, it’s pretty much The Poseidon Adventure in a tunnel. But that movie was cool, too. When a truck containing dangerous chemicals explodes in the Holland Tunnel, it sets off a chain of events (explosions) that collapses all entrances to the tunnel. This weakens the tunnel greatly and traps all of the people inside. Fortunately for the people inside, Kit Latura, (Stallone) a disgraced former New York City Emergency Medical Services Chief - who now drives a taxi - was about to enter the tunnel and witnesses the catastrophe.
Latura, like all great heroes, is haunted by his past; however, in the face of tragedy he springs into action. He takes it upon himself to enter the tunnel through its ventilation system in hopes of getting the people out. The authorities know there are people inside, but like in all movies, they are completely useless and it is up to Latura to save these people before the tunnel becomes flooded in a few hours.
What follows is a very by the books adventure movie in which just about everything that can go wrong does. Like I mentioned, it’s up to Latura to save the day and like his character, Stallone has to carry the movie. As is the case with most of Stallone’s movies, this isn’t exactly an ensemble piece. No, the star is front and center. The supporting cast barely registers. Even so, we do get a couple of other characters who manage to wrestle some spotlight from Stallone.
Amy Brenneman turns in a serviceable performance as "Maddy" Thompson, a struggling playwright and love interest. The movie also has one of the most resilient dogs this side of Independence Day. He’s cool. Dogs are cool. But of the supporting cast, the one who really shines is Viggo Mortensen. Yes, Mortensen is in this movie and if you’ve forgotten, that’s enough reason to go revisit Daylight. He plays Roy Nord, a rich sports celebrity. He’s a famous mountain climber and has done some television work. If he didn’t get killed so quickly, he definitely would have stolen the movie from Stallone. Mortensen plays the character as a cocky douche but he’s really good at it.
As much as special effects have done to improve the movie experience, they also tend to date a movie. A cutting edge movie today can become laughably bad if the special effects don’t hold up. But in the special effects in Daylight were and still are very impressive. The action is also very enjoyable. Instead of going for over-the-top action scenes, the movie is more subdued and - dare I say - subtle. Latura, like Stallone, is past his peak and relies more on his cunning resourcefulness than muscles. He’s not an omnipotent demigod but a man struggling in a difficult situation.
But like I said before, this is Stallone’s show and the movie rests on his shoulders. And it is his performance that really makes this an enjoyable film. If we’re going to make a Rocky analogy - and why wouldn’t we? - he’s not the unstoppable machine from Rocky 4 but closer to the humbled man in Rocky 5 who can’t reconcile the man he used to be with who he’s become (and yes, I do love Rocky 5). Stallone isn’t worried about doing damage to his tough guy persona. He is more concerned with giving us a sympathetic character with depth than spouting out one-liners.
The movie definitely has its flaws. It’s saddled with more clichés than I want to mention. And the personalities of (most of) the supporting cast are so paper thin, it’s a wonder they don’t melt in the water. But thanks to a very cute dog, some solid special effects, Viggo Mortensen, and my main man Stallone, Daylight is a very enjoyable and overlooked action movie worth checking out.