‘Daylight’ 4K UHD Blu-ray (review)

Kino Lorber

Before Rob Cohen launched Vin Diesel into his forever franchises of The Fast and the Furious and XXX, he gave us the physics-defying action film that is Daylight.

Daylight is a quintessential 1990s disaster/action film.

Former New York EMS Chief Kit Latura turned livery driver finds himself smack dab in the middle of a brings-NYC-to-a-halt emergency.

When jewelry thieves steal a car and escape in a hot pursuit, police chase, it ends in a fiery crash into a convoy of trucks carrying illegal toxic waste.

They cause a chain reaction explosion that collapses both ends of the tunnel from New York to New Jersey.

Latura knows he’s got the answers the NYC Emergency services need to rescue the people trapped in the tunnel.

Only problem is, he was fired months prior to this catastrophe. He convinces the chief onsite to allow him to go in to try and rescue the few remaining survivors before the tunnel collapses on top of them. He risks his life to find a way to lead the survivors to safety.

Daylight is one of a slew of 1990s disaster films that paid homage to the disaster films of the 1970s.  Daylight was originally meant to be a remake of the Poseidon adventure, but when production fell through, the script was reworked to become the film Daylight. Rob Cohen seems to have an affinity for 1970s disaster and action films.

Neither he nor his cinematographer David Eggby seem to be bound by the standard camera angles of Hollywood in late 1980s action films. They use many handheld tracking shots and low angles to give sequences a real, raw feel.

However, it’s hard to tell if the nonsensical editing is purposeful in its intent to create the chaotic feel of a full-scale emergency event, or if the film ran into “too many cooks in the kitchen” making editing changes that created sequences that feel disjointed and haphazard.

Daylight script writer Leslie Bohem is responsible for a couple of 1990s disaster “gems” including Dante’s Peak. Bohem’s script is full of groan-worthy dialog that you love to quote because it is so bad.  The science and physics behind how the tunnel collapses and then how the explosion survivors escape are as good as any of the aforementioned Fast & Furious movies.

Daylight was meant to be Sylvester Stallone’s swan song to action films.

You can see Stallone trying to segway into his more serious acting phase.  All while making sure all the prerequisite physical action scenes are constructed to highlight Stallone’s physique and strength are ticked off like a grocery checklist.  Stallone’s Latura is remarkably less “alpha male” than some of his better-known characters from other films. Latura makes a point of “just trying to help”. He’s not trying to lead or be put in charge.  He’s just trying to share his past experience with those in charge, and then later with the folks he’s trying to rescue.

By contrast, the remaining male characters fall more into the yelling and chest-beating male archetypes.  Enter Viggo Mortensen’s Roy Nord, the extreme athlete turned businessman who does spelunking for fun.  Nord swaggers off on his own to find a way to climb out, more for the bragging rights of being the hero then being an actual hero.  His hubris leads him to a hilarious “oh shit” ending.

Meanwhile, the women in the film get very little screen time to develop a character beyond people in need of rescue.

I found myself disliking 90% of the cast. It says something that most of my emotional investment was, of course, in a dog that got caught up in the whole mess dumb mess. There is also one poor tunnel security guard who was just doing his job and is now stuck in this impossible situation. He rises to the occasion helping save the others, but at what cost?

For the most part, I didn’t care if the humans lived, but the damn dog better make it through this crisis.

Extras include commentary, featurettes, archival EPK, musical, and trailers.

Daylight files under one of those films you revisit on a night when you feel like making a bunch of popcorn and shutting off your brain for a couple of hours, and imagine what the world would have been like if this had been Stallone’s last action film.