Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
No air. No escape. No time.
Pioneer LDCE
- Cat.no: PLFEB 36351
- Cert: 12
- Running time: 110 minutes
- Sides: 2 (CLV)
- Year: 1996
- Pressing: 1997
- Chapters: 45 (1+23/20+1)
- Sound: Dolby Surround
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- Price: £24.99
- Extras : Trailer for Dante’s Peak and 10-minute featurette of Behind-The-Scenes footage
Director:
- Rob Cohen
(Dragonheart, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story)
Producers:
- John Davis, Joseph M. Singer & David T. Friendly
Screenplay:
- Leslie Bohem
Music:
- Randy Edelman
Cast:
- Kit Latura: Sylvester Stallone (Copland, Cliffhanger, Rocky, Rambo)
Madelyne Thompson: Amy Brenneman (Fear, Heat)
Roy Nord: Viggo Mortensen (G.I. Jane, The Young Americans, Crimson Tide, The Passion of Darkly Noon, The Reflecting Skin)
Frank Kraft: Dan Hedaya (The Usual Suspects, Fair Game, Blood Simple)
Steven Crighton: Jay O. Saunders
Sarah Crighton: Karen Young (Handgun, Jaws 4: The Revenge, Wild Things)
Eleanor Trilling: Claire Bloom (The Haunting, Mighty Aphrodite, Shadowlands (BBC TV))
Ashley Crighton: Danielle Harris (The Last Boy Scout, Halloween 4 and 5)
Vincent: Sage Stallone (Rocky V)
Norman Bassett: Barry Newman
George Tyrell: Stan Shaw (CutThroat Island, Fried Green Tomatoes, Runaway)
Daylightbrings the disaster movie genre back to the big screen witha very big bang. Following a brief introduction to the main characters,three junkies escaping the police steal a businessman’s car and head for theNew Jersey tunnel which descends a hundred feet below the Hudson River andtakes the heavy traffic out of New York. Going considerably faster than isgood for their health, they collide with some trucks overloaded withchemicals. This creates a massive explosion which seals the tunnel off, trapsthe traffic inside – and leaves the survivors little to look forward tobeyond toxic fumes, fire, flood and the tunnel’s impending collapse.
At the tunnel’s entrance, the explosion is witnessed by taxi driver KitLatura. Playing the hero, Kit – a former Emergency Medical Serviceschief haunted by a tragic past – leaps from his taxi to offer hisservices to the EMS people on hand. As the emergency services begintheir textbook rescue, Kit explains his inside knowledge of the tunnel’sarchitecture and volunteers to make his way in to assist the trappedpeople.
With only a matter of time before the air runs out, will Kit be able to preventthe disaster from escalating into an even greater catastrophe? With SylvesterStallone in the lead role, is that a question you really need to ask?
Sylvester Stallone plays Kit Latura, the ex-EMS chief.. or is thatStallone playing Stallone? With mucho mumbling and muscles doing the talkingwhen required, this is the sort of no-brainer that he does best, nuff said.This may be his last action film for a while, as he’s now choosing toconcentrate on drama roles in the wake of Copland, in which he playsa partially-deaf sheriff along with a superb cast of Harvey Keitel, RobertDe Niro and Ray Liotta.
Of the rest of the cast caught up in the tunnel, Amy Brenneman is aplaywright with a rat- and cockroach-infested flat, as well as a married manfor a boyfriend, who can’t wait to leave the city for good; Viggo Mortensenis a gung-ho egotist with his own range of designer sportswear; Dan Hedayais the new EMS chief running the operation to free the survivors; Jay O.Saunders, Karen Young & Danielle Harris are the average American family going on anaverage family vacation; established actress Claire Bloom is one halfof an old couple; Stan Shaw is an innocent security guard who has todive out of the way as the crack-head’s car almost runs him over beforecausing the calamity; and son of the lead, Sage Stallone, is one of agroup of criminals being transported at the President’s pleasure, so to speak.
Director Rob Cohen is no stranger to putting out a film with fantasticspecial effects. Following on from “Dragonheart” where SeanConnery’s voice worked wonders on the CGI dragon designed by Phil Tippettand realised by Industrial Light and Magic, Daylight has an incredible2-minute destruction of the tunnel sequence which seems to last much longerand is perfect demo material to show off to your friends.
One interesting point is that Stallone wanted his life-saving character todie at the end, but the studio wouldn’t allow it, preferring instead a happyending for Latura.
The picture quality is nothing short of excellent, bringing out the perfectdefinition in the dark underground scenes, as well as that fantastic tunnelexplosion sequence (there I go mentioning it again).
The surround sound gets top marks as well from the tunnel explosion early onin the film, down to comparatively minor effects such as a sparking power cablejumping about in the air as Madelyne helps the convicts escape from their vanbefore it blows up.
The disc is substantially chaptered with 43 covering the 110-minute film, plusa 10-minute featurette of behind-the-scenes interviews with Stallone, Rob Cohenand various crew members discussing how effects such as the opening tunnelexplosion and the final geyser sequence (of which I don’t want to give anythingaway) were created, showing pre-CGI workprints and blue-screen techniques. Quitea coup for the PAL LD market this as it doesn’t even feature on the standardNTSC Laserdisc, almost packing this laserdisc to its capacity. There’s alsoa trailer for Dante’s Peak which comes at the start of side one as therewouldn’t have been room for it in the usual place.
An action film with Sylvester Stallone – several people put in alife-or-death situation, and only one man can rescue them. Yes it does soundlike the sort of film that’s been done before, but it’s a damn entertainingone and as such comes thoroughly recommended. Especially on this PAL disc.
Film: 5/5
Picture: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.
Check outPioneer‘s Web site.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.