Dom Robinson reviews
Daylight Hold your breath
Distributed by
Columbia TriStar
Cat.no: UDR 90001
Cert: 12
Running time: 110 minutes
Year: 1996
Pressing: 1999
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 43 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
Languages: English, German, Czech, Hungarian
Subtitles: English, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch
Widescreen: 1.85:1
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £19.99
Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Biographies, Filmographies, Production Notes,
Booklet
Director:
(Dragonheart, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story )
Producers:
John Davis, Joseph M. Singer & David T. Friendly
Screenplay:
Music:
Cast:
Kit Latura: Sylvester Stallone (Assassins, Copland, Cliffhanger, Cobra, Death Race 2000, Demolition Man, Escape To Victory, Into Thin Air, Judge Dredd, Rocky I-V, Rambo I-III, The Specialist, Tango and Cash, The Ump, Yellow Handkerchief )
Madelyne Thompson: Amy Brenneman (Bye Bye Love, Casper, Fear, Heat, Lesser Prophets, Nevada )
Roy Nord: Viggo Mortensen (Albino Alligator, Carlito's Way, Crimson Tide, G.I. Jane, Over The Moon, The Passion of Darkly Noon, Portrait Of A Lady, The Reflecting Skin, The Young Americans, Young Guns II )
Frank Kraft: Dan Hedaya (Alien Resurrection, Blood Simple, A Civil Action, Fair Game, The Hunger, Joe Vs. The Volcano, A Life Less Ordinary, Maverick, Nixon, Ransom, The Usual Suspects )
Steven Crighton: Jay O. Saunders (Glory, JFK, Kiss The Girls, Odd Couple 2, V.I. Warshawski )
Sarah Crighton: Karen Young (Birdy, Criminal Law, Handgun, Hoffa, Jaws 4: The Revenge, Love and Human Remains, 9½ Weeks, Wild Things )
Eleanor Trilling: Claire Bloom (The Haunting, Mighty Aphrodite, Shadowlands )
Ashley Crighton: Danielle Harris (Halloween 4 and 5, The Last Boy Scout )
Vincent: Sage Stallone (Rocky V )
Norman Bassett: Barry Newman (The Salzburg Connection, Vanishing Point )
George Tyrell: Stan Shaw (Body Of Evidence, CutThroat Island, Fried Green Tomatoes, Rising Sun, Rocky, Runaway, Snake Eyes )
Daylight
At the tunnel's entrance, the explosion is witnessed by taxi driver Kit
Latura. Playing the hero, Kit - a former Emergency Medical Services
chief haunted by a tragic past - leaps from his taxi to offer his
services to the EMS people on hand. As the emergency services begin
their textbook rescue, Kit explains his inside knowledge of the tunnel's
architecture and volunteers to make his way in to assist the trapped
people.
With only a matter of time before the air runs out, will Kit be able to prevent
the disaster from escalating into an even greater catastrophe? With Sylvester
Stallone in the lead role, is that a question you really need to ask?
Sylvester Stallone plays Kit Latura, the ex-EMS chief.. or is that
Stallone playing Stallone? With mucho mumbling and muscles doing the talking
when 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 to
concentrate on drama roles in the wake of Copland , in which he plays
a partially-deaf sheriff along with a superb cast of Harvey Keitel, Robert
De Niro and Ray Liotta.
Of the rest of the cast caught up in the tunnel, Amy Brenneman is a
playwright with a rat- and cockroach-infested flat, as well as a married man
for a boyfriend, who can't wait to leave the city for good; Viggo Mortensen
is a gung-ho egotist with his own range of designer sportswear; Dan Hedaya
is 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 an
average family vacation; established actress Claire Bloom is one half
of an old couple; Stan Shaw is an innocent security guard who has to
dive out of the way as the crack-head's car almost runs him over before
causing the calamity; and son of the lead, Sage Stallone , is one of a
group of criminals being transported at the President's pleasure, so to speak.
Director Rob Cohen is no stranger to putting out a film with fantastic
special effects. Following on from "Dragonheart" where Sean
Connery's voice worked wonders on the CGI dragon designed by Phil Tippett
and realised by Industrial Light and Magic, Daylight has an incredible
2-minute destruction of the tunnel sequence which seems to last much longer
and is perfect demo material to show off to your friends.
One interesting point is that Stallone wanted his life-saving character to
die at the end, but the studio wouldn't allow it, preferring instead a happy
ending for Latura.
The picture quality is nothing short of excellent, bringing out the perfect
definition in the dark underground scenes, as well as that fantastic tunnel
explosion sequence (there I go mentioning it again). The film is presented in
its original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphically-enhanced for
16:9 widescreen televisions which provides 33% higher resolution - and the
average bitrate is a very good 6.3Mb/s, regularly peaking over 8Mb/s.
The surround sound gets top marks as well from the tunnel explosion early on
in the film, down to comparatively minor effects such as a sparking power cable
jumping about in the air as Madelyne helps the convicts escape from their van
before it blows up. Dolby Digital 5.1 is available for English and German languages.
Extras :
Chapters and Trailer :
Languages and Subtitles :
Filmographies and Biographies :
Menu : Twins, Dante's Peak and Sea of Love , the menu is static
but functional, with a picture mirroring the cover on the main menu while other
menus contain pictures of cast members. On playing the disc you see the
Universal logo and a copyright message before the main menu appears. This can
be interrupted along the way, but for some reason, this renders the main menu
inoperable.
Daylight is one of the first Universal DVDs to be released under the
Columbia TriStar label. If I had any complaints with this disc it would be that
it doesn't include the 10-minute featurette, exclusive to the PAL Laserdisc
(click on the review here ),
containing behind-the-scenes interviews with Stallone, Rob Cohen and various crew
members discussing how effects, such as the opening tunnel explosion, were created,
showing pre-CGI workprints and blue-screen techniques. A director's commentary track
would also prove interesting. However, what is available here is certainly enough
to justify a purchase.
An action film with Sylvester Stallone - several people put in a
life-or-death situation, and only one man can rescue them. Yes it does sound
like the sort of film that's been done before, but it's a damn entertaining
one and as such comes thoroughly recommended, especially on this DVD.
FILM : *****
PICTURE QUALITY : *****
SOUND QUALITY : *****
EXTRAS : ***
-------------------------------
OVERALL : ****½
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.
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