Tunnel Vision -- In Stallone's `Daylight,' Human Interest Caves In To Crash, Boom, Bang

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XX 1/2 "Daylight," with Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, Jay O. Sanders, Claire Bloom, Karen Young, Stan Shaw. Directed by Rob Cohen, from a script by Leslie Boehm. Alderwood, Bella Bottega 7, Crossroads, Everett Mall 1-3, Everett Mall 4-10, Factoria, Issaquah 9, Kent 6, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Renton Village, SeaTac South, South Hill Mall, Totem Lake, Varsity. "PG-13" - Parental guidance advised because of language, violence. ------------------------------------------------------------------

This $80 million disaster epic takes us back to the simple, tacky pleasures of Irwin Allen's "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) and "The Towering Inferno" (1974), although Allen's blockbusters had more of a feeling for character and mythic resonance than "Daylight" ever demonstrates.

One of the more perversely enjoyable aspects of "Poseidon" was watching Gene Hackman play variations on Noah, Moses and even Jesus as he led the survivors of an upended ocean liner to safety. "Daylight" tries the same kind of trick with Sylvester Stallone. A crucifix even provides a significant breakthrough as Stallone attempts to rescue a gang of quarreling New Yorkers trapped in the collapsing Holland Tunnel, but the moment seems strained and silly.

The setup works best. We're quickly introduced to a group of colorful strangers whose lives, we know, will soon intersect disastrously. Partly because of the actors involved, they look like they'll be interesting company for the next two hours.

There's a wacky sports tycoon (Viggo Mortensen), a sweet cop (Stan Shaw), a frustrated playwright (Amy Brenneman), a society lady (Claire Bloom) and her husband (Colin Fox), and an unhappy couple (Jay O. Sanders, Karen Young) and their daughter (Danielle Harris) - all of them trapped in the tunnel when an out-of-control stolen car turns the place into an inferno.

But stunts and explosions are the real stars here, and director Rob Cohen ("Dragonheart") and screenwriter Leslie Boehm ("Twenty Bucks") never let you forget it once Manhattan's underwater link turns into something that resembles a post-nuclear wasteland.

We know some of the survivors will die, others will freak out and still others will demonstrate previously unsuspected courage, but none of their big moments registers strongly. Even the death scenes are handled so perfunctorily that we're left wondering: is he/she really gone, could they pop up somewhere later, was their scene-stealing so effective that they upstaged the star and had to be eliminated?

Guilty about his past failures with the Emergency Medical Services, Stallone's near-suicidal character climbs through a dangerous series of vent fans to reach the survivors. He starts to make an impact relatively late in the movie, and by that time we're more interested in the reactions of Bloom, Brenneman and Mortensen's character, whose egomaniacal flamboyance ("It's exhausting to be me!") gives the movie its funniest, most energetic moments.

The story feels unbalanced, and the filmmakers seem to sense trouble. Whenever it stalls, they throw in a ridiculous moment between a couple of minor characters ("Listen, if we don't die in here, I was wondering if I could give you a call") or bring on another crisis: a swinging high-voltage wire, leaking water, hypothermia, a rat invasion, an efficiency-oriented bureaucrat's threat to endanger their lives.

The resemblance to cliffhanging finales in Saturday-matinee serials is difficult to ignore. By the time it reaches its absurdly overblown, Superman-style finale, "Daylight" seems like just another one.