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Daylight, a review by GSyren

Daylight (025192-026720)

United States 1996 | Released 1998-05-26 on DVD from Universal Home Video

114 minutes | Aspect ratio Anamorphic 1.85:1 | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital Dolby Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital Dolby Surround, Commentary Dolby Digital Mono

Directed by Rob Cohen and starring Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, Jay O. Sanders

Rob Cohen directs and Sylvester Stallone stars in this urban underwater disaster drama with big-bang special effects by Industrial Light & Magic. An accidental explosion rips through a jammed commuter tunnel beneath the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey, sealing off both ends and trapping a diverse band of survivors inside.  A disgraced former emergency medical services chief manages to reach them and then struggles through fire, noxious gases, explosions, collapsing walls, massive flooding and rats to lead them to daylight Daylight co-stars Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, Jay O. Sanders, Karen Young, Claire Bloom and Vanessa Bell Calloway.  Director Cohen works again with Executive Producer Raffaella De Laurentis, with whom he made Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and Dragonheart.

My thoughts about Daylight:

Daylight was one of the early movies in the second wave of disaster movies, the first wave having been inflicted on us in the seventies. This second wave was made possible by the advent of computer graphics (CGI). As you may have gathered from my previous reviews, I'm not a fan of CGI overuse. I have two rules of thumb when it comes to CGI. First, only use special effects in general, and CGI in particular, where it is necessary for telling the story. Second, use CGI only where practical effects are not possible. Fortunately DaylightDaylight reminds me a lot of The Poseidon adventure.  It's a group of people trapped under water after a major accident, trying to get to the surface. The main difference is that the lead character, played by Sylvester Stallone, is not involved in the initial disaster, but goes in volontarily, knowing that he cannot go back out the same way, and knowing that there may not actually be a way out. So, is this a good movie? Well, the story does have some flaws, but that's true of most disaster movies. The movie has gathered some very varied reactions. Some people hate it, some love it. Having seen it at least twice before, I still had a good time rewatching it.

I rate this title

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on December 20th, 2014)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a review by Dragonfire

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Discover the intriguing inside stories of why so many of Britain's most celebrated stars took roles in the series. See the newly unveiled screen test between Daniel Radcliffe and Evanna Lynch (selected to play Luna out of 15,000 hopefuls!) Go on the set to see firsthand how each of the directors brought unique strengths to the series. Witness the amazing transformations as Daniel, Rupert and Emma grow with their characters over a decade of unprecedented filmmaking.

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This one is another good adaptation of the book and the important explanations aren't cut out.  I sometimes wonder how some of the other movies would have turned out if Christopher Columbus had directed them.  The story for this one is entertaining, and it starts the trend of the movies getting a little darker with each other as Harry and his friends get older.  I could have done without the snakes and the basalisk that looks like a giant snake to me.  That think still freaks me out a bit.  Hagrid's giant spider doesn't bother me a bit.  Professor Lockhart is an idiot and Kenneth Branagh is great in the part.  

Every time I watch the first two movies, I miss Richard Harris as Dumbledore.  Michael Gambon did fine when he took over, but he wasn't the same and Harris was absolutely perfect for the part.  He looks in these movies the way I imagined Dumbledore when I read the books. 



I did post a longer review at Epinions.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets



(From Marie's Random Movie Viewing on July 15th, 2013)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Kor believes to have learned where the sword of the first klingon emperor Kahless has disappeared to. It was stolen by the Hur'q over a thousand years ago and now it seems to be in the GQ. He wants Dax to join him and he also invites Worf to come with them. And destiny wanted them to find it. But they have an argument about what they should do with it because the sword is a symbol of power and can be used as such.

My Opinion:Synopsis: Garak has broken into the Holosuite where Bashir was just playing a spy of the british government during the cold war. But then a transporter accident happens and the neurological patterns can be stored into the station's computers the only place to save their body patterns is the running Holosuite program. And suddenly it's important not only to win the game but also not to kill any of the characters.

My Opinion: Having watched Casino Royale this tuesday and going to watch Quantum Of Solace coming tuesday I enjoyed this episode very much. Sisko/Dr. Noah was a much better adversary to Bashir than Le Chiffre was to Bond. And O'Brien was great as Falcon The fun episodes of DS9 are always worth watching.

Synopsis: Sisko and Odo are called back to Earth after an explosion has killed 27 conference members including some Romulans. And the wormhole is opening at random intervals, too. On Earth Sisko gets promoted to acting Chief of Starfleet Security and he implements some security measures to ensure the safety of Federation President Jaresh-Inyo and all Starfleet facilities. But it doesn't help. The Founders attack Earth's power grid and disable it. An attack by a cloaked fleet seems imminent.

My Opinion: And now to rather serious business. Benjamin Franklin once said "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Yet, since 9/11 we've seem to have forgotten those words and basically every western country is taking away civil rights and enforces a harder security policy. In the EU every phone call ever made, every connection to the internet is to be logged and stored. In the UK the Interception Modernisation Programme even wants to store every e-Mail ever sent (including spam). In Germany our Minister of the Interior wants the right to secretly go into our houses and install trojan horses on our computers and he wants to use the Bundeswehr within our country (which is strictly forbidden by our constitution). Al-Qaeda despises our way of living and what do we do? We destroy our way of living. It's like committing suicide because we fear death.

Synopsis: The President has declared martial law and the streets are guarded by armed Starfleet troops. But things don't add up. Earth's security has tightened yet no Dominion fleet is attacking. The attack on the power grid wasn't the doing of any Founder - Admiral Leyton did it "for the greater good".

My Opinion: That episode proves the point I made above. Only four changelings on Earth caused all the havocs and they didn't even had to do it themselves. I am just glad that Sisko has seen the error in his way. But would he have seen it if it hadn't been the coup of a Starfleet admiral?

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on November 8th, 2008)