Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman. One man races against time to lead a group of stranded commuters out of a collapsed tunnel 72 feet under the Hudson River. 1996/color/115 min/PG-13/widescreen.

This echo of 1970s disaster films stars Sylvester Stallone as the disgraced former head of New York City's Emergency Medical Services, a loser who is nevertheless a compulsive rescuer of people in danger. When the Holland Tunnel is sealed off after a fiery explosion and car passengers are trapped within, he goes inside and leads a group of survivors (a mixed group allegorically representing America's diversity) through all manner of pestilence toward safety. Directed by the imaginative Rob Cohen (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story), Daylight finds Stallone outrageously (and to almost campy effect) pushing the envelope of his martyr persona to near-religious levels. He throws himself, quite literally, into this part, and between that entertainment factor and the unnervingly convincing effects, this is a pretty watchable film. --Tom Keogh