If you came here looking for the mediocre, 1996 Sly Stallone movie of the same name, this isn’t it. What this is, according to the log line, is this: “A harrowing psychological thriller from a widely acclaimed filmmaker, Daylight pits a couple lost in America against a conniving gang of kidnappers, in David Barker’s rigorous and personal re-imagining of the genre film.” More thoughts on that below. Since I watched this streaming, I can’t make my own screen grabs and there’s slim pickins on the web…. (since I know everyone comes here for the images) : )
A very pregnant Swiss woman and her is-he-a-dick-or-not Swiss husband are driving their very expensive Maserati down a tree lined road in what we are told is America. They come to an intersection and can’t decide to turn left or right – so I guess they are lost. After making a decision, they head down another tree lined road and pass a hitchhiker. They stop to ask him directions and reluctantly let him in the car – before they pass another hitchhiker farther down the road. Hitchhiker 1 pulls out a knife, puts it to the wife’s throat and tells them to go pick up his buddy. Hitchhiker 2 pulls out a gun and commandeers the car, but he can’t drive a stick, so the husband has to drive to this quaint, horsey and ducky wallpapered, two story house in the middle of nowhere that doesn’t even have a driveway.
There, the wife is taken hostage and the husband is almost killed, but he promises them a lot of money if they let him live. One of the toughs, a fellow called Murph, takes the husband into town and leaves the wife with the other two goons for what I guess is the “harrowing psychological thriller”. That queues up the rest of the movie where we get a lot of talking, a lot of slow motion horsing around by the two thugs, some fighting, a weak escape attempt a lot of waiting for Murph to come back with the loot and some light philosophy thrown into the mix. Even though this is a short 75 minute flick, when the end finally came after, well, 45 certainly-not-exciting-but-I-guess-not-boring minutes, I felt like, “Ok, well that’s done, what else is there to do?”
I thought Daylight was a very realistic, believable movie. I thought the cast of five all did a really good job with their oral and physical techniques, especially the guy who played “Leo” – Ivan Martin. He reminded me of Vince Vaughn back when Vince Vaughn made movies like THE CELL or CLAY PIGEONS. I liked the fight scenes, I liked the plot, I liked the quality and I even liked the dialogue. What I didn’t like was the boring middle third so here’s a nice run on sentence, complete with spoilers: when the older couple show up at the house asking for the owners, we realize that the owners must be those bodies in the cellar, so why are the three thugs here in the first place and why did they kill these people and why were they out posing as hitchhikers on this untraveled road; were they hoping to kidnap someone and kill em and eat em or did they expect some rich Swiss couple to come rolling along in their expensive Italian sports car because that’s what happens in this part of small town America and that was the whole plan all along??? What if it was my friend Scrotey who doesn’t have a zillion dollars to his name??? What would they do then? You know what would have been cool: what if it was the pickup that those killers from THE STRANGERS were driving off in at the end of that movie? These three killers from DAYLIGHT could face off with the three killers from THE STRANGERS – that would have been a much better movie. SHAZAM!!
Isaacs Picture Conclusions 
I came here looking for the AWESOME 1996 Sly Stallone movie of the same name! 🙂 Nice review mate.
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Thank you kindly!
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Hahaha, seems like it is your month for movies of the same title! Nice review!
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LOL – it sure seems like it doesn’t it… ?
THANK YOU!!
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Okay, I refrained from reading b/c I have this DVD, but have not watched yet. So, spoiler free, is this something I should watch soon? Is it good?
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It’s not that great – honestly….
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Oh ok; i hope this is one we disagree on b/c I had actually been looking forward to this one. I just lost focus on my DVD’s when I got netflix. lol.
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I don’t think you’ll love it…
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So what does that title have to do with anything?
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NOTHING!!!
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I would think it means time is running out. They feel like they’re in daylight trying to solve the case before night.
And the event that transpired (don’t know all the details just yet b/c I haven’t watched) took place in daylight.
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On another note, your header just advertised the movie “Rubber”. Is that actually good? I always thought the concept was very creative, but just figured it was dumb, so I skipped it. Is it one I should watch?
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It’s one of my personal favorites but its not going to be for everyone…
Here’s an oooooooooollllllddd post:
https://isaacspictureconclusions.com/2011/08/20/rubber-2010-five-top-hats/
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ok, read the first paragraph, and stopped; i will check this one out. it’s on netflix.
BTW: did you get “Inside” yet?
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It is in my possession!! I’ll probably give it a watch tomorrow : )
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What an absolutely terrible poster. Speaking of comments, you need to stop by the CK more ;). Bring a top hat or two as well and maybe we can grab a drink, hit the town, and …murder? everyone in our way. And by murder I mean befriend and by befriend I mean… have relations with. What happens with internet friends, stays with internet friends. It’s like Vegas but 100000x less … legal?
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I read almost everything you put out but you’re absolutely right – I need to be more dutiful in commenting over there! I always forget to log in over there and I write something and then when I log in it tends to erase it : ( ill try and do a better job!
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You best be gettin’ before you get got.
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I need to get to steppin!
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What no Sly Stallone! Shame 🙂
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For shame!!
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Can you review Daylight please? I kinda love that movie for some reason. I mean, it’s pretty shit, but it’s fucking great at the same time.
This movie sounds interesting! Netflix by any chance?
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The Stallone one?? A request!! I’ll queue it up : )
I think this is out on Netflix – I did mine through iTunes ~
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I thought you’d sold out and gone all Stallone over here. Thank god your still watching this obscure crap instead 🙂
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HA!! Nope – I’m happy to see you’re still around and kicking up dust!!
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Hey, that doesn’t look like Stallone. I thought everyone else was saying it so I’d copy them like a polite Canadian. Nice review man!
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Stallone has a cameo in this – taking a dump, reading a Rolling Stone magazine…
JUST KIDDING!!
PFFT!!
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Splurt.
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Hehe. You said “oral and physical techniques”.
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LOL : )
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