An improbable, but exciting, sort of Towering Inferno, as a massive explosion in a freeway under the Hudson River kills hundreds and traps a small group of survivors facing fire and flood, in a tunnel now blocked at both ends. Disgraced ex-emergency services chief Kit (inevitably Sylvester Stallone, the king of action redemption) is a taxi-driver on the scene and figures out a hazardous way to reach those entombed. This involves an extremely unlikely sequence, with Stallone dropping through slowed-up giant steel fans before they get back to warp speed. Once down there, he finds an elderly couple, a group of convicts, a dog, the obligatory heroine (Amy Brenneman) and a tunnel security man. No nuns this time round! You don't need a slide rule to calculate that there'll be a few casualties on the way to eventual escape, but special effects work overtime, with fearsome flames, avalanches of mud and water and showers of sparks to keep the tension high.

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