Strong and Moving!

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

A Reuniting of Peter Hyams and Van Damme, director and star of Timecop.Sudden Death is one of the best action thrillers of 1995.Elaborate stunts, go-go-go direction from Peter Hyams, plus ass-kicking and surprise goalie action from Van Damme.Van Damme races against time, trying to thwart Powers Boothe and defuse all the bombs. In the hands of director Peter Hyams, this is a pleasure for all action-movie junkies. An above average action thriller loaded with jaw-dropping stunts and special effects, and strong in production values.10/10

Sudden Death (1995): Dir: Peter Hyams / Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Powers Booth, Raymond J. Barry, Ross Malinger, Whittni Wright: Title describes its box office results. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a firefighter who quit his job but unfortunately not the film industry. He emerges as a security guard at a stadium and takes his two children to a hockey game attended by the President but Powers Booth holds the V.I.P. group hostage and demands money or bombs will go off at the end of the game. Perhaps he should have demanded a higher salary for allowing himself to be part of this crap fest. Before long Van Damme's daughter ends up in the isolation booth and many bone breaking battles follow. Production succeeds where story fails. Director Peter Hyams previously made Time Cop with Van Damme and together they prove that two heads are not necessarily better than one. Booth is laughable as this villain whose ass will get kicked. It is just that so many others are ahead of him in the wait line. Raymond J. Barry is wasted as the President. Ross Malinger plays Van Damme's son who stays put when told. Perhaps had he left then he would have avoided any further involvement in one of the year's worst films. Whittni Wright plays Van Damme's daughter who laughably yet tearfully informs Booth that her dad will hand his ass to him. Pointless wretch that should be met with sudden death. Score: 1 / 10

According to the 'action movie cookbook', the recipe is pretty straight-forward. As dictated by "Die Hard" back in 1988, the film must be set in a specific location (skyscraper, naval vessel, airport, etc) and have a lone-wolf hero out-manned and out-gunned by the baddies who have taken said location over. Of course, the professionals will try to save the day but they'll bodge it, leaving it to our hero to save the day in a dramatic and explosive manner before rescuing his loved ones (who are naturally held hostage somehow) and becoming a better person at the end of it. That could probably describe perhaps 75% of all action movies released since then and I'm afraid that Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't going to start improvising with the formula. This may be as predictable as a season of Scottish Premier League football but it's entertaining enough without stretching its boundaries or your imagination too far.Van Damme plays Darren McCord, a traumatised fireman now reduced to acting as fire marshal at the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey team. Which is handy when the final game of the Stanley Cup rolls into town along with the Vice President (Raymond J. Barry) to watch the game. McCord takes his two kids along (Ross Malinger and Whittni Wright) but trouble isn't far away - a crazed terrorist (Powers Boothe) takes control of the stadium and the executive box when the VP is held hostage along with other dignitaries. It's soon up to McCord to take the fight to the terrorists while outside the stadium, the police effort led by Secret Service agent Hallmark (Dorian Harewood) struggles to get involved...I could go on detailing the plot but I reckon that you can fill in the blanks yourself. "Sudden Death" has little spark of originality or imagination, remaining content to tick off each genre cliché in order until the inevitable ending. I hasten to add that this is a decent enough action movie - certainly, you know what to expect from JCVD and he doesn't disappoint in the fight scenes. As a hero, though, he remains pretty vacant and is thoroughly outshone by Boothe (when asked what sort of lunatic he is, he replies "The best kind!") who displays more charisma than Van Damme could ever hope to muster. Ignoring the minutiae of the plot which, frankly, is pretty tenuous at best then this is the sort of guys-night-in garbage that you could happily rent and not feel short-changed at. Action veterans, however, might be a little annoyed. For me, the best moment was the fight between Van Damme and a seven-foot-tall cuddly penguin in a kitchen which had more thought put into it than the rest of the film put together. Naturally, they stumble into everything remotely dangerous in a kitchen - meat slicer, deep fat fryer, dishwasher, tenderiser, you name it. But from there, the action seems to come in fits and starts when McCord begins trying to track the bombs planted in the stadium.It may strive for comparisons to "Die Hard" but I'm afraid that "Sudden Death" felt like a cheap knock-off of the real thing, much like Steven Seagal's "Under Siege" did. It knows what action fans want and it provides all the fist-pumping, roundhouse-kicking nonsense that they could ask for. But for me, there is a strange lack of quality to it - there are no surprises in store for anyone other than the fact that nobody gets hit with a skate and there isn't even a love interest to provide some much-needed eye candy amid the ricocheting bullets and ill-lit steamy pipe-work (which is bathed in a red light for reasons I cannot possibly fathom other than it makes Van Damme look hard). I also didn't like the ending which felt and looked badly written, executed and just didn't feel right. Van Damme has made better films than this - "Universal Soldier" remains my favourite of his while "Timecop" is also held in high esteem by fans of the Muscles From Brussels. But "Sudden Death" is an adequate enough time-passer but not likely to change the world any time soon. I was always more into American Football anyway...

When I was in my teenage years, growing up in the nineties I loved a good action flick with Jean Claude Van Damme. He wasn't my favourite hero but he was always good for action. I thought I remembered Sudden Death being one of my favourites so I was anxious to watch it again. I'm glad I did because man was it bad. I was completely entertained but now that I've seen so many more movies and become something of a connoisseur I can see all the ridiculously huge plot holes with a movie like this. I mean any good action film requires you to suspend some belief but I'm talking ridiculous gaping plot holes that are just ignored. How is that terrorists completely overtake a stadium during the biggest sporting event ever, blow up cars outside the stadium, have massive gunfights and perform other acts of terrorism without anyone inside the stadium ever having any idea? Its ludicrous. This is only one example but its a major one. The acting for the most part is wooden and even Van Damme who at least has a strong chemistry on screen just doesn't really come alive in this one. Still with those downsides the film is still fun and entertaining and still has some worthy action scenes.Many will poke fun at Jean-Claude Van Damme for his acting abilities but he was a nineties king for a brief moment. He was a martial arts/action superstar and this seems almost primed for him. The unfortunate part is they misuse him. He hardly does any martial arts and just seems so out of place. His character has no development and doesn't really get the chance to be as charismatic as other heroes in similar films. Powers Boothe actually steals the show in a lot of ways. He is a fantastic lead villain right up there with a great Die Hard villain. Boothe has the look and the delivery and has a cold blooded character not to be messed with. The final show down is epic enough and it is sort of a cool concept but when Boothe's villain finally meets his end it is rather campy but suits the film. Raymond J. Barry also is quite good but sadly underused as the Vice-President of The United States. Whittni Wright and Ross Malinger deserve honourable mention as they both do a good job as Van Damme's children who find themselves in danger. Dorian Harewood is decent as Hallmark but I'm not sure his entire purpose in the film and despite getting one of the cooler death scenes his character feels awkward in the grand scheme of things.Certainly director Peter Hyams is no stranger to a good action film. He worked with Van Damme previously on Timecop and has done a handful of decent to really good action flicks but his best work is usually in sci-fi. This is not his best work. Essentially this is another Die Hard type rip off but its lacking the heart and the smart script that is necessary to make it really something. As the rumour goes this film was originally written as an action/martial arts spoof film and ultimately I think that is what it ended up being. For all the bad I've said you can't deny its nineties classic status. Its a terrific concept to have the lone hero suddenly have to protect his children, the Vice President and thousands of hockey fans from an insane terrorist at Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals IN Sudden Death Overtime. I don't understand why they made him a fireman as opposed to a police officer which would have made far more sense and helped with some of the glaring plot holes. So basically if you can really let go of logic and sense and just sit back and enjoy a silly action flick then you'll be entertained and find this amusing. A great piece of film making it isn't but I suppose that isn't its goal. 6/10