Sudden Death (Muerte súbita)

OK, let's be straight forward. This is not Oscar material. It's a typical hostage movie similar to the Die Hard series. There are some pretty decent action sequences and some that just don't plain make any sense and, after you see them, you will be left kinda confused. Having said that, this is a good movie. The best part about this movie is, surprisingly, the bad guy. Powers Boothe plays the lead terrorist and he plays it well. At times you root for him because he plays the part so well. Unfortunately, it's hard to root against this guy because of his wise-ass attitude, but some of his quotes are memorable and quite amusing. (Example: To the vice president "I voted for you. I really did. It's your sincerity and compassion. However there may be a need to kill someone else. Now we're gonna make this work or we're gonna die trying!") This is a typical Van Damme film except in this one he plays a little hockey. This movie, albeit a bit done-before, is surrounded by an entertaining cast that propels this from a 5 to a 7.

This time, Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a traumatized firefighter who takes his two children to a Stanley Cup game that the vice-president is attending. Unfortunately several people, including Van Damme's daughter as well as the vice-president, are taken hostage by a deranged CIA member and his team of suited up goons. Their plan is to kill one hostage each quarter if their continuously outrageous demands for absurd amounts of money are not met. If they still don't have their money by the end of the game, the arena and all of the people inside will be detonated. Van Damme ends up having to do battle with these creeps while trying to disarm the bombs. Eventually when the game nears it's end he also ends up having to do everything in his power to get the hockey game to continue.

This is easily one of the most intense and nerve-wracking Van Damme films. Obviously it's just another Die Hard-ripoff, but it has more to offer than most Die Hard-ripoffs that came out in the 90s. For starters, the villains in this are real villains. They have absolutely no qualms with killing any innocent people, and they do it about as casually and as constantly as a real bad guy should. A lot of people get killed in this film, and a good portion of the victims are innocent bystanders. Powers Boothe is actually pretty damn scary! The first third of the film has a pretty high bodycount, and the bloodshed starts off almost immediately. Sure, the villains aren't as sadistic as the villains in, say, the second Die Hard film, but I don't think that anyone is going to dispute that these bad guys are pretty bad. One thing this film does exceptionally well, however, is allow the action set-pieces to be implemented in some pretty cool ways. There's a fight scene in the kitchen involving a team mascot gone mad in which all the deadly and dangerous hazards become tools. There's a lot of really slick gore and some really shocking moments of bodily harm that make this film a lot more memorable. What really makes the film work, however, is the final act where things get down to the wire and it becomes all about survival. I won't spoil what happens, but the last few action set-pieces are spectacular in their creativity and in their energy.

Van Damme also does a fine job as usual as the hero who ends up having to do everything by himself. He shows about as much charisma as expected for the role, but since he's playing a father he remembers to keep it in check a lot of the time too. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but don't expect a lot of moments of sly little comments like you would find in Bloodsport. I don't mind so much either way, it's just that this isn't the goofy Van Damme that was in Double Impact, but it's not the hardened stonefaced loner in Hard Target. This Van Damme lies somewhere in between those, though leaning more toward the Hard Target Van Damme. As long as he isn't the loudly shrieking crucified idiot that he was in Cyborg, I don't have any problem. I think one thing that made this a little more unique is the fact that he's trying to rescue his child rather than rescue a woman who simply knows too much. This helped make the film much more simple to digest and it also gave it that little emotional kick that never hurts in a good action film.

I like my action films to be raw and gut-wrenching, and Van Damme's films usually deliver the goods. Sudden Death is definitely no exception. It's an intense and explosive film that is entertaining as hell and has plenty of good shocks. It's not a good film by any means, but if you're looking for action that is brutal, Sudden Death is easily one of the more entertaining films of the 90s, and plus there aren't a lot of films where a bad guy is killed by getting shoved into a dishwasher.

I found this to be a very interesting action with with Powers Boothe fun to watch as the main villain, thanks to his dialog and no-nonsense approach. At least he wasn't one of those talk-first, shoot-maybe-later clichés from the world of film. The hockey scenes in here are realistic, too. However, the rest of the film doesn't exactly exhibit realism: lots of hokey stuff in here, too. At the end, the action really gets carried away and brings the rating down on this to a manageable "7." Otherwise, it would be a minimum of "8" just for the entertainment value alone.

After a slow start, it picks up when Boothe enters the movie. Then it never lets up. If you want a pure hour of action, this is it. There is no female lead in this movie, so you get no romance nor gratuitous sex scenes, which is a bit unusual. It's a straight crime story.

One note: unless things have been changed, I was disappointed my DVD did not offer a widescreen version.

I may be one of those movie buffs who's at least willing to confess that they're not a huge admirer or fan of a certain actor or director. Jean-Claude Van Damme would be near the top of my list of actors that I only admire although I've seen a few films where he has his name is on the poster.

"Sudden Death" is the second film that Van Damme has starred in with photographer/director Peter Hyams ("End of Days", "Timecop") is at the helm.

This film was based on an actual story by Karen Baldwin and is adapted into the story by Gene Quintano.

The movie takes place at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in Pittsburgh where the Chicago Blackhawks and the Pittsburgh Penquins are about to take the ice for the last game of the Stanley Cup finals. Van Damme's character, Darren McCord, takes his son and daughter to the game. As usual, the arena is packed with fans and the Vice President of the U.S. has come to see the game as well. Unfortunately, Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe), a demented terrorist and a small band of terrorists take control of the Owner's box where the V.P. and several people. Foss demands that he wants a billion dollars and how he wants to use it puzzles me. However, at the end of each period, if his demand isn't met, Foss shoots someone and if the deal isn't done at the end of the game. The arena is blown sky high with several explosives that are set all over the arena.

Boothe is good here and he makes the threat very real, which is key to making any thriller. He also shows some wit and in one particular scene, the Vice President curiously asks Foss "What kind of lunatic are you?" Foss responds - "The best kind."

What draws McCord into the situation is when his daughter is taken up to the Owner's box. From there on, the movie manages to make the excitement to be interesting. One example would be the fight scenes that McCord has with a couple of thugs in the kitchen at two seperate times. Just about every prop is used from the meat slicer to the bone, which goes through one of the neck of a terrorist. Fun and yucky isn't it?

The last half of the film is just about entertaining as the first half is. I'm undecided if "Sudden Death" would make the best thriller that involves a sports event and terrorists since John Frankenheimer's "Black Sunday". Van Damme and Boothe are both good here.

Jean-Claude Van Damme does "Die Hard" at a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game. Interestingly, co-writer Randy Feldman said he wrote the first draft of the screenplay as a comedy/action movie parody. The only scene that remained in the finished film was the scene where Van Damme fights the penguin mascot. The now serious version of the screenplay co-written by Gene Quintano (writer of Police Academy 3, 4 & 5) is a highly derivative action film about a group of terrorists holding the Vice President and Stanley Cup fans hostage. Despite a weak script, the film does deliver some solid fight scenes from JCVD, features a good villain with Powers Boothe as the lead terrorist, and well directed action from Peter Hyams ("Capricorn One" "Outland" "Timecop"), who is also the cinematographer on most of his films and was doing it long before it was the cool thing to do, as is done by Robert Rodriguez, Doug Liman, Gaspar Noé, and Steven Soderbergh. So overall, this is a dull script that's executed by it's actors and director much better than it deserves. Worth watching for JCVD fan only.