Sudden Death

Darren McCord, a fire safety officer at a hockey stadium, takes his two kids to a major Pittsburgh Penguins game. It just so happens to be the day that extortionist/thieves kidnap the vice president and hold him hostage at the stadium, thus putting himself and his children in mortal danger.

Lets cut to the chase here, Sudden Death is a clone rip off of Die Hard, the action template movie that shines as bright as a newly formed bruise, but as copycats go {and there have been reams}, Peter Hyams' beefcake blunderbuss movie is an action junkie's delight. Jean Claude Van Damme {McCord obviously} flexes his muscles and not only beats seven bells of tar out of Powers Booth's criminal minions, he also proves to be a hero and loving father to his oblivious children. It's contrived for sure, I mean we get Jean sneaking on to the ice and taking up net minding duties, and it's certainly a script devoid of imagination. But it's got Van Damme fighting a hot kick ass babe in a penguin suit and a last fifteen minutes of high roof/dangling/swinging/exploding mayhem that does the action genre proud.

It's no Die Hard, but what genre films are? Sudden Death in spite of its contrivances, is a film that is impossible not to enjoy if you are a like minded adult. 7/10

A former fireman goes head to head with a gang of terrorists holding the Vice President and his daughter hostage during the NHL Cup finals.

While John McClane is certainly not the first action hero, had Die Hard not happened and Sudden Death had been made in 1988 Karen Elise Baldwin story may have faired well, however, by 1995 the theme had been done to death with endless amounts of Hard-a-likes including Passenger 57 (1992), Under Siege (1992) Speed (1994) to name a few. 

Jean-Claude Van Damme looks unhappy, yet actually does an okay job as Darren McCord but feels miscast, even with the screenplay catering for his trademark kicks for fans he looks uncomfortable with a slightly thriller oriented script by Gene Quintano and comes across less effective than in Maximum Risk. 

Like Bruce Payne and Alan Rickman before him Powers Boothe is first rate as ruthless ransomer Foss. Raymond J. Barry is notable as the Vice President, the rest of the cast of expendable agents and terrorist are adequate but forgettable. No doubt hockey fans will have fun spotting real life personalities and players.

The stadium location is visually interesting and the music score adds to the action and more tension filled scenes. Director Peter Hyams keeps the screen busy but like Van Damme just goes through the motions, still Sudden Death is only really let down by bad timing, pacing and annoying child actors. 

With unexpected executions, fights, explosions, one-liners and an obligatory twist Sudden Death is an entertaining larger than life hostage flick - just leave your cranium at the door.

Darren(Jean Claude Van Damme) is a firemen, he carries his sons to a Pittsburgh Penguin national Hockey play-off where is taking place the final.But the arena has been taken by a terrorists led by a cruel villain(Powers Boothe). The bad guys are holding the Vice President(Raymond J. Barry), as well as another authorities taken as hostages in a private box. The chief villain demanding a few billion dollars or he'll blow up the stadium because is wired with enough explosives for killing all around. Meanwhile an Inspector(Dorian Harewood) is also investigating the events and is captured our hero's daughter .

This film is plenty of action and explosions and is quite amusing. Displays suspense, thriller, violence, great action scenes and stunts with sensational scenes. Jean Claude Van Damme gets a perfect part who plays cat-and-mouse- with a sardonic nasty, well played by Powers Boothe.The highlights film are the impressive fighting on the stadium's ceiling. The blowing up ,pyrotechnics,struggles are breathtaking but the picture is just another usual Hollywood product in the wake of ¨Die hard¨.Married only by lack credulity for feats of Van Damme and too many needlessly scenes. It packs a high budget and lavishly produced ,however, nowadays Van Damme performs a middling and low budget movies. Spectacular music score fitting to action film by John Debney(Sin city,Passion of Christ).The motion picture is professionally directed by Peter Hyams who repeats with Jean Claude in ¨Timecop¨ . He's an irregular director with hits(Relic,Outland,Capricorn one) and flops(Sound and thunder,End of days).

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.

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.