Sudden Death (1995)

Powerful

Just what I expected

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A former fireman takes on a group of terrorists holding the Vice President and others hostage during the seventh game of the NHL Stanley Cup finals. Sudden Death is another classic and well made 90's Jean Claude Van Damme film that not only it benefits from his charisma but also from the late Powers Boothe as the main villain who is kinda the Die Hard type of villain and pretty good to be perfectly honest. The action hits the roof and the movie definitely keeps you entertained and at the edge of your seat and in the end? It's a big blast.. (10/10)

*SPOILERS* Sudden Death (1995) is a good 90's fun action film, that has flaws and many problems in it. Is the second Van Damme movie that was directed from Peter Hyams and a decent action Die Hard movie, definitely of one of my action fun favorite Van Damme movies and mostly because I love Die Hard movies and a Die Hard style flicks like Sudden Death. It is a really shame how underrated this action movie flick is. I never get tired of it or bored with it. This is the second time I actually recognize that Van Damme's character is a Canadian is this action Die Hard Flick. The first time his character was a Canadian was in Death Warrant when he played a Mounty cop. In here he plays a Canadian disgrace Fireman now turning a fire building inspector who takes on a group of terrorists holding the Vice President and others hostages including his daughter during the seventh game of the NHL Stanley Cup finals. Still Van Damme's decent action movie in my opinion."Terror Goes Into Over-Time" Sudden Death is a 1995 American action film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Darren McCord, a Pittsburgh firefighter who during a Stanley Cup finals game finds himself trying to save his daughter and the Vice-President, who have been taken hostage by a team of terrorists led by former government operative Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe). The film was directed by Peter Hyams from a story written by the wife of the then owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The majority of the film was shot during the 1994–95 NHL lockout in the Civic Arena, the actual arena of the Pittsburgh Penguins. That is the basic plot it is about a an ex fireman fighting terrorist in the hockey arena. I liked Whittni Wright and Ross Malinger who played Emily and Taylor, Darren's children, they were great.This movie how ever has a lot of mayor problems, problems that I do have with the film. Which is also one of the reasons it wasn't my favorite Van Damme movie as a child. I think this is the first time I do not see Van Damme's martial arts and his spine kicks. I hated the twist! Dorian Harewood should have played the good guy and not the bad guy at the end. The fight choreographer still has horribly done fight doubles/stand-ins during the fights, which are very noticeable and take away from the fight scenes. You can easily tell, that this is not Van Damme in so many of the fight scenes. The pacing is still not that good. Too many useless stuff like the cops outside who weren't interesting. The 'good luck' that the main character got throughout (the gun shooting but "Oh, it's Empty", the game going into Sudden Death at the last couple of seconds so this No Explosion) and etc. made me "Call Bullshit" quite a few times, making that kind of stuff not enjoyable, and this took me out of the flick quite a few times. A couple of nice explosions and a good role by Van Damme & Powers Boothe, doesn't make a great movie'.I like this movie but honestly I think Double Impact and even Kickboxer are better movie than this. I like the Hockey game and That Van Damme's character does everything in his power to safe the hostages including all people in the hockey arena. But personally to me this movie did not felt a real Die Hard movie. I think Die Hard is still better movie. A good ideas was also used in this movie including nice shootouts. The helicopter crashed in the hockey arena with Joshua Foss in it. Van Damme's character realized right away what happened and try to spoiled the terrorists plans. I like that he was looking for the bombs. I like that the movie was set in Pittsburgh and not New York or Washington D.C./: Those are one of the reasons why I like this movie and the rating, this movie get's by me is a 7, the ideas in this movie very terribly. As a Van Damme fan I like it.7/10 Grade: C- Studio: Universal Pictures, Shattered Productions Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Powers Boothe, Raymond J. Barry, Whittni Wright, Ross Malinger, Dorian Harewood, Kate McNeil, Michael Gaston, Audra Lindley, Brian Delate, Faith Minton, Manny Perry, Brian Hutchison Director: Peter Hyams Producers: Howard Baldwin, Moshe Diamant Screenplay: Gene Quintano Story by Karen Elise Baldwin Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 50 Mins. Budget: $35.000.000 Box Office: $64,350,171

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

Right from the beginning I could see that this movie was going to be a Die Hard clone, which is not surprising because Die Hard was a very successful movie and created a trend that followed on behind it. The action in the movie was good but the plot seriously sucked. Basically there were so many holes in the plot that it created a movie that you only go and see for Van Damme, and I don't think that he is that great anyway. If you are wanting to see Van Damme's moves, then this is not the movie to see them in. In fact, if you simply want to see good fighting, hire out a Hong Kong video - there generally tends to be much better moves in them.The vice president is going to the Ice Hockey finals and some guy, the movie really never actually explains who he is, only that he knows the government security operations very well, holds him hostage so that he can force the president to remove money from frozen bank accounts. The problem is that they grab a nosey little girl who turns out to be Van Damme's daughter, and that brings him into it.Van Damme's character is a fireman who quit after a girl died in his arms. Now, the thing that annoyed me is that they showed this part, and it really had nothing to do with the movie. It could have just as easily been explained afterwards than to show it. I think that it would have been much better for the plot line if they spent some time describing who Foss, the antagonist, was. They dropped hints but they never actually went as far as outlining everything. Some might say that it is not important because this is an action movie, but I think it is. It makes for a very poor movie to simply disregard plot for action.Sudden Death is a better Van Damme movie and I enjoyed it. All but this stupid sporting commentator in the booth, but then this is what you expect from commentators. I generally do not watch sports because first I find them boring, but mostly because the commentators are prone to say the stupidest things. These guys tried to make themselves look tough, when they really just didn't think about what they were saying. Actually, it was even worse because it was scripted.I liked it, and I am sure Van Damme fanatics would love it. Personally I would rather go back to the original Die Hard. That is a finely crafted movie.