Sudden Death (1995)

[4.5] a creative and exciting, highly underrated van damme film
I am not sure why I hear a lot of bad comments about this Van Damme film. Sudden Death is one of many "Die Hard" remakes, but this is the most exciting one I have seen, all taking place in the Pittsburgh hockey arena during game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. The action and suspense are teriffic, and Van Damme does a fine all-around performance (for Van Damme). The movie is quickly paced and something is always happening. Though acting and visual effects may be poor at times, this is not a film to be watching for a wonderful hollywood drama. This is pure Van Damme excitment for some no-brain kick-butt action. I give 4.5 stars, not because this is one of the best movies ever made, but it is one of the most exciting Van Damme movies that is must see fun.

Van Damme is "Darren", a sort-of fire rescue man who brings his daughter and son to the hockey game. Before the game begins, preparations are already unfolding for a new terror plot. The Vice President is on his way to the game to view the action live, and the terrorists are ready to take action once he takes his position in the owner's vip room. Naturally, the man in charge (Joshua Foss, played by Powers Boothe) wants money, and if he doesn't get it, he kills one hostage in the room after each period of the game expires. If the money is not in his account, the entire arena is rigged to blow at the conclusion of the game.

Enter Van Damme, who plays hero, but does an exciting job of it. He gets in plenty of fights throughout the interior of the arena and on the rooftop as well. My favorite is with one of the terrorist women, who is disguised in the Penguin's mascot outfit. Its kinda silly that he is fighting a mascot, but the kitchen they fight in gets torn up real good. There is also a pretty good fight in the weight room later on.

One of the most exciting things about the film is that it is all taking place during a hockey game. The game itself is fun to watch, as we get dozens of clips throughout the movie. At one point, in an attempt to avoid some of the terrorists, Van Damme enters the game as the Penguin's goalee, though no one realizes it. He is forced to play a few minutes of the game, and it was pretty fun to see.

Again, 4.5 for a great Van Damme film. Do check this one out, as it is a roller coaster that never stops. Though the ending is predicatble, its fun to see how we get there.

Great movie
I like hockey and I like action movies. This was one of my favorite movies growing up and I still enjoy it today. The movie has great action moments and Van Damme has his best movie.

Let's play hockey!
I've never been a big fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme, and as of last night, had never watched a film of his before. Although I did feel like watching Street Fighter a few years back, but I was really into Kylie Minogue at the time. And I was young. That's an excuse right?

I was ended up pleasantly surprised by his acting - for some reason, I'd got it into my head that he's not that good an actor. OK, he was alright, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go rushing out to buy all his films.

There's nothing new about this film, but it'll grab your attention the whole time it's on the screen. It's a clone of many other movies, and and it itself, has probably been cloned over the years. What's terrific is the build up to the finale. It's one of those movies, where just when you think surely it's finished now, it brings out another twist, or another explosion, and you're swept along.

There's a few silly moments included in the film - Van Damme fighting a woman in a penguin suit for example, it's so funny to see and must have been embarrassing to film! :) But it ended up with the woman in the penguin suit someone that could be easily killed off and no one worries about her.

Three quarters of the way through the movie Van Damme decides to take a quick break from all the hard work - and play some hockey! At first I totally did not realise it was Van Damme, for some reason, I thought it was one of the bad guys. It wasn't until the over done "I love you" moment, that I realised who it was.

Unfortunately, Van Damme is far overshadowed by bigger, better action heroes, despite his best attempts at an impression of Bruce Willis throughout. Arnie & Sly obviously have the bigger muscles, and dare I say it, Mr Seagull has the overall size. Who would win in a punch up?

What I was most looking forward to about this was seeing little Ross Malinger again, who I best knew from Sleepless In Seattle. He doesn't play a different character, or look any older (who else wanted him to stand up & shout out "I preferred my daddy in Sleepless In Seattle!")

Overall, it's a pretty good action movie, doesn't test the braincells too much, and is pretty good fun.