| Sudden Death (1996) Cast:Jean-Claude Van Damme,Powers Boothe,Raymond J. Barry,Ross Malinger While far from great, Sudden Death provides some eye catching action scenes and a truly impressive performance from Van Damme (Who is actually appealing) as a firefighter who must come to the rescue of the Vice President and thousands of fans when terrorists threaten to blow up the hockey arena. The build up to what transpires is fun and fast paced and rather cold blooded, I would have to mark this as JCVD's most mean spirited movie since Death Warrant however Sudden Death is far more enjoyable than you would expect despite it's formulatic plot threads and absurdities (Suspend disbelief with this one.) Sudden Death ranks as Jean-Claude Van Damme's better movies. Actually though there are a few distinguishing touches such as a kitchen brawl which leads to Van Damme not only depending on his martial arts but also red hot pepper (used to pour down one's eyes), the dish water, stove and even a turkey bone! (Used to jam up a hapless bad guy's throat) all that's missing is a spatula to the nuts. Van Damme abandons his usual martial arts in favor for more gunfire and for the most part it works. Sudden Death has pretty successful as Die Hard rip offs go.*** |