{"id":2200,"date":"2024-08-09T13:31:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T13:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2200"},"modified":"2024-10-14T00:38:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:38:06","slug":"sudden-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/09\/sudden-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudden Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Sudden Death <\/strong>(1995)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 111 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (pervasive strong violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Hyams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gene Quintano\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Hyams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 22, 1995 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Powers Boothe, Raymond J. Barry, Whittni Wright, Ross Malinger, Dorian Harewood, Kate McNeil, Michael Gaston, Audra Lindley, Brian Delate, Steve Aronson, Michael Aubele.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $20.3M (US)\/$64.3M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0My theory on the Jean-Claude Van Damme actioner Sudden Death<\/strong> is this. Somebody, most likely the star himself, felt if Steven Seagal could do the Die Hard thing, so could JCVD. But instead of setting it on some mode of transportation, they took a cue from Black Sunday and set the action at a major sporting event. In this instance, it\u2019s the last game of the Stanley Cup Finals. At this point, I could say it\u2019s the only thing that differentiates it from Die Hard or Under Siege and it would be mostly true except for one small detail, the lead actor. JCVD is no Bruce Willis or Steven Seagal. He\u2019s kind of dull actually.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, maybe dull is too strong a word. I guess what I mean to say is he lacks a distinctive personality. Willis wisecracked his way through Die Hard, dropping one-liners along with the bad guys. Seagal had that combination slow-boil anger\/bemusement thing going for him as he took out hijackers. I don\u2019t get much of a read on JCVD\u2019s character in Sudden Death<\/strong>. He doesn\u2019t have any defining traits other than the trauma that made him quit being a fireman. Oh, and he speaks with a French accent, but so do all of JCVD\u2019s characters. Other than that, he doesn\u2019t stand out in any particular way. He just goes about the job of dealing with the terrorists that have laid siege to the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in rote fashion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After accidentally smothering a little girl he was trying to save from a house fire, Darren McCord (JCVD) switched jobs. He\u2019s now a fire inspector at the arena. He brings his two children, Tyler (Malinger, Sleepless in Seattle) and Emily (Wright, I\u2019ll Do Anything), to work with him the night of the big game. Security is extra tight as the Vice President (Barry, Rapid Fire) will also be in attendance. It\u2019s a perfect night for a hostile takeover.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A gang of armed terrorists led by ex-CIA guy Joshua Foss (Boothe, Tombstone) have worked their way into the arena disguised as security guards and vendors. Foss and a few others force their way into the luxury VIP box where the VP is watching the game with other VIPs. He calmly explains that he has the whole place rigged with explosives that he will set off if his demands aren\u2019t met by the end of the game. He wants over $2 billion in government money wired into several off-shore counts. If a certain amount isn\u2019t transferred by the end of each period, one hostage will be executed. It\u2019s a foolproof plan except for one thing…. that is, one man.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While McCord makes his rounds, Emily leaves her seat after quarreling with her brother. She goes to the ladies room where she witnesses the Pittsburgh mascot Iceburgh kill somebody. It\u2019s really one of Foss\u2019 guys, the sole female in the group. She grabs the girl and drags her to the suite with the other hostages. McCord sees this and tries to follow. He gets into a fight with Iceburgh in the kitchen where practically every utensil is used as a weapon until McCord finally finishes her off in an industrial dishwasher.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Outside, the authorities led by Secret Service agent Hallmark (Harewood, Full Metal Jacket) have the place surrounded, but they can\u2019t approach. Foss has his guys watching for agents and police helicopters. When agents try to rush the arena, Foss blows up several cars in the parking lot. When a helicopter gets too close, one of the bad guys fires a rocket launcher at it. With the feds effectively pinned down, it\u2019s on McCord to handle the situation. He goes around disarming bombs, hoping to get them all before the end of the game. He also has to find a way to rescue his daughter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll say this for JCVD. He\u2019s an excellent fighter. He gets to show off his martial arts skills a little in Sudden Death<\/strong>, but not as much as other movies. This one is more about stunts and tricks. In one scene, McCord literally has a trick up his sleeve with a gadget he rigged up himself. He uses it to shoot a dart into a bad guy\u2019s neck. At the end, he climbs to the roof of the arena and fights a couple of bad guys before zip-lining into the VIP suite. Later, he dangles from a helicopter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s no shortage of action in Sudden Death<\/strong>. As a simple action flick, it\u2019s not bad. Boothe is okay as the main villain; unfortunately, he\u2019s no Hans Gruber. Also, we don\u2019t become familiar with the cohorts like we did in Die Hard. Still, Foss is mean enough to be hateful. The kids do a pretty good job with their roles. Wright is good at being brave enough to tell Foss what she thinks of him while still being scared of what might happen to her if Dad doesn\u2019t show up in time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I guess the bottom line with Sudden Death<\/strong> is not to expect too much from it. It\u2019s a decent action picture, but it lacks in certain areas. Director Peter Hyams (Timecop) keeps it moving along at a nice pace. I just wish he took the time to come up with a more compelling hero. I\u2019m sure JCVD is capable of the occasional one-liner. Shortcomings aside, I can think of worse ways to kill a couple of hours than Sudden Death<\/strong>.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sudden Death (1995)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 111 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (pervasive strong violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Hyams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gene Quintano\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Hyams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 22, 1995 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Powers Boothe, Raymond J. Barry, Whittni Wright, Ross Malinger, Dorian Harewood, Kate McNeil, Michael Gaston, Audra Lindley, Brian Delate, Steve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Sudden-Death-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2200"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3105,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200\/revisions\/3105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}