John Sprocket This movie is hilarious. I mean, not on purpose, but still hilarious. It was totally bank-rolled by some guy that own a hockey stadium and wanted to break into Hollywood. So his wife whipped him up a standard action movie script, they hired a 90s action hero, and shot the entire movie in his hockey stadium.The plot is paper thin and makes very little sense. The main hero is a simple fireman who appears to be a world-class martial artist. No explanation is given for his magical fighting powers. But the Vice President is in danger at the Stanley Cup and our hapless hero basically stumbles into the bad guys by accident.Pick an action movie trope from the 1990s and it is in there.At one point our hero fights a terrorist dressed in a giant penguin costume. And there isn't even a wink at the camera. It is deadly-serious mortal combat that get strangely dark and ends pretty gruesomely.Do not be fooled. This movie was not supposed to be funny, it is 100% serious about itself. I laughed myself stupid, and I hope you will too.

ivo-cobra8 *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

LeonLouisRicci You Can Count on a Peter Hyams Movie to Look Sharp with a Sort of Dazzle and Style Expected from a Director of Photography Turned Director. You Can Count on a Van Damme Movie to be, Well, a Van Damme Movie.So No One Seeing this Should be Surprised at what They Get. A Good Looking No Brainy Actiony Thingy. This One was Made Back when This Type was Rated R, Mostly for Violence, and there were No Qualms about Putting Children in Direct Danger and Kicking and Shooting Some Serious Butt. But at the Time there were a Lot of Formulaic Films, and that's OK Because if it Works it Works, and this was Part of a Group of Die-Hard Followups that by this Time were Starting to Wear Out Their Welcome. It Flopped Domestically.But the Movie is Big Budget Fun and if You Like JCVD or Hockey or Both this Ones for You. For Action Fans it has that R Rated Edge and Never Stops being Entertaining. Not a Lot of Logic but Loads of Laughs and Some Very Cold Villains.

Robert W. When I was in my teenage years, growing up in the nineties I loved a good action flick with Jean Claude Van Damme. He wasn't my favourite hero but he was always good for action. I thought I remembered Sudden Death being one of my favourites so I was anxious to watch it again. I'm glad I did because man was it bad. I was completely entertained but now that I've seen so many more movies and become something of a connoisseur I can see all the ridiculously huge plot holes with a movie like this. I mean any good action film requires you to suspend some belief but I'm talking ridiculous gaping plot holes that are just ignored. How is that terrorists completely overtake a stadium during the biggest sporting event ever, blow up cars outside the stadium, have massive gunfights and perform other acts of terrorism without anyone inside the stadium ever having any idea? Its ludicrous. This is only one example but its a major one. The acting for the most part is wooden and even Van Damme who at least has a strong chemistry on screen just doesn't really come alive in this one. Still with those downsides the film is still fun and entertaining and still has some worthy action scenes.Many will poke fun at Jean-Claude Van Damme for his acting abilities but he was a nineties king for a brief moment. He was a martial arts/action superstar and this seems almost primed for him. The unfortunate part is they misuse him. He hardly does any martial arts and just seems so out of place. His character has no development and doesn't really get the chance to be as charismatic as other heroes in similar films. Powers Boothe actually steals the show in a lot of ways. He is a fantastic lead villain right up there with a great Die Hard villain. Boothe has the look and the delivery and has a cold blooded character not to be messed with. The final show down is epic enough and it is sort of a cool concept but when Boothe's villain finally meets his end it is rather campy but suits the film. Raymond J. Barry also is quite good but sadly underused as the Vice-President of The United States. Whittni Wright and Ross Malinger deserve honourable mention as they both do a good job as Van Damme's children who find themselves in danger. Dorian Harewood is decent as Hallmark but I'm not sure his entire purpose in the film and despite getting one of the cooler death scenes his character feels awkward in the grand scheme of things.Certainly director Peter Hyams is no stranger to a good action film. He worked with Van Damme previously on Timecop and has done a handful of decent to really good action flicks but his best work is usually in sci-fi. This is not his best work. Essentially this is another Die Hard type rip off but its lacking the heart and the smart script that is necessary to make it really something. As the rumour goes this film was originally written as an action/martial arts spoof film and ultimately I think that is what it ended up being. For all the bad I've said you can't deny its nineties classic status. Its a terrific concept to have the lone hero suddenly have to protect his children, the Vice President and thousands of hockey fans from an insane terrorist at Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals IN Sudden Death Overtime. I don't understand why they made him a fireman as opposed to a police officer which would have made far more sense and helped with some of the glaring plot holes. So basically if you can really let go of logic and sense and just sit back and enjoy a silly action flick then you'll be entertained and find this amusing. A great piece of film making it isn't but I suppose that isn't its goal. 6/10