What could have been another routine DIE HARD rip-off, along the lines of the similar but atrocious thriller BLAST, turns out to be a supremely entertaining slice of action, delivered with just the right pace by experienced director Peter Hyams. In fact this is one of the better Van Damme films I've seen so far, with excellent fight scenes and an involving, if clichéd, plot. The story is nothing new, it's basically just DIE HARD relocated to a hockey match. Much like UNDER SIEGE was DIE HARD relocated on a boat, and CON AIR was DIE HARD relocated on a plane. But as the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and the formula works. It works very well in fact, which is why these sort of films are my favourite actioners. Van Damme runs around corridors, doing heroic things like defusing bombs, while the baddies shoot people. That's the main thrust of the story anyway, little aided by stupid dialogue and clichéd locations and fight scenes. However, it is perhaps the fight and chase scenes which make this film so engaging.Firstly, the fights are all bordering on the absurd, with Van Damme taking on a person in a penguin suit at the beginning. Virtually all of the bad guys in this film die bizarre deaths, one guy has a chicken bone shoved through his neck, another guy is ignited with lighter fluid from a water pistol, yet another guy has his hand drilled and some other unfortunate soul is processed through a bottle filling machine. These are the kind of death scenes I love in action films, where the villain dies in a horrible way, and there is no cutting away from the moment either. This film revels in the violence. The acting is all on the sub standard side, as to be expected, but to be fair, the cast all perform adequately. The kids aren't too annoying, and Powers Boothe is a smooth if unrealistic villain, whose motivations aren't really thought out or explained in the film. He does a great Alan Rickman impression though.Van Damme is his typical single-expressioned self, but that persona is fine for this role, and he performs brilliantly in the fight scenes as usual. His makeup is good, too. The baddies are all typical heavy types, like we've seen in these films billions of times before. There must be a special acting school for 'generic stock villains' somewhere in America. The shootouts and explosions are all handled well, and the special effects technicians deserve credit, apart from some shoddy digital effects which prove to be highly unrealistic. The editing is spot on, too, the viewer always knows what's happening and when, but the scenes are all served up in an interesting way. Basically this film is for fans of the genre, who know what they're going to get. You just need to sit back, switch off your brain to ignore the many plot discrepancies, and enjoy the increasingly contrived situations that Van Damme is in (he even gets to play hockey at one point!). I love it.

After being in "Timecop", which did respectful business at the box office, it looked like Jean-Claude Van Damme was on his way to being a major superstar. But the next year, when he did "Sudden Death", his popularity at the box office started to decline. While the movie was not an outright flop at the box office, it did perform below expectations. It may have been that the action genre itself was starting to lose popularity at the North American box office. It also may have been that the "Die Hard" genre - which this movie rips off - was starting to be old hat. But the movie itself has some faults that may explain why audiences weren't eager to see it. Van Damme's character is pretty thin, from us not learning too much about him to the fact that he hardly appears in the first half hour. There are also some continuity gaps and key happenings that are not properly explained. Also, the movie has a nasty streak that rears its head a number of times during the film, which may have turned off even, ahem, die hard action fans.Despite problems such as those, the movie does have some positive attributes. It looks great, with expert cinematography by Peter Hyams (who also directed) and top notch production values, including some great old school special effects. There aren't any boring spots, and some scenes do have some genuine excitement. This doesn't beat the original "Die Hard", of course, but if you are REALLY wanting to see this formula again, this particular take is better than a lot of others.

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.

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