Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

jimbo-53-186511 Former fireman Darren McCord (Jean Claude Van Damme) must try to save the Vice President and a group of hostages from a bunch of terrorists led by Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe). A bad situation becomes worse for McCord when the terrorists capture McCord's daughter and hold her hostage as well and McCord finds himself in a race against time to stop the terrorists from carrying out their atrocities before the Ice Hockey game finishes...From an early stage it becomes clear that Sudden Death is another variant of Die Hard, but to its credit Sudden Death still manages to be fairly entertaining for the most part. Director Peter Hyams plays very safe with the material and basically sticks to the tried and tested formula that Die Hard brought to us 7 years earlier. This isn't intended as a criticism and as the saying goes 'If it ain't broke don't fix it' so I can't blame Hyams for playing things safe.The downside in playing things safe is that this film is naturally going to suffer by comparison; the film lacks the tight and claustrophobic direction that McTiernan brought to Die Hard and it lacks some of the dry humour that we saw in Die Hard. Van Damme is no Bruce Willis and despite this being one of his better acting performances (he shows slightly more range than in many of his other films) he is still a bit wooden. Boothe is much better and his sociopathic portrayal here is quite menacing at time, but he's too similar to Rickman's character in Die Hard and it's hard not to see Boothe here and feel as though you're watching a slightly weaker re-working of Hans Gruber. There's no point in really mentioning the supporting cast as they are merely window-dressing and people who show their faces and spout a few lines of dialogue, but no-one else is really developed enough for me to be able to form a meaningful critique. The kids in this film are OK aside from one scene where they seemed to argue for ages which got on my wick a bit. Sudden Death is slightly less action packed than many of Van Damme's other films which may upset some of Van Damme's fans, but that didn't really bother me as I still found the film to be fairly enjoyable overall; yes I knew what it was doing and where it was going, but taking it for what it is; a disposable piece of mindless entertainment then I can safely say that I wasn't disappointed by the time the credits started rolling...

soldier-81367 A Reuniting of Peter Hyams and Van Damme, director and star of Timecop.Sudden Death is one of the best action thrillers of 1995.Elaborate stunts, go-go-go direction from Peter Hyams, plus ass-kicking and surprise goalie action from Van Damme.Van Damme races against time, trying to thwart Powers Boothe and defuse all the bombs. In the hands of director Peter Hyams, this is a pleasure for all action-movie junkies. An above average action thriller loaded with jaw-dropping stunts and special effects, and strong in production values.10/10

Benjamin Cox According to the 'action movie cookbook', the recipe is pretty straight-forward. As dictated by "Die Hard" back in 1988, the film must be set in a specific location (skyscraper, naval vessel, airport, etc) and have a lone-wolf hero out-manned and out-gunned by the baddies who have taken said location over. Of course, the professionals will try to save the day but they'll bodge it, leaving it to our hero to save the day in a dramatic and explosive manner before rescuing his loved ones (who are naturally held hostage somehow) and becoming a better person at the end of it. That could probably describe perhaps 75% of all action movies released since then and I'm afraid that Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't going to start improvising with the formula. This may be as predictable as a season of Scottish Premier League football but it's entertaining enough without stretching its boundaries or your imagination too far.Van Damme plays Darren McCord, a traumatised fireman now reduced to acting as fire marshal at the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey team. Which is handy when the final game of the Stanley Cup rolls into town along with the Vice President (Raymond J. Barry) to watch the game. McCord takes his two kids along (Ross Malinger and Whittni Wright) but trouble isn't far away - a crazed terrorist (Powers Boothe) takes control of the stadium and the executive box when the VP is held hostage along with other dignitaries. It's soon up to McCord to take the fight to the terrorists while outside the stadium, the police effort led by Secret Service agent Hallmark (Dorian Harewood) struggles to get involved...I could go on detailing the plot but I reckon that you can fill in the blanks yourself. "Sudden Death" has little spark of originality or imagination, remaining content to tick off each genre cliché in order until the inevitable ending. I hasten to add that this is a decent enough action movie - certainly, you know what to expect from JCVD and he doesn't disappoint in the fight scenes. As a hero, though, he remains pretty vacant and is thoroughly outshone by Boothe (when asked what sort of lunatic he is, he replies "The best kind!") who displays more charisma than Van Damme could ever hope to muster. Ignoring the minutiae of the plot which, frankly, is pretty tenuous at best then this is the sort of guys-night-in garbage that you could happily rent and not feel short-changed at. Action veterans, however, might be a little annoyed. For me, the best moment was the fight between Van Damme and a seven-foot-tall cuddly penguin in a kitchen which had more thought put into it than the rest of the film put together. Naturally, they stumble into everything remotely dangerous in a kitchen - meat slicer, deep fat fryer, dishwasher, tenderiser, you name it. But from there, the action seems to come in fits and starts when McCord begins trying to track the bombs planted in the stadium.It may strive for comparisons to "Die Hard" but I'm afraid that "Sudden Death" felt like a cheap knock-off of the real thing, much like Steven Seagal's "Under Siege" did. It knows what action fans want and it provides all the fist-pumping, roundhouse-kicking nonsense that they could ask for. But for me, there is a strange lack of quality to it - there are no surprises in store for anyone other than the fact that nobody gets hit with a skate and there isn't even a love interest to provide some much-needed eye candy amid the ricocheting bullets and ill-lit steamy pipe-work (which is bathed in a red light for reasons I cannot possibly fathom other than it makes Van Damme look hard). I also didn't like the ending which felt and looked badly written, executed and just didn't feel right. Van Damme has made better films than this - "Universal Soldier" remains my favourite of his while "Timecop" is also held in high esteem by fans of the Muscles From Brussels. But "Sudden Death" is an adequate enough time-passer but not likely to change the world any time soon. I was always more into American Football anyway...

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