Jean-Claude Van Damme, my country's most profitable export product (right behind beer, chocolate and waffles), stars in what is arguably one of the top three best films of his career. I deliberately state top three, because personally I'm also a big fan of "Death Warrant" and "Hard Target" even though I might be the only one. "Sudden Death" is a typical "Die Hard" clone, like there were far too many of them throughout the nineties, but it's one of the chosen few that are actually great fun and closely approaching the quality level of the actual "Die Hard" sequels (not the one and only original, of course). This accomplishment is largely thanks to the craftsmanship of director Peter Hyams and – also typical for major action blockbusters – the presence of a genuinely evil villain you just hate to love. In this particular case it's Powers Booth who depicts his terrorist/robber character continuously straight-faced and seemingly emotionless regardless of who he kills or what challenge overcomes him. Booth and his equally evil platoon of accomplices invade the Vice Presidents' lounge during the prestigious Stanley Cup ice-hockey finale and demand for a whole lot of money to be transferred to secret bank accounts all across the globe. If there aren't sufficient transfers at the end of each game period, Booth kills off one of the hostages. In case the whole sum isn't transferred at the end of the game, he threatens to blow up the entire stadium with everyone in it. Luckily for the thousands of (unaware) spectators, the tough former fireman JCVD is the arena's responsible fire safety inspector and Power Booth made the terrible mistake of taking his young daughter hostage. "Sudden Death" guarantees adrenalin-rushes from start to finish, with violent shootouts as well as brutal hand combat battles, a suspenseful race-against-the-clock aspect, a bit of disaster-movie mayhem near the finale and a handful of cool (if predictable) plot twists. I wouldn't know what to possibly expect more from a 90's action movie.
Review of Sudden Death
