Sudden Death (1995)

Director: Peter Hyams

Starring: Jean Claude Van Damme, Powers Boothe, Dorian Harewood, Raymond J. Barry

Primary genre: Sports

Secondary genre: Action

Third genre: Thriller

“Sudden Death” is regarded one of Van Damme’s better efforts, yet for all its benevolent points, it is still a disappointing action flick that replicates the “Die Hard” (1988) formula to an excessive degree along with a higher body count and in-your-face violence.

Mid 90’s, Van Damme had become quite the diva entering and exiting arguments with directors over creative differences and begun to limit his athletic charisma in each subsequent flick. Take for example his infamous fight with a mascot here. Although entertaining and frequently brutal, director Peter Hyams (“End of Days“ (1999))employs obvious stunt doubles for the Muscles from Brussels even to its most banal parts which makes you wonder where he can do anything more than single Karate punches with a pause or wait-for-it-coming head kicks that any trained opponent would see them coming a mile away.

Van Damme originally exploded in the big screen of the 80s testosterone due to an impressive physique, a handsome face and those leg slits that back dazzled Western audiences, standing in direct contrast to those macho protein blocks who bulldoze their way through an army of opponents. However, retrospectively his fight moments are piss poor compared to someone like Bruce Lee who showed amazing finesse and lack the 80’s technical panache or Jackie Chan who put his life at risk several times to deliver death defying action choreography.

If anything, by the time “Sudden Death” hit the screen in 1995, Van Damme is like a relic. The script tries to give him some emotional room to grow as a reluctant and traumatized firefighter but this really goes nowhere. The core of the story is his cat and mouse game with Powers Boothe's suave “terrorist” which is unfortunately a bad carbon copy of what made Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman duo so memorable in “Die Hard”. They felt believable and when Gruber killed someone progressed naturally the plot instead of Boothe’s villain that aims to in theory shock and disarm the audience with his trigger happy attitude.

Having a firefighter taking out well-equipped terrorists and disarming army level explosives in a sports arena filled with people goes against belief and this is perhaps the film’s biggest problem; its overly serious tone which frankly seems misplaced. Few nifty stunts are not enough to distract from a paper thin story, boring characters and poorly staged action with henchmen avoiding kill main lead kill shots but then again that would end the story and this is something that does not hold very well in a post “John Wick” world. Hyams insistence of showing the ice hockey game as an interlude to release the tension brings the film to a halt, especially if you are not fan of the sport.

At the end “Sudden Death” is strictly for the fans of the Belgian action figurine. They may get some enjoyment from it but the banal action, lack of self awareness and occasionally OTT proceedings ultimately underwhelm any fan of the genre.

An underwhelming “Die Hard” clone

+Van Damme tries to be more relatable

+Boothe seems to be enjoying his role

+Solid mascot fight

-Game interjections way too frequent

-Obvious stunt doubles

-Carbon copy of “Die Hard”

-Banal action