Sudden Death [Blu-ray]

Great movie for action movie lovers! Check out Action Elite on YouTube to find out their reviews as they will be streaming soon about this movie.

Anyone can brain-bash Jean-Claude Van Damme all they want..but put aside his media and legal troubles and all the rumors, and you'll find that 1995's 'Sudden Death' is a more than worthwhile movie. The Muscles from Brussels is Darren McCord, a former firefighter retired after a traumatic failed rescue attempt. While employed at Pittsburgh's Ice arena, he gives his young son and daughter two tickets to the Stanley Cup Play-Offs'. Arena security is on pins and needles, having to secure the rink to perfection to protect the United States Vice President (An Ok part played by Raymond Barry) as he attends the game. In the meantime, a cunning criminal (Powers Boothe)..(I wont give away his standing), takes the arena hostage unbeknownst to everyone but the ones inside the Presidential skybox. Superstar actor Powers Boothe is the perfect compliment to Jean-Claude's action masterpieces, accompanied by a 1-in-a-million script that gives a believable story and fantastic special effects a true spotlight. Director Peter Hyams puts touches of comedy that will work so well at first viewing, (If Youre Like Me), you'll probably have to stop the movie until you're done laughing. Just watch for the scene where Van Damme attempts to escape capture by Boothe's partners, by stealing the uniform off of the comatose Penguins goalie. Who would've thought after seeing Van Damme spin out movies like 'Bloodsport' and 'Kickboxer', that 'Sudden Death' would hit the big screen hard and still be recalled as his greatest movie of all time. This is NOT excessively violent or crude, and if you're a fan of Arnold Schwazenegger or Sylvester Stallone..this movie will be well worth your while to see or own. 'Sudden Death' is THE action movie of 1995 and a great flick for people who want a little bit of everything in it.

I like this movie with van damm playing a security guard. I saw it in theaters years ago and wanted to re-watch. Great ending too.

JVD the master of bad acting and choregraphed fighting takes you on a thrill ride for the ages. A Pittsburgh firefighter with PTSD from a horrible fire, is taking his kids to the Stanley Cup finals at the Mellon Area (RIP) to watch Game 7 against the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks, when the VP of the USA comes to watch the game. Terror ensues as the game, unknowingly to the fans in attendance, is taking over by terrorists. That's when Darren McCord steps up to takes on the terrorists and bring them to the justice they deserve.A gripping tale of man vs. man, good vs evil, and a firefighter looking to do what they do best help people and fight to the death if they have too.Not only do you get an amazing action movie you get to hear one of the best play by play men of all time!! Mike Lange!!This movie will make any action movie junkie "smile like the butchers dog" and will "have to get in the fast lane grandma, because the bingo game is ready to roll." to watch this movie.ENJOY!

Great movie to watch and have a great time. It's such a silly and bad movie but is a lot of fun to watch with friends.

It was a good transfer but, some the scenes in the film are cut short. I recommend having both regular DVD and Blu-ray. The original works a lot better if you have a home theater

This movie makes more sense than the reboot. I prefer to watch this movie once in a while than the reboot.

Awesome. Copy I received was in excellent shape and shipped very fast, couldn't have been happier. Overall, this is my favorite Van Damme film. Lots of action, a couple of raw kills - 90s action at its best. To me this has always been a loveable film for its entertainment. Many complain that it is just a Die Hard rip off, but it has its own unique feel to me; basically the action thriller recipe with some new elements mixed in. It really comes down to how much you like a good action flick, but I assure you that you won't have wasted your time by watching this movie. The makeshift weapons that Van Damme comes up with are classic.

I am always harping on about the mostly crap baddies we have these days in films, not in real life I might add. We have had enough of thoughs swinehunds at the BBC who are either dead or now having a one on one with Mr Big in the showers! What decent movie villains have we had recently hey? I would say Leonardo Dicaprio in Django Unchained, Jean Claude Van Damne in Expendables 2, Mel Gibson in Expendables 3 and The Dark Knight Rises villans. Apart from that where have they gone? You must remember the days of Cohagan and Rictor in Total Recall and Bob Mortimer and Boddicar from Robocop. We had bad mother f***ers coming out of our ears. Now what we get is bad imitations that are not threatening in the slightest.What I am pleased to report is that with Sudden Death DOES have a very credible baddie in the form of Powers Boothe. Yes I know this film was made in 1995 but I had forgotten just how good it was. I had not seen it for a while but the other other night I had a JCVD double bill night with Nowhere To Run and Sudden Death. Both films are s**t hot in my book (see my other reviews). The baddie in Sudden Death is vindictive and nasty and has no issues with murdering innocent folk at the drop of hat. He has an elderly woman held at gun point and murdered and shoots her husband afterwards stating he would have been lonely without her and he will send a card. We need more baddies like this.The fight scenes are nothing to complain about either. JCVD even users a chicken drum stick bone to stab someone to death in the neck. He scolds people with cooking fat and users kitchen untelciles as weapons. Sounds like a good cooking show to me. Mind you, anything is better than f**king food shows. I get sick and tired of the pompous toss pots and stuck up food critics that ponce about on every channel. And don't get me started on Come f**king Dine With Me. The people on that are as desperate and as shallow as the f**ks that go on every bleeding talant show we have. If I went on come dine with me I would leave stuff out for the other people to find when they snoop around. I would leave a nice big richard the third in the bog and a pair of tarmaced y-fronts on the top of the laundry basket. Have some of that you nosey b******s. What should have is a cooking show where they fight to the death with what ever they can find in the kitchen, then the winner goes off for a few Stellas and a Kebab!Where was I? Fight scenes in Sudden Death. All great as is the action. It's not high kicking JCVD action all the time as this was one of his first stabs at a more traditional action flick without relying on martial arts alone. This film is basically a version of Die Hard which is what a lot of action films were at that time in the 90's. We had Under Seige and Passenger 57 which were both also very good. Sudden Death is about a semi retired fire fighter (JCVD) who gets hired as the fire safety officer at a ice hockey game. The stadium is then hi jacked and the vice president is held hostage until a big fat ramsom is paid. It does get very "Die Hardish" towards the end with JCVD communicating with the villan and running around the stadium disarming bombs. He even has a white t-shirt on! Sudden Death fits nicely in the 90's and it is still very enjoyable today. It's up there with Hard Target and Timecop.

Darren McCord takes his two kids to a Pittsburgh Penguins National Hockey League play- off game.Unbeknown to him, the sports arena has been taken over by terrorists, who are holding the Vice President of the United States, as well as many other high-ranking officials hostage.Darren later becomes the only one who is aware of the situation. And, the stakes are raised when the terrorists announce that they will blow-up the building at the end of the game.Therefore, Darren must not only subdue the terrorists, but postpone the game and send it to overtime.....Oh yes, the film is silly, and full of gaping plot holes, but for heavens sake, it's a really fun movie with a really good performance from Van Damme (his relationship with his children is spot on), and Powers Boothe, looking like he's having the time of his life as the villain.It's a shame though that the movie was released at the time it was. The Die Hard in a..... Sub genre had been way over done, and Van Damme was becoming less successful at the box office.As well as being very funny in places, it's also quite sadistic in the fact that the terrorists literally don't care who they kill. Elderly women, Wives, and head cooks, no one is safe.The films edited really well, and the action scenes look good and never get too over the top, despite the fact Van Damme has a fight with a giant penguin.In my opinion it's his best film of the nineties and it never gets boring, thanks to Boothe and a great performance from Van Damme.If you've never seen a Van Damme film and are not Into martial arts movies, this is for you.

Darren McCord, a fire safety officer at a hockey stadium, takes his two kids to a major Pittsburgh Penguins game. It just so happens to be the day that extortionist/thieves kidnap the vice president and hold him hostage at the stadium, thus putting himself and his children in mortal danger.Lets cut to the chase here, Sudden Death is a clone rip off of Die Hard, the action template movie that shines as bright as a newly formed bruise, but as copycats go {and there have been reams}, Peter Hyams' beefcake blunderbuss movie is an action junkie's delight. Jean Claude Van Damme {McCord obviously} flexes his muscles and not only beats seven bells of tar out of Powers Booth's criminal minions, he also proves to be a hero and loving father to his oblivious children. It's contrived for sure, I mean we get Jean sneaking on to the ice and taking up net minding duties, and it's certainly a script devoid of imagination. But it's got Van Damme fighting a hot kick ass babe in a penguin suit and a last fifteen minutes of high roof/dangling/swinging/exploding mayhem that does the action genre proud.It's no Die Hard, but what genre films are? Sudden Death in spite of its contrivances, is a film that is impossible not to enjoy if you are a like minded adult. 7/10

Despite it's cheesy appearance and B-movie cast, this is a terrifically fun action thriller. Van Damme reins in his tendency to overact compared to his normal performances and delivers a surprisingly convincing turn as an ordinary guy in a bad situation, while Powers Boothe has rarely been better as a slick and charming but devilishly villainous bad guy with a shady secret background. The action is exciting and surprisingly brutal as Boothe and his bad guys gradually infiltrate a major league ice-hockey rink and kidnap the Vice President, holding the unsuspecting stadium customers and the VP to ransom for an ungodly fee, while Van Damme just tries to kep his estranged kids safe as he tries to thwart his unwanted guests.There are explosions and shootings aplenty, vicious hand-to-hand combat with a variety of inventive weapons, and some spectacular stunts.Far better than you might be inclined to think it will be. My other-half, who's not much of a B-movie action fan (and only a passing Van-Damme fan), loved it. Explosive fun that's even better on a widescreen than I remember it being in the cinema.

This is the U.K Blu-ray release of Sudden Death.It,s 2.35:1 widescreen & the picture quality isvery nice. It's basically Die Hard on ice includingthe excellent production values, except Van Dammehas two annoying kids in tow, on tow?.Powers Boothe is ace, but he seems to turn intoa 70s porn actor...watch and you will agree.It's enjoyable but maybe this was Van Damme's lastgood film...or was it Timecop?, i can never remember.