Sudden Death – Review

So, you are sitting there, wanting to watch Die Hard, but you’ve seen it a ton recently. Well, you can always try Die Hard Extra Light: Sudden Death. Is it a good choice to make? Well, if you have a soft spot for 80s and 90s actioners, especially the lone-hero saving the day story, you could do worse.

Firefighter Darren McCord (Van Damme) has a rough rescue during a stormy fire, and washes out of the force for a bit. Things are starting to look up and he may wind up getting his job back, and he has three tickets to the Pittsburgh Penguins game tonight, which happens to be the Stanley Cup finals, and a game 7 at that.

While his ex-wife is very unhappy that he did not plan this out, she reluctantly agrees to let him take their son and daughter to the game. It just so happens that the Vice President (Barry) will be in attendance, so it should be a safe environment, right?

McCord and his kids take their seats; however, terrorist thug Joshua Foss (Boothe) is laying his explosive plans for the evening. As C4 charges are wired to the stadium, and armed terrorists infiltrate the game, the players on the ice begin their hockey puck slappings.

As Foss takes the VP and his crew hostage, he threatens to kill innocents unless monetary obligations are met, timed with the ending of each game period (hockey has three). This convention is very strange other than to somehow give the movie a ticking clock that can be tied to a hockey game. If you get stuck at this point and can go no further because you find it too strange, yeah, I get it, but then don’t bother with the movie.

SO, MOVING PAST THAT, the film isn’t thaaat bad with tempered expectations. It’s got some solid enough one-man hero action and tension as there are multiple sources of danger and his family is involved. It is definitely trying to emulate better action movies of the past, but this one is just good enough.

Van Damme is solid and does what the role requires, however some of the parts are a bit tedious such as how inept the police are constantly. What may have supposed to have been a fun callback to Die Hard in that regard also feels much flatter here. Will the VP get the government to wire funds and save the innocents at the game, or will game time expire?