My Cultural Diet

I was prepared to give Sudden Death four stars, perhaps even more — which might seem odd given that it’s a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, and it’s a foregone conclusion that they’re all cheesy (at best). But for a good portion of its runtime, Sudden Death is a surprisingly taut riff on Die Hard: a lone man with a tragic past and some family problems must save countless innocents when bad guys take over a hockey arena and hold the Vice President hostage during the final game of the Stanley Cup. As it progresses, though, Sudden Death gets just a little too ridiculous, with just a few too many plot holes and inconsistencies. Still, I was very pleasantly surprised by just how enjoyable and entertaining it turned out to be. Van Damme acquits himself well as our dogged hero and Powers Boothe is delightfully smarmy as the chief villain who seems to hold all of the cards.

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