Sudden Death - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

A movie is a lot like a meal. Sometimes you want a fancy, subtle dish with flavors that you can’t quite pin, that dance on your palate. You might even snap a picture of this meal, just so you can remember it when scrolling through your phone. “Oh, yeah,” you might sigh, wistfully. “That was a good meal.” The way the peppercorns were braised into the crust is similarly braised into your memory. But sometimes, man, you just want a cheeseburger. A really good cheeseburger. Maybe they toasted the bun. Maybe there’s a sharp flavor and crunch of red onion. And good old-fashioned Heinz ketchup. No housemade froufrou stuff. And fries are included in the price.

Sudden Death, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, is that cheeseburger.

Out of all the countless action stars that were popular at the time, Van Damme was never my favorite. I was a Schwarzenegger guy. Or, if he wasn’t around, I preferred the down-to-earth intellectualism of Stallone, who could also bang out one hell of a script when the mood hit him. But Van Damme? I don’t think he can elevate a movie the way his contemporaries could. Schwarzenegger could appear in a lackluster flick and his charms and persona could make it watchable. Van Damme needs to have the right material, and if given that right material, with a director who knows how to use him, he can shine quite brightly.

Peter Hyams, who also directed the Van Damme hit Timecop knows how to use him. Van Damme plays everyman Darren McCord (or, as he pronounces it, Durn MuhCore), an ex-firefighter-turned-fire-marshal after being unable to prevent a child’s death in the opening sequence. He’s lost his zest. He’s now divorced. His son doesn’t respect him. And people say he’s lost his mind a little bit. Instead of the badass people once knew, kicking down doors, surrounded by flames, he’s helping chefs replace lightbulbs. People still like the guy, he’s just a shadow of his former self.

On the evening that he takes his children to the final game of the Stanley Cup, which just so happens to also have the Vice President of the United States in attendance, terrorists strike. They hold the Vice President, the mayor, the mayor’s wife, and a few others hostage. On top of that, they’ve planted C-4 explosives all over the arena. And if the bad guys don’t get what they want, the whole place blows.

Darren, as luck would have it, stumbles ass-backward into this little scheme to get cash for a terrorist organization and single-handedly sets about disarming the explosives, taking out henchmen along the way. It’s personal for Darren—they’ve got his daughter up there, being held hostage with everyone else. So, in saving the day, Darren also saves himself and gets his groove back.

If this all sounds extremely silly, it is. Sudden Death is a very silly movie that wisely never takes itself too seriously. It’s a delicate balancing act of tones that really shows Hyams' confidence behind the camera, in constructing this story. It borrows shamelessly from the formula constructed by Die Hard and adheres to it very rigidly. If you can think of a famous sequence from Die Hard, Sudden Death will have something similar—whether it’s our hero dangling and swinging from high up above, or a shot of a villain falling to their death, screaming, in slow-motion. And while Die Hard is something of a thinking man’s action movie, intelligent in design and execution, Sudden Death is a sly movie disguised as a brainless actioner. Sometimes, it takes a lot of brains to successfully pull off being stupid.

The trick is to never let Van Damme in on the joke. It was okay if Schwarzenegger was in on the joke because he had a natural, easy sense of comedic timing. Stallone, too. Van Damme is too intense. He really shines when he’s pulling off balletic moves of sheer athleticism. So, you stick him in an intense fight scene where he’s beating the hell out of some goon dressed as the Penguin's mascot Iceburgh. and you’ve really got something there.

There’s a machine-like quality to the writing here, where you know the writers have done their research on plot devices. If you see something in the first act, you just know it’s going to pay off in the final act—Chekov’s squirt gun makes an appearance. Once you see that Super Soaker, you just know Van Damme is gonna fill it with something flammable and torch a bad guy with it. And his daughter’s stamp which she’s so proud of is going to be used to identify a villain in disguise.

A movie like Sudden Death is only as good as its big bad, and in it they’ve gotten one of the best: Powers Boothe. Powers Boothe, who played cult leader Jim Jones in Guyana Tragedy and Curly Bill in Tombstone knocks it out of the park. He plays it cool as a cucumber, with a manic energy writhing just under his skin. He’ll kill you not just for pissing him off, but because it’s fun.

Sudden Death is expertly made mindless entertainment. It’s perfect to turn off your brain and allow it to happen. This movie requires suspension of disbelief, as one ridiculous plot twist follows another, as explosions rock the stadium and no one in the game’s audience seems to notice. My favorite sequence, though, which feels almost like an I Love Lucy slapstick bit, is when Van Damme disguises himself from gunmen by dressing as a hockey player, then winds up in the actual game. But that’s not all! It’s the payoff to an earlier scene where he talks about his past experience as a player. Even the dumber moments are foreshadowed and get a punchline. What a fun flick.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Sudden Death, from Kino Lorber, kicks into 4K UHD Blu-ray in a standard case with a slipcover adorning the same cover art. Inside the case are two discs, one 4K UHD that contains the feature and one standard Blu-ray disc which contains the feature in HD, plus all supplemental features.

Sudden Death was shot in 35mm film and Peter Hyams, the film’s director, also acted as the film’s cinematographer. While I don’t think Hyams is a world-class DP, he puts in some quality work that really benefits from the Dolby Vision HDR grading. The hostage scenes with Powers Boothe chewing scenery are lit from above, giving moody shadows, and Sudden Death in 4K looks really stunning in these moments, with light contrasted with inky-dark blacks. When we cut to the hockey game sequences, the white of the ice gleams brightly. And, in one sequence that hints at the director’s sly intelligence, Van Damme navigates the subterranean corridors beneath the arena. In this scene, bathed in red light, we are in a Stygian quest with the hero. We’re not just underground, we’re in hell. The film is sharp in detail with wonderful color realization, and since it was shot on film, there is a fine layer of grain throughout. Overall, though, Sudden Death looks quite sleek. For this release, the film was newly restored from its original camera negative.

There are two audio options for Sudden Death: A 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround sound mix and a DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo mix. The stereo mix is great if you only have a two-channel sound bar, or you’re using your TV’s speakers. But if you have a proper surround sound setup, there’s just no reason not to use the 5.1 option. It. Is. AWESOME. It’s clear from listening that the sound designer and engineers are having so much fun with the surround sound mix. Rear speaker activity is at a near-constant level. Audience cheers. John Debney’s percussive score. Gunshots. Explosions. Helicopter blades. You name it. And there are frequent LFEs to give your subwoofer a workout, as the action cuts to the hockey game at the center of the film and players are checked into the hockey glass. Every hit, every thud, we feel. The surround mix is obnoxious, over the top and totally rocks.

There aren’t a lot of features here, sadly, but there are some gems, like a brand-new audio commentary Mike Leeder and Ross Boyask. This disc also boasts vintage interview clips, behind-the-scenes footage and a whole slew of trailers for action flicks like Hard Target, The Emerald Forest, etc.

• Audio Commentary by Action Film Historians Mike Leeder and UK Cult Movie Director Ross Boyask
• Vintage Interview Clips (SD 7:26) – Featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Peter Hyams, Powers Boothe and Ross Malinger
• Behind-The-Scenes Footage (SD 6:07)
• Trailers

While Timecop will probably go down in history as Jean-Claude Van Damme’s masterpiece, my heart will always be with Sudden Death. Kino Lorber’s release may not have a wealth of features, but it crashes the net with its technical stats, providing an amazing visual presentation and an audio mix that goes over the top in all the right ways. Sudden Death on 4K UHD Blu-ray is Highly Recommended.