Sudden Death: Peter Hyams

There's a wonderful scene in Peter Hyams' Sudden Death where the primary villain played by Powers Boothe grabs a petulant little girl and says, "How would you like for me to fill your mouth with spiders?" It's a ridiculous line in a relatively ridiculous movie. But if you told me that Boothe's character actually brought along a jar full of spiders for the specific purpose of shoving them into little girls' mouths, I would believe it. That's the kind of wonderful movie that Sudden Death is: absurd; over-the-top; effortlessly entertaining. It's so damn sincere, so damn well-acted that it's irresistible. The special effects are magnificent, particularly the climactic fight scene where a helicopter falls vertically into a hockey stadium and explodes. It may be Die Hard with a hockey stadium standing in for a skyscraper and Jean-Claude Van Damme for Bruce Willis. But it works. Go watch it. It's a blast! Plus its got some of the most transparently douchey villains in cinema history.

8/10