Sudden Death (1995)

Starring – Jean-Claude Van Damme; Powers Boothe; Raymond J. Barry; Whittni Wright & Ross Malinger

Director – Peter Hyams

MPAA – Rated R for a substantial amount of strong violence, and for language.

The Muscles from Brussels is back. This time good old Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a fire marshal who just happens to be assigned to check the arena for fire violations before an NHL playoff game. Now this normally would not be much of a basis for a movie. (Not even a Van Damme movie.) If you throw in the fact that the Vice President of the United States is going to be in attendance at this game, and then add a few terrorists to the whole mix, you may have the ingredients for a half decent little action thriller. Maybe. Powers Boothe plays Joshua Foss, a terrorist who decides that he wants a little cash. He figures the best way to do that is by taking over the private box that the Vice President is watching the game from by using men with big guns. Just to make sure he has everyone’s attention he wires the whole arena with explosives. If anyone tries to get in or out of the arena, they are in for a little surprise.

Now back to our hero. Well good old Jean-Claude’s character, Darren McCord, has taken his two kids to see the game while he does whatever it is fire inspectors do during a hockey game. As bad timing would have it, he manages to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and it is up to him to single-handedly save everyone in the building, including the Vice President, assorted dignitaries and his two kids. The burning question here is — Gee, will he manage to do it? Well, I’m pretty sure that you can take a wild stab at that one.

Maybe I’m being a little hard on the plot line, but it deserves it. As original as this idea is, and to the writers credit it is an original idea, they just take it waaaay over the top here. I’m not going to give anything away but let’s just say there is really no need of our intrepid fire marshal getting into hand to hand combat on the peak of the roof of the stadium.

All right, I’ve made my cracks. If you can get by the total lack of believability in the plot you will find Jean-Claude giving one of his best performances to date. (Let’s face it; if you enjoy this type of film you realize that in most cases plot is an afterthought at the best of times.) We still aren’t talking a possible best actor nomination here, but his acting skills do seem to be getting better. Powers Boothe is great as the villain. While he is truly evil, somehow you have to like him. It’s a shame Boothe isn’t more widely recognized for his work, or for that matter given better roles, since he is always a lot if fun to watch on screen.

I’ve got a few other beefs with this film. One of them is a subplot involving how Van Damme’s character came to become a fire inspector. As a firefighter a child died as he was trying to save her, and he hasn’t been the same since. I really don’t know why this story line was included in the film. Perhaps it was to make him more sympathetic and make us root for him against the bad guys all that much harder. Although I was left asking why are they wasting my time on this crap?

In the end I would say that I would probably recommend this film to Van Damme fans or to those who just love action flicks regardless of the questionable writing. To everyone else out there, I would have to say that there are better Van Damme films out there. If you are in the mood for the “one guy takes on a bunch of terrorists” theme — rent the original Die Hard.

5/10 – Not bad, but not great.

Dante’s Peak (1997)

Starring – Pierce Brosnan; Linda Hamilton; Jamie Renée Smith; Jeremy Foley & Elizabeth Hoffman

Director – Roger Donaldson

MPAA – Rated PG-13 for disaster related peril and gore.

Pierce Brosnan stars as volcano expert Harry Dalton who works for the US government’s geological department. He is sent into the quite town of Dante’s Peak when geological readings indicate a higher than normal level of activity around the dormant volcano on which the small community is built. When Harry arrives, he also notices a variety of other factors which lead him to believe that Dante’s Peak may have some very big problems on its hands in the not too distant future. Harry tries to warn the mayor (Linda Hamilton) and town council of the impending danger, but is over ruled by his boss who prefers to take a wait and see approach to the possible problem. Of course, in the end, Harry is proven right, and the volcano awakens with some of the best special effects that movie producers can buy.

While the special effects are great, Dante’s Peak is more about the story leading up to the impending disaster than the disaster itself. This is not to say that when the volcano eventually erupts that the producers don’t milk it for all it’s worth. Now at this point, there is probably some fool out there thinking “gee thanks for spoiling the movie for me by telling me that the volcano blows”. To that guy I say — “Hey moron, what did you think was going to happen in a movie about a volcano? That they were going to spend a pleasant day looking at it while eating a picnic lunch?” Although I guess that kind of is a small problem with movie like Dante’s Peak — you pretty well know from the get go that massive property damage is going to occur at some point in the film.

While most of the movie takes place before the actual eruption, there is enough tension in the air to keep the audience interested. I really didn’t notice that the movie isn’t filled with high-end special effects. And towards the end of the film when the computer-generated lava rears its ugly head, it makes the wait well worth it. I think a good deal of credit for the tension should go to the amazing score of the movie. I don’t think it would be possible to match up a score to a movie better than what was done in Dante’s Peak. When we do get to the eruption, the volcanic effects are impressive and very realistic. Pierce Brosnan does a great job in the leading man role here, although this should come as no surprise to James Bond fans. An impressive supporting cast backs up Brosnan and Linda Hamilton. Most of whom are relative unknowns, but they all do a very solid job.

There will be no doubt in your mind that this is what it feels like to be in the midst of a volcanic event. My hat goes off to director Roger Donaldson for the film’s impressive realism. This was the first of 1997’s two lava movies, the other being Volcano. Of the two, Dante’s Peak has the stronger story and is just a tad bit more on the realistic side. While it might not have the dizzying number of special effects that populated Volcano, I think it is fair to say that Dante’s Peak’s effects budget was put to slightly better use, by concentrating on making the volcanic activity look more realistic as opposed to simply over the top. Good movie — well worth checking out.

8/10

Lord Of Illusions (1995)

Starring – Scott Bakula; Kevin J. O’Connor; Famke Janssen; Vincent Schiavelli & Barry Sherman

Director – Clive Barker

MPAA – Rated R for strong violence and gore, and for language and sexuality.

If you could say one thing about Lord Of Illusions, it would be that it is definitely different. Scott Bakula stars as a private eye that specializes in cases dealing with the paranormal, such as demonic possessions and the like. Dorothea (Famke Janssen), who is the wife of a magician, approaches Bakula’s character, Harry D’Amour. She is worried about her husband’s safety. Hubby was involved in an incident, years before, where he and several others tracked down and killed a cult leader who had kidnapped a little girl. This was no ordinary cult leader — this guy had the power to control people’s minds using the power of illusions. Well, all these years later the folks that helped to get rid of the cult leader are starting to die. Famke’s character thinks the reason for the deaths is that the cult leader is coming back to get revenge for his death years earlier. She wants Bakula’s character to get to the bottom of it, and provide some protection to boot. That’s pretty much the story in a nutshell, and if it sounds strange, it’s not just because I’m lousy at describing movies. The story really is a little on the strange side, although surprisingly easy to follow.

On the whole, the acting isn’t bad in this film, but some performances are over the top to the extent that they end up being just plain terrible. That goes for pretty much all the villains in the movie. No, strike that. Bakula and Janssen are OK in the film, but everybody else is bad or borders on it. With that being said, it really doesn’t hurt the film all that much. That is to say that you could have had Robert De Niro or Jack Nicholson in some of these parts and it wouldn’t have made the film a whole lot better.

It really isn’t a bad film all and all. Although, if you are someone who can’t stand magic, and really can’t swallow mind over matter plots, then you should definitely stay far away from this movie. The special effects in the illusion sequences aren’t bad, but they look like something that you would see on television as opposed to a production intended for theaters. Confusion, bad acting, and a less than wonderful idea for a movie all contribute to making Lord Of Illusions just your average thoughtless horror film. The only saving grace is the fact that Bakula can actually act, and Famke Janssen is a major babe. (I’m sexist, so sue me.) But even Famke couldn’t get me to sit though Lord Of Illusions for a second time. I’ve never understood why Clive Barker is held up with such great regard among horror fans. His writing and direction of this film leave me even more puzzled than before over his popularity.

5/10