I’m watching Sudden Death on Vudu and I’ve never heard JCVD have so many lines than all his previous movies combined. It really is a brutal, but highly unrealistic movie. I mean how does a fireman know how to defuse a bomb? Still, quite interesting.

The last theatrical film I saw JCVD in was Double Team. That bombed and then he went DTV almost exclusively. It wouldn't be until he put out the autobiographical JCVD film that I saw him in a theatrical flick again. That one rocked and was my #2 favorite film of 2008. I saw that twice in two different art house theaters.

I loved Sudden Death and thought it had a great Die Hard screenplay. I bet if Bruce Willis had filmed Sudden Death it would have been a huge hit.

Van Damme did not participate in any of the extras on the 4K for Hard Target. So I don't expect him here either.

I think the best we can expect is maybe a Peter Hyams commentary or maybe a 2nd commentary from Mike Leeder and his usual companion Arne Venema

As far as interviews go, who do they interview? Hyams? The writers? JCVD is out and Powers Boothe is dead. or maybe some old archival interviews exist from Universal.

I saw DOUBLE TEAM and KNOCKOFF theatrically (what was I thinking!) and it was really those two combined (97 and 98) that signalled the end. Van Damme was crucial in bringing Hong Kong directors to the U.S., first John Woo, then Ringo Lam, and then Tsui Hark on these two, and while both were TriStar films, it really seemed like Tsui was an awkward choice for American films despite having an incredible run of HK movies behind him at that point. Woo obviously made a great ‘first’ impression with HARD TARGET and Ringo Lam’s MAXIMUM RISK was decent, but Tsui’s pair were both kinda silly and inconsequential, even though they have some decent action scenes here and there. I recall them both kinda being dumped out there by the studio (especially KNOCKOFF) and neither lasted long nor were they critically well-received. I seem to recall his next picture, the fairly big-budget LEGIONNAIRE pretty much went DTV after that and there he stayed. He did a couple more movies with Ringo Lam that weren’t bad as DTV fare goes, but still forgettable stuff.

I’d go for a Hyams commentary as his are usually solid for nuts ‘n bolts stuff. The other two I can live without. As for interviews, I’m more partial (in general) to production crew versus actors, and Kino (along with Vinegar Syndrome) is often good at rustling up good mixes of people on movies like these. Maybe the composer, editor, production designer, costume designer, second unit/stunt people, etc. It might be amusing if they could track down the actress/stuntwoman who did the mascot fight. And maybe the two who played his kids? Doesn’t seem like they stayed in the business, so they might be easy to find.

Oh yeah, totally forgot about Knock Off. Never saw it, but remember it was a Tsui Hark film.

perfect price on The Perfect Weapon...$12.49 plus $1.25 coupon. On Amazon.

Why are you linking to a rival review site?

Here's the .

Oops.

Can DVDTalk have a rival review site if it doesn't do reviews?

That's a good point!

Really posting any link that takes us away from our beloved forum should be forbidden.

OK, fair. All the same, by linking to the other site and potentially having the reader click through to Amazon from there, Amazon gives a referral fee to the other site.

This is also a good point! As part of my reviewer's severance package, all DVD Talk click-throughs that result in a purchase give ten-percent of the referral fees to me.

I wonder how much a large site like Blu-ray.com gets in referral fees per year.

Well, f*** Internet Brands, then. I got nothing but a "So long and don't let the door bump your ass on the way out" when they severed me from High-Def Digest.

Coming August 27th on 4KUHD!
https://kinolorber.com/product/sudden-death-4kuhd

SUDDEN DEATH (1995)

DISC 1 (4KUHD):
• Brand New HDR Dolby Vision Master – From 16bit 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative
• NEW Audio Commentary by Action Film Historians Mike Leeder and UK Cult Movie Director Ross Boyask
• 5.1 Surround and Lossless 2.0 Stereo
• Triple-Layered UHD100 Disc
• Optional English Subtitles

DISC 1 (BLU-RAY):
• Brand New HD Master – From 16bit 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative
• NEW Audio Commentary by Action Film Historians Mike Leeder and UK Cult Movie Director Ross Boyask
EPK
• Vintage Interview Clips with Jean-Claude Van Damme, Peter Hyams, Powers Boothe and Ross Malinger (8:01)
• Behind-The-Scenes Footage (6:59)
• TV Spot and Theatrical Trailer
• 5.1 Surround and Lossless 2.0 Stereo
• Dual-Layered BD50 Disc
• Optional English Subtitles

Color 101 Minutes 2.35:1 Rated R
Action superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme (Hard Target) teams with Powers Boothe (The Emerald Forest) in a tension-packed suspense thriller from Peter Hyams, the director of Running Scared, Narrow Margin and Timecop. Inside the Civic Arena, 17,000 rabid hockey fans gather for the Stanley Cup final game—including the Vice President of the United States. What they don’t know is that someone is planning to have the building, and its inhabitants, blown to bits! Van Damme portrays Darren McCord, a father who brings his two children to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins versus the Chicago Blackhawks. But when his daughter is suddenly taken hostage by terrorists, their special night out turns into a deadly race against time. Her sinister captor (Boothe) is demanding delivery of a billion dollars from the U.S. Treasury by game’s end. With thousands of lives at stake, the legendary “Muscles from Brussels” frantically sets a plan in motion to rescue his daughter and abort the impending explosion…before the final buzzer!

Yup, I'll be getting Sudden Death. Not surprised that Leeder is one of the commentary track contributors.

Glad we're getting at least some old archived interviews and BTS footage.

Kino has a bunch of OOP Shout titles scheduled for August as part of their Kino Cult line (a better selection than some of the earlier releases in that line as well), plus Kingdom of the Spiders previously released by Code Red and Ronin Flix, and a 4K upgrade of Cannibal Apocalypse. Most retain the earlier extras and add new commentaries. Might be time to sell the older versions while you can.

I’ll definitely be getting most of those.
Bring on Food Of The Gods 2!

KOTS for sure!

Food of the Gods scared the crap out of me as a kid, AND I have not seen it since.

Wonder what it would do now? I am sure it is pretty cheesy but I may have to take nostalgia trip and get that one.

Happy Gilmore is on the way in 4k and supposed to be released early next year. I've only ever bought the dvd so I'd be interested in upgrading.
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=35223

I was skimming Kino’s pre-orders tonight and noticed a bunch of former Shout and Arrow titles I didn’t realize were OOP (and should probably have sold) are coming out in the weeks ahead:

BEAST WITHIN
BLOOD AND LACE
PREY FOR DEATH
RAGE OR HONOR
SHOUT AT THE DEVIL

They’re also issuing THE KILLER IS LOOSE, a solid noir previously done by ClassicFlix, which makes me wonder if they’ll be soon releasing the other titles from that label, which hasn’t been overly active of late (and their library has some other great noirs in it).

They’ve also got a complete Hope/Crosby ROAD picture boxed set which appears to combine their existing singles. And a new edition of MARTIAN CHRONICLES that adds commentaries.

I’m most interested in the two new Kino Cult releases, both British, 1000 CONVICTS AND A WOMAN and NO. 1 OF THE SECRET SERVICE, both of which seem to have decent extras, including commentaries by people who aren’t just bloggers. NO. 1 is a looow-rent UK Bond spoof from 1974 that used to show up every year or so on Detroit TV back in the 70’s and 80’s. It had a VHS release over here from MGM (I think?) but has been forgotten ever since. it also spawned two sequels (in 1979 and 1990) from the same director but with different leads. I’ve only seen those on horrible YouTube uploads, but they’re so little known (and not very good) that I doubt Kino would bother.

Other new stuff here:
https://kinolorber.com/pre-order

The Beast Within is stupid AF, bit it holds a soft spot in my heart, I never got a copy before it went OOP. So with an extra commentary track and 46-minute Making Of I suppose I will pre-order.