Welcome to Sudden Death (2020) - Michael Jai White, Michael Eklund, Gary Owen, Marrese Crump, Gillian White

[AlbertV]

Michael Jai White is getting busy. He is currently shooting a remake of the 1995 Jean-Claude Van Damme film Sudden Death. Shooting has recently begun with a release date of June 2020. Unlike Van Damme's version, White, who plays a hero who takes on terrorists during an NBA game, will get to strut his martial arts skills. Shooting is in Winnipeg, Canada. The film co-stars comedian Gary Owen. The film was written and is being helmed by Dallas Jackson. Jackson was originally set to work on The Last Dragon remake that ended up in limbo after Sony Pictures' regime had changed.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/arts/briefs-511716142.html

https://lasentinel.net/a-look-into-the-creative-mind-of-writer-director-producer-dallas-jackson.html

 

Edited September 30, 2020 by AlbertV

[Drunken Monk]

Is he going to fight someone dressed in a mascot costume like Van Damme did? We can only hope.

[Drunken Monk]

Looks like Marrese Crump will be in this one too.

 

[ShaOW!linDude]

On 8/15/2019 at 8:59 AM, Drunken Monk said:

Looks like Marrese Crump will be in this one too.

Um, yes please!!!!

[Bus]

Will be watching this. 

[DragonClaws]

 

First I've heard about this now being a sequel, rather than a direct re-make.

 

 

[AlbertV]

 

[AlbertV]

It's not a sequel, but it is confirmed that the film is actually a reboot but adds a little bit of comic relief in the film (hence the Gary Owen casting). Basically, it's as if Sudden Death is re-imagined as a buddy comedy. The film has an official title: Welcome to Sudden Death.

https://theactionelite.com/sudden-death-getting-a-remake/

https://horrorbuzz.com/2019/08/21/universal-1140-launches-production-on-sudden-death-reboot-welcome-to-sudden-death/

The film is premiering on Netflix in June 2020.
https://deadline.com/2019/08/sudden-death-remake-dallas-jackson-netflix-seek-new-spin-on-jcvd-film-1202672269/

Edited August 21, 2019 by AlbertV

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Did they bring in Marrese Crump for fight choregraphy duties?, aswell as acting/stunt work?. Look like this one's already finished shooting.

 

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[AlbertV]

The film will be hitting DVD and Digital on September 29. Marrese Crump posted the official trailer (the usual Universal 1440 30 second trailer) on his channel. Gillian White is playing a villain (that's her kicking her hubby on the poster art) and I've seen Michael Eklund play many bad guys before.

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by AlbertV

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Didn't even need to see more than two seconds of that trailer to tell it doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the Van Damme classic.

[venom10463]

15 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

Didn't even need to see more than two seconds of that trailer to tell it doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the Van Damme classic.

I know right. It's been awhile since Michael has made a great film.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

I don't like him at all, although Black Dynamite had some fun stuff. 

This looks like a 2002 student film... and a bad one at that. And the riding-the-coattails pseudo sequel name recognition cash grab model of business is pretty pathetic.

Sudden Death was an A-list, big studio production with a real director, a cast of accomplished actors and high production value that is now a revered 90's action classic. To even attempt to link this.... whatever this is supposed to be... to the Van Damme original is an affront to the very craft of filmmaking. And I'm not knocking low budget stuff, plenty of good examples of that around..... this thing just looks embarrassing.

[AlbertV]

The film is not only on DVD and Digital, but it's streaming on Netflix. It only runs 80 minutes and has short but sweet fights, courtesy of Larnell Stovall. Two highlights are a brief fight between Mike and Gillian White and a 3-on-1 between White, Maresse Crump, Sean Skene, and BJ Verot. They even got the editor of Isaac Florentine's films in to edit the film here. Gary Owen does his thing and even villain Michael Eklund knows when he's doing evil cliches as a gag at times. One thing's for sure...it's 100x better than Undercover Brother 2.

[mark187]

I haven’t watched it yet but I’m kind of curious but it looks pretty shitty. Sudden Death is one of the all time greats! They do know that sudden death is a hockey thing and not basketball right?

[DrNgor]

1 hour ago, mark187 said:

I haven’t watched it yet but I’m kind of curious but it looks pretty shitty. Sudden Death is one of the all time greats! They do know that sudden death is a hockey thing and not basketball right?

Sudden Death will be like the Air Bud of the martial arts genre. I can't wait for Sudden Death 3, where Veronica Ngo* fights terrorists at a badminton championship.

 

 

* - At my high school (and most public schools in my region of California, at least), almost all of the badminton players were Chinese or Vietnamese.

[ShaOW!linDude]

This dropped on Netflix yesterday.

It's actually a pretty fun movie, and with a tighter run time, it doesn't overstay its welcome. It doesn't waste any time getting into it either. Sure, some of the dialogue is hokey and the plot is nothing original. I can't even say it's the best action movie that MJW has done, but the action is very solid. I wasn't so impressed with White's "fight" with his wife Gillian. It really serves more as a showcase for her. Still, all the fights are hard-hitting with some brutal impacts, no doubt thanks to Larnell Stovall's choreography. And White's fight with Crump is most definitely the highlight. That could have run a tad longer for me. Nice to get to see him strut his stuff. Crump is untapped talent. The end fight isn't bad, but it's nothing special. 

If nothing else, it's worth an initial viewing. Personally, I'm keeping it in my queue until I nab the dvd. Those will be some good fights to rewatch.

[Super Ninja]

17 hours ago, AlbertV said:

One thing's for sure...it's 100x better than Undercover Brother 2.

Well it wasn't so hard to make a better movie being that UC2 was absolute shite. 

[Drunken Monk]

I envy people who can enjoy films like this. Without irony, I think this is one of the worst martial arts movies of the last ten years.

Everything about this film is bad: acting, script, fight scenes, characters, comedy... It is a nightmare from start to finish.

Please don’t think this is a “I’ll watch it for the action” movie. There’s a reason Larnell Stovall’s IMDB page doesn’t have this listed. The action is terrible. The film makers tend to think that slowly slapping someone on the arms looks cool. It doesn’t. The fight scenes between Jai White and his wife is almost laughable.

And no, Marrese Crump doesn’t make things any better.

A travesty.

[rdenn]

what has happened to micheal ja white fighting he looks so slow now and stiff , this movie was pretty bad

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Hopefully it's better than the Debt Collectors 1 and 2. But Sudden Death is one of Van Damme's best. And the French accent didn't work against him like some other movies. My son liked it as well when he was a kid, and he's not a big martial arts movie fan like me. I mean he likes Kung Fu Hustle, Panda and Jackie Chan, but who doesn't? I'll watch it. Shit, nothing else to watch after I finished Kingdom, WHICH WAS INCREDIBLY GOOD!

[One Armed Boxer]

A member of the stunt team has made a couple of comments on our post over at COF, indicating that basically the stunt crew was a joke and Larnell Stovall had very little control over how things played out, including post-production of the action scenes. Check out the comments here -

https://cityonfire.com/michael-jai-white-stars-in-remake-of-jcvds-sudden-death/#comment-252069