Welcome to Michael Jai White

We watched Welcome to Sudden Death (2020) for Michael Jai White. We've loved him since Black Dynamite, and love him just as much as this. 

It starts with White in Afghanistan (or wherever) being interrogated by the bad guys. Of course he gets loose and kicks everyone's butt, but they set a bomb. He winds up with shrapnel in his back. In the next scene, he is home in bed with his beautiful wife Sabryn Rock. He is out of the services and now a security guard for a basketball arena. He is planning on taking his two kids to work, and let them watch a game. Nakai Takawira is 10, mouthy, and loves her daddy. Lyric Justice is a little older, and thinks his dad is kind of a loser, just a rent-a-cop. 

His co-workers at the arena josh around with him, calling him "Tight Shirt", and being amazed that those cute kids are his. He takes it in stride - he's serious about his job. One of his friends is Gus, a janitor played by Gary Owen. He gets the kids in their seats and goes to work.

Meanwhile, LA mayor Kristen Harris, lame rapper Anthony Grant, and the arena's owner, wealthy thought-leader Sagine Semajuste, show up and are escorted to the owner's box. Semajuste looks just like Kamala Harris here - I don't know if this is intentional or just random. The movie was made last year, so could be, I guess.

These guys are the target of the gang of 8-10 terrorists who have managed to infiltrate the arena. No guns are allowed, even for security, but these guys have 3D printers and some random parts to assemble guns out of. No idea how they get the bullets in.

They take the crew in the owner's suite hostage, and demand one BEEEllion dollars (pinky to corner of mouth) in Bitcoin. They just have to keep things quiet while the transaction is verified, which takes about a quarter of the game. Oh, and the bad guys eventually get White's daughter to keep as an additional hostage.

This is somewhat bloody, but also very silly. When White figures out that all the security force has been replaced by terrorists, his only help is Gus, who always just says what he's thinking. When they run into one of the phony guards, he says, "She's lying" and goes to apprehend her. Good strategy. Then she and White have a nice close hand-to-hand fight, where he has to keep her from getting her gun pointed at him. By the way, the actress, Gillian White, is Michael Jai White's real-life wife.

I guess this is a remake of a van Damme film, Sudden Death, which we haven't seen. There were a couple of Die Hard jokes, but I probably missed some other references. Also, it seems that everyone hated this, but we had a great time. It was silly and the fights were good. Also the kids were cute - although it was mostly Takawira mouthing off to the terrorists. 

And Michael Jai White. He's gotten pretty big as he's gotten older, and solid. His style of fighting is fast, but very centered and grounded, with a lot of stillness at the core. He's an imposing presence, but also doesn't take himself too seriously. Something like the Rock, but not as big and not as goofy. You can buy him as a solid family man, doing an unglamorous job as well as he can.

But there was one thing in the movie I just couldn't believe. White tells his son to stay in his seat in case his sister comes back - and he does! Even when he sees his dad and sister up in the rafters fighting with the terrorist boss. Kids never do that in movies!