Highlander

Rating:
Summary: The worst DVD I have ever seen !
Review: The resolution of this DVD is very, very poor ! Even a VHS is better than that. If you want to convince someone not to buy DVD, just show him (her) this DVD ! END

Rating:
Summary: A great movie with a bad conversion to DVD
Review: Highlander is a great movie, and the Director's Cut only improved it. BUT, the conversion to DVD is only half complete. The audio is incredible, one of the best sounding movies I have heard through my sterio. The video on the other hand looks more like early computer video that looks good in a small window and bad in full screen. The video is always grainy and you can actually see rectangular blocks of solid color in many scenes. Instead of seeing a movie in over 500 lines of horizontal resolution, it often looks like 100 thicker lines on parts of the screen. In watching the movie I could almost get beyond the video quality, but it definitely detracted from the movie. END

Rating:
Summary: All a movie should be.
Review: War. Romance. Action. Mystery. Violence. Humour. Fantasy. It is all there, in the same film, beatufully captured and edited. Lambert is perfect for the role, on par with his performances in The Scicillian and Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan. Those who like villains will love the Kurgan. Critics called this one a genre and it was thus dismissed as just another action/fantasy flick, but those of us who watched it did it again and again and again. Highlander has been called a cult film, a cult classic and I even heard the classic cult classic... Its not! It is simply all a movie should be. Most of the films you watched this year will soon disappear into oblivion, while I can keep watching my 10th anniversary DVD copy of Highlander again and again and again, with a fabulous soundtrack written and recorded by Queen, no less. END

Rating:
Summary: Picture and Sound... WOW!
Review: If you don't have Dolby Digital (AC-3) go out and get it. Watching Highlander in true surround sound was incredible! During the scene on the lake you could hear Ramirez and MacLeod's voices echoing around the room like you're on the lake. The video was spectacular. Use the S-Video connector for highest quality. The quickenings were wild to watch. All the blurriness was gone on the DVD. Watching the movie with the directors and producers talking about the scenes was fascinating. You learn all the tidbits about the movie -like the intro scene with Ramirez reading was recorded in Sean Connery's bathroom. Fun for Highlander buffs. END

Rating:
Summary: A classic action fantasy movie
Review: When I first heard the plot for this movie, I wasn't interested. Then, while visiting a friend, I watched it and became absorbed by the story. I have since seen the sequels and the TV series, but nothing compares with the original. Anyone who's ever wanted to never grow old, never die, never stop looking beautiful, ever fallen in love with a mystery, or is simply into a great story, should buy this movie. Who wants to live forever? If you don't know the answer to that one, you'll know it by the time the credits roll. END

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, Terrible encoding job!!!!!!!!!!
Review: If you like this movie, don't but it on DVD go out and buy something better, the VHS. Even though the disc is encoded with 5.1 sound, I could not get passed the terrible visual experience of the DVD. It looks as if they copied the picture straight from the the copy of a copy of a VHS taped from TBS!!!!!!! END

Rating:
Summary: "...there can be only one!"--Higlander movie that is!
Review: Most "purists" would agree, I'm sure, that this is THE highlander movie to see. Especially for those who have seen the series and want to know how it all started. The pilot episode of the series attempts to explain the "Game", but the movie lets you experience it first hand as Sean Connery imparts his knowledge and skill on to Christopher Lambert in a centuries-old struggle of immortals who live and die by the sword. Through excellently directed "flashbacks" which are intricately woven into the plot of the movie, we trace the life of Connor MacLeod of the Clan Macleod--a warrior who dies in battle in 1518, only to be "reborn" into immortality. Clancy Brown plays the villian superbly. Also, the director's commentary and the additional footage are a MUST!!! Don't see this film unless it's the director's cut! END

Rating:
Summary: Enthralling Nonsense
Review: That's about the only way to describe "Highlander." It's a B-movie in every sense yet has enough good in it to make it entertaining to watch. I guess that's why it became such a cult classic.

The story centers on a young Scotsman named Connor MacLeod who resides in New York City under a different name. Connor is actually one of the few men on Earth who have the special gift of immortality. These immortals can be killed if beheaded by another immortal and throughout the ages these elect men have been hunting each other down in the hopes of becoming the last immortal on Earth, which would give him a gift of high enlightenment, a gift that can be dangerous if in the wrong hands. Connor is on the run from an immortal goon, the Kurgan, who has been after him since the 1500's. It eventually comes down to Connor and the Kurgan as to who will be the one that receives the special gift.

Something that certainly doesn't work in favor of "Highlander"(and helps make it B-grade) is the fact that the movie has not aged very well. Compared to the action movies of today, this flick looks corny. The special effects are pretty cheesy and the whole production design feels outdated. The acting was, for the most part, not too memorable. Christopher Lambert doesn't do a good enough job of making his character of Connor MacLeod engaging. He makes for rather uninteresting hero. There were only two noteable performances I saw here. One was Sean Connery, who makes a nice little impression playing Ramirez, the man who first tutors Connor when he discovers that he's an immortal. But Connery only gets about 20 minutes of screen time and this hinders him from making a bigger impact. The other standout I saw was Clancy Brown, who plays the Kurgan. Brown makes his character the perfect bad guy giving him the "qualities" of vile, mean, and creepy. In short, he's a guy you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. I have to say that "Highlander" has quite an interesting concept. The idea of immortals hunting each other down to gain an ultimate power is nifty (if somewhat hokey) and director Russel Mulcahy executes it just well enough to make things entertaining, with the swordfights between the immortals becoming the highlight points.

Overall, I really can't say "Highlander" is a great film but at the same time, I can't dissuade you from seeing it either. Who knows? You, like many others, may have that "kind of magic" that will turn you on to this cult classic. The only way to know is to check it out and see what happens.

Rating:
Summary: Cult Classic Adventure
Review: Nearly lost in straight-to-video-hell, Highlander rose like the Phoenix to become one of the most popular cult classic fantasy adventure movies to ever grace the screen.

Released in 1986 on a shoe string budget, the movie is shot in dark and gritty New York City, flashing back to Scotland hundreds of years earlier. The main character is Conner MacLeod (played with European gusto by then unknown French actor Christopher Lambert) a Scottish Highlander who discovers, very painfully, that he is special; one of a sparse race of immortals that will walk the Earth until one of them wins `The Prize'. An early battle scene that takes place in the 1600s depicts him fighting with his clansmen and being impaled by another immortal (not known to him at the time), The Kurgan, played with scene stealing villainous venom by Clancy Brown.

After coming back to life, McLeod is ejected from his village as a demon hellspawn and forced to live in solitude with his wife in the highlands. Despite his shame, he wants nothing more then to have children and a family.

Enter Sean Connery, in a role that most certainly helped bring him back into the lime light, playing Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, or `Spanish Peacock' as McLeod likes to call him. [A strange observation; they have a Frenchman (Lambert) playing a Scotsman, an American (Brown) playing a German barbarian, and a Scotsman (Connery) playing a Spaniard...strange role reversals, but I digress] Connery is fantastic, playing the role for all it is worth. He reveals to Connor his true nature, that he cannot have children, and that they are meant to walk the Earth until `The Gathering', where the last few remaining Immortals will gather and fight for The Prize.

What happens next is somewhat predictable, but nonetheless, Director Russell Mulcahy handles it well. The action scenes are great with good swordplay between people of different cultures. The scenes that take place in modern day New York are fascinating in that you get to see how this man born over 300 years ago lives in today's world.

Hot on his heels is an attractive forensic scientist who discovers that McLeod's sword, an ancient early version of a Japanese Katana, was created long before the Samurai ever started making them. This peaks her interest and soon she finds out more than she ever thought she would.

Although dark and moody, the movie is lightened with flashbacks to McLeod's happier times, some injection of humor in just the right places and music provided by Queen. All this amounts to very original movie despite its low budget and near death status going to straight to video. Highly recommended.


Rating:
Summary: Watch It. Love It.
Review: Forget the series, and please, please, forget the stupid sequels. This is the only Highlander that matters because anything that came after it was just plain idiotic.

Christopher Lambert is an Immortal. Unless you lop off his head, he will live on forever and ever. This doesn't necessarily go over well in his 16th century Scottish village, but that is the least of his problems. We get the background in a series of flashbacks from the 20th century MacLeod, and to me, the past was always more interesting than the present. Not that the present is not interesting either. In fact, the movie as a whole, is mesmerizing.

There can only be one, and Kurgan, a rather nasty Immortal, is out to find our Highlander and do him like he did MacLeod's mentor (Sean Connery), which is basically lop off his head and drain him of his power. Mind you, MacLeod is out to do the same to Kurgan because there can be only one!

This is a rather simplistic overview of the plot, but to sit here and explain it in detail would be confusing to both the reader and the author of this review. There is simply too much to tell and explain, and what is the fun in that? This is a magical movie, and you just don't give away the good stuff. This is the type of movie that you just sit down, watch, and lose yourself in.

The 20th century love interest is the weakest part in this movie. Brenda (Roxanne Hart), is hardly compelling, a bit on the annoying side, and her look was dated even in 1986. She can't act to save her life. But it doesn't matter, because this fantasy-adventure has everything that Hollywood lacked at the time, and everyone else did an outstanding job, giving this movie the cult classic status it deserves. Christopher Lambert never did anything that mattered again as far as I am concerned.

The soundtrack, by Queen, is phenomenal, and though a soundtrack does not make a movie, unless it's "The Wall" or "Tommy", it is worth mentioning because it is truly beautiful.