Highlander (1986)

[Furiously]

At last the gathering.

Ok so the first one is amazing. The rest shit in the bed. But you can watch them all on Netflix streaming now. Worth it just for the cinamatography and soundtrack on the first one.

Seems like the first film I ever noticed sky cams and cameras on wires. If you have not seen the first one, its a classic.

[WayAbvPar]

The first one has been running off and on on pay cable for a year or so. I have seen it approximately a million times. I can't help but watch it when I see it is on. God Lambert is a train wreck. A potted plant would have been better (and would have pulled off a better Scot accent). Clancy Brown is awesome. And the romantic interest is shockingly unattractive and was never in anything else of note. Had to be sleeping with the producer(s).

[Merusk]

It was the 80's.  Lots of "Why her?" women were in movies. 

 Her IMDB Page indicates she's had a fairly decent acting career since and was on Broadway prior to and in series like Oz, Hung and Medium for more than a single episode.

[Chimpy]

You have to remember that Highlander was not a big budget movie with a lot of big name actors. Connery was famous but people at that time really only associated him with being former Bond. Lambert was a "rising" star after the Tarzan thing, but other than that it was all nobodies with a director whose most famous directing credit was the video for Hungry Like the Wolf.

They also could only afford to pay for Connery's salary for something like 8 total days of location filming. Thus the reason the voiceover on the opening credits is so echo-y, they had to send the sound guy down to his villa in Italy and they recorded it in his bathroom.

[Ingmar]

The first one sucks, and I've never really understood the appeal to my fellow nerds in the slightest. It's a morass of bad casting (I know, the Scottish guy in a movie called The Highlander, will play a Spaniard, but still speak like a Scotsman, and we'll cast a French caveman with a mouth full of rocks as the Highlander), bad acting, bad hair, and even bad music. Not even fucking Queen gets away from this movie without embarrassing themselves.

Honestly the TV series was better than any of the movies, and even it was awful.

[TheWalrus]

Fuck you. Swords.

[Chimpy]

...I know, the Scottish guy in a movie called The Highlander, will play a Spaniard, but still speak like a Scotsman....

/neckbeard on
He was actually an Egyptian in the movie. He just worked for the Spanish at that point in time.
/neckbeard off

[RhyssaFireheart]

Honestly the TV series was better than any of the movies, and even it was awful.

You shut your dirty whore mouth!  Adrian Paul was hawt!

And SWORDS!

[proudft]

In addition to its other sins, Highlander almost certainly helped maintain (if not start) the Cult of the Katana.   It's just a sword, people.

[Ratman_tf]

Highlander was awesome. Y'all are knocking it just to be beret wearing, latte sipping, hipster haters. Fuck off.

[TheWalrus]

^

[Evildrider]

Highlander is a classic.  Everything else spun off from it was trash though.

[Abagadro]

Love that movie. Watch it all the time whenever I catch it. Has some of the greatest transition cuts ever put to film.

[sickrubik]

a movie with Sean Connery and Clancy Brown sounds like it should be a lot cooler than what we ended up with. Of course, at the time, Clancy Brown was no one.

[Yegolev]

Clancy Brown was always someone.  We share a birthday.

[Furiously]

Clancy Brown was always someone.  We share a birthday.

He is the best Lex Luther. (I'm guessing he's mr. Krabs to most of you)

[sickrubik]

Clancy Brown was always someone.  We share a birthday.

He is the best Lex Luther. (I'm guessing he's mr. Krabs to most of you)

I didnt even know what that was. I had to look it up. I didn't even know he was on that show. I don't think I've ever watched that show. To me, He's Lex Luther/Kelvin and Brother Justin Crowe. (And the aforementioned Kurgan, and also Rawhide in Buckaroo Banzai.)

[schild]

Anyone who saw enough of the TV show to get to the Four Horsemen arc (starts with "Comes a Horseman" and ends with "Revelation 6:8") likely believes the show is better than the first movie - and rightly show. Those 3 episodes (bookending "Methos") are some of the best TV ever.

The first movie was the absolute shit though.

Edit: I actually have a text document on my desk of my favorite episodes of TV. Maybe I should start a thread about it.

[Minvaren]

There were some mighty good episodes in the TV series, for certain.  And I've found that a lot of people who saw it first dislike the movies (Endgame excepted).

I really enjoyed the first movie myself, and it laid the groundwork for the multiple movies and tv series that followed. 

($include obama_not_bad.jpg)

[Ingmar]

Highlander was awesome. Y'all are knocking it just to be beret wearing, latte sipping, hipster haters. Fuck off.

Apparently I've been a hipster since at least 1990, who knew.

[Wasted]

I loved the movie as a kid, it hasn't held up well at all though.

I bought it on blu-ray recently and sat down with the son to watch it and he wandered off about a third of the way in. All the big landscape training scenes seemed shorter and just random and irrelevant compared to how epic I remembered it.  The story was also much more bare bones in the lore than I remembered, I must have filled in a lot of the gaps myself.

The Kurgan was still cool though.

I'm looking forward to the reboot, the story with decent effects and no mush mouth Lambert should be good.

[Abagadro]

Eh, it's a B movie.  I think it needs to be enjoyed for what it is.

[UnSub]

The concept was original enough and it has some great moments (like the bit with the Nazis). And Clancy Brown.

[TheWalrus]

The church scene. I will never forget it.

[Sheepherder]

In addition to its other sins, Highlander almost certainly helped maintain (if not start) the Cult of the Katana.   It's just a sword, people.

 

[Johny Cee]

Clancy Brown was always someone.  We share a birthday.

He is the best Lex Luther. (I'm guessing he's mr. Krabs to most of you)

I didnt even know what that was. I had to look it up. I didn't even know he was on that show. I don't think I've ever watched that show. To me, He's Lex Luther/Kelvin and Brother Justin Crowe. (And the aforementioned Kurgan, and also Rawhide in Buckaroo Banzai.)

Bah.  What about Byron Hadley from the Shawshank Redemption?

[Chimpy]

Or Sgt. Zim?

[Merusk]

In addition to its other sins, Highlander almost certainly helped maintain (if not start) the Cult of the Katana.   It's just a sword, people.

 

TNMNT, whose first comic came out 2 years before Highlander, has much more to do with the cult of the katana than Highlander, but it did contribute.

Tack on it's foreign mystique (almost nothing European is 'foreign' to the US.) the legends surrounding those who wore them, the forbidden aspect and that, damnit, it's a sword, and the set-up is complete.

[Bunk]

I'd go more with Sho Kosugi and the 80's Ninja movie craze as being what started the cult of the Katana in nerd-pop culture. Yes, I know ninja's didn't use Katanas - but that wave of movies was what really seemed to spike the ninja/samurai craze here, as opposed to kung fu and such.

Highlander is a good solid cheezy action movie, with a really cool premise. It probably stands up better than say Terminator did.

[01101010]

It probably stands up better than say Terminator did.

Blasphemy!

Only because Skynet.

[sickrubik]

[Bah.  What about Byron Hadley from the Shawshank Redemption?

Oh, right. That too.

As far as Starship Troopers goes... it doesn't have the same resonance with me that it does with others.

[Fordel]

In addition to its other sins, Highlander almost certainly helped maintain (if not start) the Cult of the Katana.   It's just a sword, people.

 

TNMNT, whose first comic came out 2 years before Highlander, has much more to do with the cult of the katana than Highlander, but it did contribute.

Tack on it's foreign mystique (almost nothing European is 'foreign' to the US.) the legends surrounding those who wore them, the forbidden aspect and that, damnit, it's a sword, and the set-up is complete.

The original TMNT comic had an effect on nothing other then the fact they spun off the cartoon property from it, which is only related on a superficial level.

The Cartoon started a fucking religion of course, which my entire generation followed blindly. 


Shitty B movie has had waaaay more eyeballs on it then shitty B comic.



I loved the TV show, but I thankfully stopped short of growing a pony tail and getting a trench coat as a kid.

[Merusk]

The geeks in my class (grad 1992) all knew the original TNMNT and were disgusted by the cartoon.  I still agree with that sentiment.

I was only one of about a half dozen folks I knew growing up and in college who'd seen Highlander prior to the TV series.

[Evildrider]

Hey, and don't forget it had a pretty solid soundtrack.

[01101010]

Hey, and don't forget it had a pretty solid soundtrack.

I am both proud and ashamed that I am a Queen fan... have been since I got my hands on my first Queen album back in the late 70s. Queen II from what I recall, then News of the World before Flash Gordon.

Highlander was another movie of my youth I enjoyed back then, but sorta cringe at now but still hold a nostalgic soft spot for.