Lee had never seen Highlander.
Ever.
- Dan assures Lee that fee Apple Macs will soon flow to him
- Lee doubts Dan
- Dan realises that women watch science fiction
- Lee wonders why they aren’t aliens
- A Scotsman playing an Egyptian and a Frenchman playing a Scotsman…
- Do the sword fights survive the test of time?
- Lee and Dan refuse to pronounce more foreign names correctly.
- Dan and Lee look at Wikipedia again
- Demolition grade swords
- Lee admits to not being a sword-smith
- Dan likes his villains bald
- Lee says Donkey Balls
- Dan hates Queen
- Dan has an interesting idea of what a spoiler is
- Lee mentions Twilight…
So what do you guys think? Is Highlander dated? Is it still awesome? Drop us a comment!
Next week we’re watching Starship Troopers with Arjan!
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I’ve seen every live-action Highlander rendition filmed – all the sequels (including TV movies), and the entire series. I’ve also seen at least some of the comics and an episode of the cartoon. I LOVE this concept. For the most part, what they’ve done after the first movie is painful to watch. The exception is the series, once you get past the point that killing the Kurgan wasn’t as final as it seemed (which is a huge point to gloss over, but let’s face it, that’s the only way to move on).
I agree with you that Highlander (1986) is a product of its time and doesn’t necessarily age well. I’ve seen others age more poorly, but yeah, you gotta get your head back to some time in the 80s to appreciate the style of this film. That said, I’d happily watch it again (and have).
As to the accents, as an American I don’t have a keen sense of Scottish accents, but I do have ears. I don’t even try to justify those accents, I just ignore the incongruity and move on. They are truly horrible.
The concept, and its originality, though, just blow away any negative feelings I have toward specific aspects of the film.
In case you’re interested, here’s my feeling on the franchise…
Highlander – excellent (and as written, should have remained stand-alone)
Highlander 2: The Quickening – doesn’t exist.
Highlander 3: The Sorcerer – a good attempt to recover from 2 (i.e., ignore it), but ultimately, crap.
Highlander 4: Endgame – the best of the sequels, but still not as good as it could have been.
Highlander 5: The Source (TV movie) – makes me yearn for Highlander 2. It burns to think about it.
Highlander (the series) – excellent. Better sword fights, better characters, better villains, better plots. A much richer mythology. Exactly how Highlander should be handled.
Highlander: Raven (the spin-off series) – eh. Not so hot (except for the lead actress…).
Highlander comics – based on the series, mostly, and not bad, but a bit confusing.
Highlander cartoon – a waste.
@Jeff, I may end up having to check out the highlander TV series now, you sell it well.
@Dan, lest you get too excited, it’s good, but it’s no B5.
@Jeff, I’m now more interested in Highlander 5 considering you rate it lower than 2!
I’m semi sure I’ve seen most of it, it very well could have been on in the background one day and I didn’t pay it much attention.
I’m also interested in Raven because I couldn’t quite work out its connection to the show or the mythology.
@Lee, Raven is a character introduced in the series as one of Duncan’s former girlfriends, also immortal. She’s also an expert thief. Very popular character in the series, but wasn’t quite able to hold her own show together.
H2 was a horrible story, taking the mythology and ripping it to shreds. H5 was a horrible story, taking the mythology and making you hate that it existed, AND was just terrible filmmaking, with phoned in performances and completely stupid effects and set pieces. I wrote a review about it when it aired – http://www.caddicks.com/blog/2007/09/15/review-highlander-the-source/ – and it was so bad that three days later I had to write more about it in a second entry.
Is it bad that I laugh every time I hear myself say the final “Next Wednesday”. It is like I was on ‘roids or something there.
@MC, I was simply terrified by it the first time I heard it.
@Lee, you mean by the fact that I thought it was a good idea or that that voice came out of me?
@MC, I mean by which the voice you produce scares me so.
OK, for some odd reason you 2 quirky little fellows entertain me. Now I’m trying to help you out by putting a msg on iTunes, but I have no idea what I’m doing. I just subscribed to you on iTunes and am currently downloading all of your podcasts.
Really though I just listen to you on my computer while I’m messing around on fb or playing games. No offense, but it doesn’t take much brain power to keep up with your podcast.
Finally to the questions . . . 1. Does this comment help you out at all or does it have to be thru iTunes? . . . 2. If it has to be thru iTunes how the heck do I do it?
Thanks for the info,
Your Kansas fan scc
I figured it out! Hooray!
@scc, I actually prefer the comments on here because I very rarely visit the iTunes page but Dan gets very excited over any Apple validation of any kind.
Thank you for subscribing though!!! I hope we manage to keep entertaining
@scc, This comment doesn’t count for iTunes, but it certainly counts for us
Nice to meet you.
I’m not offended at all by you saying it doesn’t take much brain power to keep up with us. To be honest it doesn’t take much brain power to record it either – which is a good job as otherwise Lee wouldn’t be able to do it.
Hi Dan and Lee,
Another great movie choice and another great review.
I’m also strongly of the opinion that Highlander is a great standalone film and should have been left alone. I watched Highlander 2, Highlander 3 and the first few episodes of the series and each one reinforced my opinion.
The only other film-come-franchise I feel this stronly about is The Matrix: I own the first film and happily choose to remain ignorant of the existence of the other 2.
Again, great job lads and looking forward to your take on Starship Troopers.
Ian.
@Ian, Matrix is a hard one for me as I actually don’t all together hate the second one. The third one was a really big let down but it’s been ages since I’ve seen it so I can’t even think if there were any scenes that I at least found remotely entertaining.
Often in those films I can find small joys.
@Lee, I don’t altogether hate Highlander 3 or the series episodes, but I still strongly feel they were uneccessary.
@Ian, Oh don’t get me wrong, would have been happy as Larry (assuming Larry is pretty happy guy) if they had left well enough alone with the Matrix but I also didn’t think that Reloaded was that bad except for the rave scene.
That being said I read somewhere that they always wanted it to be a trilogy although from watching the first film it really doesn’t feel like that at all.
I do find it really easy to separate bad sequels out though – heck I even found stuff to like in Terminator 3, that ain’t easy either!!
@Ian, I refused to see Matrix 3 on the strength of my hate for number 2 alone. I still haven’t seen it, and have no plans to either.
@Dan, really you weren’t curious to know what they did?
@Lee, Maybe Dan didn’t want to completely destroy his fond memories of the first film. After all, The Matrix: Reloaded almost did it to me.
@Ian, even if I hear a sequel is really bad I’m often curious enough to check it out. If it is as bad as suggested it doesn’t usually tarnish the first one for me.
@Dan, I hear Ya Dan!
“The Matrix” was the very first DVD I ever purchased – weeks before I owned a player! But after seeing 2, and then 3 with much reluctance and external coercion, I’m in denial that there was anything after that “complete” first film!
@SG-3, yes, it’s probably best that way.
It’s such a shame though, as the first one was so damn good.
@Dan, I think a lot of sequals come from stand-alone movies that were so damn good. It can be a real risk to go down that road again as movies like Highlander 2 have proven.
@Ian, and, as I’ve found out this morning – Starship Troopers
@Dan, LOL
@SG-3, I had a friend who knew a dude who worked on part three and he completely told me what was going to happen but I didn’t believe him because it sounded dumb… go figure