Highlander: The Immortal Edition

[lord_breetai]

man... what the show should have done was NOT RIP OFF THE MOVIE...

I mean... it just seemed kinda lame for there to be

a) Another Macleod Immortal

b) Another Dragon Katana

They should have made him use a different type of ornate sword. I mean.. katanas are cool.. but it kinda seems like a cheap ripoff of the Masamune Connor has.

I liked the series a lot... but yeah... it was cheesy and I'd place it 3rd behind the first and third highlander movies.

At least we all agree II sucked.

Well according to the pilot IIRC... the Dragon Katana was Connor's and he gave it to to Duncan... it was only later that they changed it so that it had a different origin. so if he we went by the pilot there is only one Dragon Katana. IIRC... however since that was rewritten later I guess it dosn't matter.

What about the new Highlander anime that's in the works?

Highlander Vengence.

[EXO]

What about the new Highlander anime that's in the works?

Highlander Vengence.

hopefully it'll be about Connor getting sucked out of the screen into the real world and kills eveyone involved with the sequels....

I'd watch it!

[Wes]

I thought the TV series got much better towards the end of its run on tv. I really dug the 4 horsemen. I wish they would've had more eps dealing with them. Its was pretty cool to see those revelations about Methos. BTW the actor that played Methos pops up in X2 as one of Strykers soldiers.

There's an earlier Peter Winfried appreance I enjoy more - that computer nerd off of James Bond - Goldeneye. And I was the best arround at that game(yea, everyone says that, but seeing as I only lost the first 2 multi-player games I played, I think I have some right). I would always play as his character and often yelled "I AM INVINCIBLE!" pissing off my opponents.

Ahhhhh, good times.

Anyways, yeah, at least he has somewhat of a career. One of the things I enjoyed about the TV series was how all these old rock stars were immortals on the show like the guy from the Who, man they make a mistake in killing him off.

[CoryHolmes]

I thought the TV series got much better towards the end of its run on tv.  I really dug the 4 horsemen.  I wish they would've had more eps dealing with them.  Its was pretty cool to see those revelations about Methos.  BTW the actor that played Methos pops up in X2 as one of Strykers soldiers.

There's an earlier Peter Winfried appreance I enjoy more - that computer nerd off of James Bond - Goldeneye. And I was the best arround at that game(yea, everyone says that, but seeing as I only lost the first 2 multi-player games I played, I think I have some right). I would always play as his character and often yelled "I AM INVINCIBLE!" pissing off my opponents.

Ahhhhh, good times.

Anyways, yeah, at least he has somewhat of a career. One of the things I enjoyed about the TV series was how all these old rock stars were immortals on the show like the guy from the Who, man they make a mistake in killing him off.

Roger Daltry's character, Fitz, was supposed to die in the episode he was introduced in. During the filming of that episode, though, the producers and writers decided that he was doing such a great job that they just couldn't kill him off

Fitz was one of the great Highlander guest Immortals. Really gave that show depth and humour.

[ComicKaze]

I thought the TV series got much better towards the end of its run on tv.  I really dug the 4 horsemen.  I wish they would've had more eps dealing with them.  Its was pretty cool to see those revelations about Methos.  BTW the actor that played Methos pops up in X2 as one of Strykers soldiers.

There's an earlier Peter Winfried appreance I enjoy more - that computer nerd off of James Bond - Goldeneye. And I was the best arround at that game(yea, everyone says that, but seeing as I only lost the first 2 multi-player games I played, I think I have some right). I would always play as his character and often yelled "I AM INVINCIBLE!" pissing off my opponents.

Ahhhhh, good times.

Anyways, yeah, at least he has somewhat of a career. One of the things I enjoyed about the TV series was how all these old rock stars were immortals on the show like the guy from the Who, man they make a mistake in killing him off.

Roger Daltry's character, Fitz, was supposed to die in the episode he was introduced in. During the filming of that episode, though, the producers and writers decided that he was doing such a great job that they just couldn't kill him off

Fitz was one of the great Highlander guest Immortals. Really gave that show depth and humour.

BORIS WAS METHOS????? YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!!

Fitz was an amazing character. Roger Daltrey was great in that role and it looked like he enjoyed it. It was sad when he finally lost his head.

As great a Highlander fan I am, I just can't stand the Brenda Wyatt character. Her personality is grating and she isn't good to look at either. They should have swapped her with the actress that played Connor's wife in Scotland. She ruins the entire movie for me.

And as for Endgame, I love this movie. Have you ever seen a DVD were the second disc was a complete workprint of the movie? That shows the dedication to fans. Unfortunately, it is only one version of the workprint. I have a low quality one that is absolutely amazing in terms of the music (which was never heard in the final), editing, and story. I think that's the best version and it's sad that it was never officially released.

I bought this movie because I'm a big Donnie Yen fan as well. I think he scenes were great. Highlander Endgame was actually the first mainstream hollywood (if you can call it that) DVD that I purchased in a store.

As for the movie itself, there's only one disappointment I have with it, and that's the makeup crew were horrible with Christopher Lambert. This guy is supposed to be immortal, and you can see on the cover and his interview scenes that he easily looks young, fit, and gritty in the part.

The stupid makeup guys made him look like he was in his 60s, combing his hair back all the way and giving him a clean cut. They should have had Connor look as he did in 1986-1993, with day-growth beard and dirty blonde hair. Connor looks absolutely senile throughout the movie. Yes, it's supposed to be showing that he's tired of life...but he looks the same in the 1990 flashback to New York where they order Hot Dogs (they actually dressed a Romanian city as New York for the movie).

Other problems I have are with the final editing being senseless. Somehow Duncan and Kell fall down a ledge in a cathedral and they are suddenly in a steam-and-fire- factory . ?! Couldn't you be more creative than this guys? Also, if you watch the DVD cut, you'll see that they play the same scene TWICE!

I wonder where all that funny magic stuff they had in the trailers (like Duncan and Connor jumping through a glowing portal) came from. Aside from it's problems, Endgame is a beautiful production, with great locales in Europe and good artistic work on a small budget. I still love my workprint version the best. It had much better music and sentimentality than the final version. Although the Christmas Tree ending that's featured on the workprint on the DVD is also good too. It's a great set to own, because you can see all the chaos that a Highlander production is. They must've changed the story every week making this thing!

Edited December 31, 2004 by ComicKaze

[Max Jenius]

I wonder where all that funny magic stuff they had in the trailers (like Duncan and Connor jumping through a glowing portal) came from. Aside from it's problems, Endgame is a beautiful production, with great locales in Europe and good artistic work on a small budget. I still love my workprint version the best. It had much better music and sentimentality than the final version. Although the Christmas Tree ending that's featured on the workprint on the DVD is also good too. It's a great set to own, because you can see all the chaos that a Highlander production is. They must've changed the story every week making this thing!

I wondered that too! The portal! And them chopping Kell in half to make 2 Kells!

[Golden Arms]

I thought the TV series got much better towards the end of its run on tv.  I really dug the 4 horsemen.  I wish they would've had more eps dealing with them.  Its was pretty cool to see those revelations about Methos.  BTW the actor that played Methos pops up in X2 as one of Strykers soldiers.

There's an earlier Peter Winfried appreance I enjoy more - that computer nerd off of James Bond - Goldeneye. And I was the best arround at that game(yea, everyone says that, but seeing as I only lost the first 2 multi-player games I played, I think I have some right). I would always play as his character and often yelled "I AM INVINCIBLE!" pissing off my opponents.

Ahhhhh, good times.

Anyways, yeah, at least he has somewhat of a career. One of the things I enjoyed about the TV series was how all these old rock stars were immortals on the show like the guy from the Who, man they make a mistake in killing him off.

Roger Daltry's character, Fitz, was supposed to die in the episode he was introduced in. During the filming of that episode, though, the producers and writers decided that he was doing such a great job that they just couldn't kill him off

Fitz was one of the great Highlander guest Immortals. Really gave that show depth and humour.

BORIS WAS METHOS????? YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!!

Fitz was an amazing character. Roger Daltrey was great in that role and it looked like he enjoyed it. It was sad when he finally lost his head.

As great a Highlander fan I am, I just can't stand the Brenda Wyatt character. Her personality is grating and she isn't good to look at either. They should have swapped her with the actress that played Connor's wife in Scotland. She ruins the entire movie for me.

And as for Endgame, I love this movie. Have you ever seen a DVD were the second disc was a complete workprint of the movie? That shows the dedication to fans. Unfortunately, it is only one version of the workprint. I have a low quality one that is absolutely amazing in terms of the music (which was never heard in the final), editing, and story. I think that's the best version and it's sad that it was never officially released.

I bought this movie because I'm a big Donnie Yen fan as well. I think he scenes were great. Highlander Endgame was actually the first mainstream hollywood (if you can call it that) DVD that I purchased in a store.

As for the movie itself, there's only one disappointment I have with it, and that's the makeup crew were horrible with Christopher Lambert. This guy is supposed to be immortal, and you can see on the cover and his interview scenes that he easily looks young, fit, and gritty in the part.

The stupid makeup guys made him look like he was in his 60s, combing his hair back all the way and giving him a clean cut. They should have had Connor look as he did in 1986-1993, with day-growth beard and dirty blonde hair. Connor looks absolutely senile throughout the movie. Yes, it's supposed to be showing that he's tired of life...but he looks the same in the 1990 flashback to New York where they order Hot Dogs (they actually dressed a Romanian city as New York for the movie).

Other problems I have are with the final editing being senseless. Somehow Duncan and Kell fall down a ledge in a cathedral and they are suddenly in a steam-and-fire- factory . ?! Couldn't you be more creative than this guys? Also, if you watch the DVD cut, you'll see that they play the same scene TWICE!

I wonder where all that funny magic stuff they had in the trailers (like Duncan and Connor jumping through a glowing portal) came from. Aside from it's problems, Endgame is a beautiful production, with great locales in Europe and good artistic work on a small budget. I still love my workprint version the best. It had much better music and sentimentality than the final version. Although the Christmas Tree ending that's featured on the workprint on the DVD is also good too. It's a great set to own, because you can see all the chaos that a Highlander production is. They must've changed the story every week making this thing!

I bought the endgame DVD for the same reason (Donnie Yen). I never got around to watching the 2nd disk though. Why did they edit out some of the scenes that were in the trailers? I felt that the TV series should have never acknowledeged Connors fight with the Kurgan. It would have given the series alot more mystic b/c the audience wouldn't know how things would've turned out for Duncan and the other immortals.

[eugimon]

I thought in the TV series, the kurgan/conner fight didn't end the gathering...?

[Wes]

I thought in the TV series, the kurgan/conner fight didn't end the gathering...?

Yeah, that was at the beginning of the 2nd season I believe, when Joe is trying prove to Duncan that the Watcher-killers are only an errorness minority, saying "Your clansman Connor did us all a big favor taking out that guy(Kurgan)..."

But the previous cut being better than the final?!? What are you smoking? True, it was just a priliminary cut, but it had horrible music. I think the final one excelled in it, but I guess this just falls into the relm of personal preference. btw does anyone know the name of the main theme of Endgame? They had this beautiful guitar rendition playing during the credits of it, and I've been trying to find a tab of it.

They said just before the previous cut that "there had been hundreds of different cuts, this is just one of them." It seems like the mini-Kell, portal-things, and my personal fav., Kell using Jedi-skills to stop a sword thrown at his head in mid-air, with an ecco of shiny-power, were all part of one of these trains of thought. I'm personally glad they when away from that, becuase it made me fear they were trying to one-up Highlander 3 on stupid. I do remember liking one of their original ideas, about having the final battle in Scottland, but they said they ran out of money to go there at the end. It was on the 2nd disc script-stuff, but I don't have it with me to tell you more than that.

[areaseven]

Yeah, Roger Daltrey practically stole the show during his stay, but what about these other pop/rock stars who also appeared as Immortals?

Roland Gift (formerly of Fine Young Cannibals)

Sheena Easton

Joan Jett

[Max Jenius]

Sheena Easton also was on Brisco County Jr. a show that sadly never made it past one season.

[uminoken]

Its was pretty cool to see those revelations about Methos.  BTW the actor that played Methos pops up in X2 as one of Strykers soldiers.

There's an earlier Peter Winfried appreance I enjoy more - that computer nerd off of James Bond - Goldeneye. And I was the best arround at that game(yea, everyone says that, but seeing as I only lost the first 2 multi-player games I played, I think I have some right). I would always play as his character and often yelled "I AM INVINCIBLE!" pissing off my opponents.

Ahhhhh, good times.

Roger Daltry's character, Fitz, was supposed to die in the episode he was introduced in. During the filming of that episode, though, the producers and writers decided that he was doing such a great job that they just couldn't kill him off

Fitz was one of the great Highlander guest Immortals. Really gave that show depth and humour.

BORIS WAS METHOS????? YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!!

Uhh, I think you're both a bit confused. Peter Wingfield played Methos, and he was one of Stryker's henchman in X2. Alan Cumming played Boris in Goldeneye.

Max - Brisco went only 27 eps? Shame no dvd release is in sight, that was an awsome show. As to the topic in question, I loved the first movie (and still find it hilarious that Kurgan is also Mr. Krabbs from Spongebob) and enjoyed the tv show from time to time, but haven't and won't see any of the sequel movies.

[areaseven]

This morning, while flipping through channels, I noticed that Sci-Fi Channel was playing the last 30 minutes of Highlander: Endgame. Now I know why I skipped this movie in theatres:

1. Subpar film quality looks no better than a TV episode. Same can be said about the special effects.

2. Considerably weak sword fights compared to the first film.

3. Duncan's quickenings are very weak, especially the one after he kills Connor. Since Connor killed the powerful Kurgan, you'd expect Duncan's quickening to be much more painful and intense.

4. For an Immortal who supposedly killed 600 other Immortals, Kell is a rather unconvincing swordsman.

In the end, there can be only one - and it should've stayed that way with just one movie.

[Kin]

I remember the 80's movie. It was kinda cool. A timeless piece.

[ComicKaze]

Golden Arms, the final cut of Endgame on the main DVD cuts short many of Donnie's fight scenes including the big one with Duncan in the remains of Connor's apartment. It is longer and you see more frame on the 2nd DVD (but not as much as my VCD workprint).

Also, the movie was actually filmed in full frame - aka pretty much 4:3 ratio like the television series so the final DVD just basically mattes black bars onto the top and bottom so you also loose footage (this is why I wanted to find the VHS of Endgame).

Wes -> I'm not saying I like the cut on the 2nd DVD of the retail DVD set better, I'm saying I like the VCD workprint better which was a bootleg leaked onto the internet which is one of those different cuts. It was never released and you can't buy it. In fact, I think I lost the discs I burned myself so I'm a little unhappy about that. I've actually just started to play guitar myself. The credits theme of Endgame is called Bonny Portmore but that's not what you're looking for. I think the guitar rendition was spliced in from part of the soundtrack called "The Legend of the Immortals". The music was orchestrated by Stephen Graziano and Nick Glennie-Smith.

http://www.soundtrack.net/soundtracks/database/?id=2617

To be honest, I love this movie in all its flaws. Again, I prefer the bootleg workprint version. Still, it was the first mainstream DVD I purchased. To this day, one of the few real mainstream (if you can call it that) DVDs I own (like 5). You'd be hard pressed to find a more full-featured DVD for any film, especially an obscure one, and the care and attention to details in the set really shows it was made for the fans, appologizing for some of the films mistakes and shortcomings. I just went through the whole script-to-screen feature. What DVD features the entire shooting script of the movie? Where you can watch it adjacent to the actual scene, with production notes embedded in it explaining the changes? What DVD set would offer you two different cuts of the same movie, not just different scenes. There's got to be like 6 hours of extras on this thing too. Wow, I just discovered another feature in the script-to-screen, portions of earlier scripts that never made it...like the introduction was supposed to be in Shanghai! The DVD set isn't a short documentary on the film like most cheapass DVDs...it's more like the whole worklog complete with workprint. It's hilarious to see just how even more cheesy and low-budget the original special effects were. And they go through it on the DVD about how badly the old effects were. I appreciate that.

-edit-

Hah! I never knew about all these features on a disc that were PC-accessible only...I'm reading the (thankfully aborted) script version where the fatal fight between Connor and Duncan was sparked because Duncan slept with Connor's girlfriend haha!

Scary thing is that they're making a Highlander 5. Even as an admitted Highlander fan, I just know how easily they make horrible screwed up pictures. Heck, I liked Endgame more because I liked the feel of the film, not because it was Highlander. And of course, I thought Donnie Yen was really cool and was disappointed at his small role in Hero. I'm glad he totally beat up Jackie Chan in SK.

Edited January 10, 2005 by ComicKaze

[Blaine23]

I love Highlander... but I'm totally confused by this topic. You guys keep mentioning sequels and TV and some guy named Duncan... in my world that doesn't exist. On planet Blaine there was only one Highlander movie and it was rented about 8 million times on VHS when I was 13. It had a kickass soundtrack by Queen that I had on a BASF cheapass quality dubbed tape from my best friend's album version. And I distinctly remember beating the hell out of that same friend with a stick while both of screamed "Princes of the Universe".

But I sure don't recall that they ever made those godawful, pieces of poo sequels and televsion programs. And it's really much, much better this way.

(See... folks... denial can be a good thing.)

And just for the record -

"I've got something to say: It's better to burn out than to fade away!" - The Kurgan

"It's better to burn out than to fade away... my my, hey hey" - Neil Young, Hey Hey, My My

and then,

"I got something to say: It's better to burn out than to fade away" - Def Leppard, Pyromania

When I was a kid I liked to think that the Kurgan was all about the Def Leppard. These days I prefer to think of him as having spent some time in Canada in the 60's with the mighty Neil Young.

Good review, A7

[lord_breetai]

I am well and truly shocked how many people, prefer the original Movie to the TV series... I mean the original movie was okay... but... nothing special.