There can be only one . . .
. . . good movie called Highlander. Everything else about it has sucked. All sequels sucked. TeeVee show sucked. Etc. And I’m guessing its purported reimagining will too:
Swords are so last century. These new immortals use firearms as well as swords. At one point MacLeod attempts to take out his arch nemesis the Kurgan with a sniper rifle. Ramirez, as well, advises MacLeod to always learn the ways of the boom boom makers.
My bet is this thing is going to suck.
Update: Because I’ve not said suck enough, Matt in comments nails it:
y’know, I watched the original movie again a couple years ago, and the thing that struck me was this: The only good thing about that movie was the overall storyline. The acting sucked, the writing sucked, the special effects sucked, and the fight choreography sucked.
It’s a tribute to the story that I still remember the movie fondly. But it wouldn’t be hard to improve on, as long as they keep the story.
Indeed. Don’t monkey with the story.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
y’know, I watched the original movie again a couple years ago, and the thing that struck me was this: The only good thing about that movie was the overall storyline. The acting sucked, the writing sucked, the special effects sucked, and the fight choreography sucked.
It’s a tribute to the story that I still remember the movie fondly. But it wouldn’t be hard to improve on, as long as they keep the story.
-m@
November 11th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Of all the remakes of movies, cartoons, etc, I can remember only a couple of them that were worth watching (The Fugitive and Narrow Margin). The rest weren’t worth the time, even if there wasn’t anything else on. My view on remakes is this: Why would you remake a good movie, there is no chance it will be anywhere as good as the original. As for remaking a bad movie, remade crap is still crap.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
@LKP add 12 Angry Men to that list
November 11th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I actually kind of liked Highlander: Endgame, but the rest of the movies have been atrocious. Guns shouldn’t have a role in the Immortal paradigm; they’re always shown as cheating in the series and they mess with the otherworldliness of the Immortals.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I only liked the cartoon. That is it.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I liked some of the TV shows, especially “crossover” episodes that featured both MacLeods (Connor & Duncan) though the series did “jump the shark” eventually.
The Anime was ok, but felt very disconnected from the original narrative.
Perhaps the reason we like/remember the originals is because ALL of the movie sequels sucked so hard.
November 11th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I never understood why they cast an American-born Frenchman to play an immortal Scot. What, they couldn’t find an actor who could at least SOUND Scottish?
The only thing good about the original movie was Sean Connery.
November 11th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
The original movie sucked, except for Sean Connery.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I still like the TV series myself. Granted some episodes were better than others, but I don’t know that it really “jumped the shark” at any particular point.
November 11th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
IIRC, the music in the first movie was kinda cool. It didn’t suck anyway.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Overall I like the original “Highlander”. The soundtrack and storyline were the best things in the movie. The acting and special effects were nothing to rave about but overall a entertaining flick.
I’ve yet to see a remake that was even as good as the original let alone better though I cant say for sure about “The 3:10 to Yuma” since I’ve never seen the original.
The only sequal I’ve ever seen that was actually better than the original was “Aliens”.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
To be fair, the sound mix in the original movie also sucked. What did he say? NEVER MIND. THE SCORE IS RAMPING UP AGAIN!
November 11th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
The guns+swords could be awesome if they’re going with something like “The Highlander meet Equilibrium”
November 11th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
I will not allow you to sully the memory of the Highlander television series. It was, and remains to this day, awesome.
The other thing that carried the original film, beyond the story, was the music. Queen really did a job on that score. Aczarnowski, the reason they kept mixing the music louder was that it was better than the dialogue. 🙂
The TV show had some pretty good acting, and pretty good action too, in some interesting locations. Nobody else was shooting swordfights in Paris on TV back then, as nearly as I can recall!
Now, a re-imagining where Immortals fight with sniper rifles doesn’t sound like it could possibly work. But Duncan MacLeod, anyway, served in WWI and most of the wars of the 19th century, right? He should be OK with a gun.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:24 am
The fight choreography is awesome in the first movie or any movie with Christopher Lambert if you realize that he is legally blind at that range……
And the TV show was awesome, even if the whole concept needed a better explanation….
I mean, head cut off….ok, at the neck, cut the guy in half, etc. There can only be one….ok, what if one of these guys is trapped in a collapsed mine somewhere…
I always thought that any of the Immortals that just didn’t want to compete would cheat, shoot his opponent and cut off his head while he was incapacitated….
But, other than that, outstanding.
Sniper rifles? So, you can get the “quickening” from your dead opponent from 1000 yards away?
November 12th, 2009 at 12:43 am
But it won an Academy Award-for best movie ever made:)(Ricky Bobby)
November 12th, 2009 at 7:27 am
“I always thought that any of the Immortals that just didn’t want to compete would cheat, shoot his opponent and cut off his head while he was incapacitated….”
In the TV Series this would work and one of the Immortals does this. In the original movie, the Kurgan takes an entire Mac10 to the chest and it doesn’t even slow him down.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Since we are talking about remakes…
Clash of the Titans..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6CJenNMsb4
You can’t tell me that doesn’t look better than the original.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Speaking of The Highlander, from last night’s Colbert Report:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/255252/november-12-2009/stephen-claims-lou-dobbs–audience
November 16th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Guns would hurt them, but couldn’t actually kill them. There was a story in the tv series where a bad-guy immortal was shooting other immortals and then taking their heads before they could recover.
Yeah, I know