Highlander

Two star actors, Queen’s music and beautiful Scottish scenery make for a dated – from today’s point of view – but still nice adventure. The datedness is caused mainly by the trashy script, which works only with hints and symbols, but doesn’t use the subject matter in depth. Highlander is very attractively made brainless entertainment for the 1980s mainstream audience. (10/12/2009)

Oh dear... What did I used to like about this? I remembered that Lambert and Connery were in it, and I thought it was really cool how they cut each other's heads off and got their energy back, but that's really all that makes this movie interesting... My rating of 50% is more out of nostalgia, because this doesn't appeal to me now. (12/05/2015)

I am almost surprised that Highlander is not based on any book. I can imagine it as an 800-page sprawling fantasy, which later became a film adaptation, which is simplified and stripped down, but still a stylishly effective B-movie ride. Highlander combines epicness, destiny, romance, and is amazingly intense, serious and light-hearted, but above all, royally entertaining. Christopher Lambert is a terrible wooden actor, but his awkward acting gradually captivates you. One of the brightest moments is of course the presence of the pure Scotsman Sean Connery, paradoxically portraying an Egyptian from Spain here. His Ramirez is soon overshadowed by the main show-stealer of the whole film, the sensational villain Kurgan played by Clancy Brown - whenever he appeared on the scene, it was always worth it. I had Highlander in my collection for a long time and I finally got to watch it after returning home from a vacation around Scotland, where I also visited the beautiful Eilean Donan castle, which appears in the first third of the film. Although I slightly exaggerate, my impression of the film is definitely not influenced by nostalgia and echoes of the just-ended vacation in the Scottish Highlands. Highlander would captivate me anyway, it combines everything I expect from such films, and adds something extra - notably clever editing, excellent camera work, and of course the divine soundtrack by Queen. Watching Highlander is simply kind of magic! (09/17/2019)

This film has one great thing: the beautiful Scottish landscape and the mysticism of the flashbacks. The story taking place in the present is predicable and boring, and it’s not even helped by the B-movie like performances, which in this case I found incredibly annoying. To be fair, though, I’ve never liked fantasy in any form, not only in film. (04/10/2009)

It has its good moments, but none of them are actually happening at the moment. Yet Scotland is absolutely ideal - the filmmakers managed to find a compromise between an adventure atmosphere, an emotional romance, action and humor. The short insert with the Boston fight is also perfect, and it made me laugh unexpectedly (the complete opposite of the WWII scene, where I didn't understand whether the ending was supposed to be funny or not). As for the rest, see what I wrote. The present is weak, and unless the music by Queen is playing (the soundtrack is basically the A Kind of Magic album), many scenes look like something out of a B-movie (i.e., awkward, ridiculous, cheap) and the final drawn-out fight... That's really the "peak". Two and a half. (11/05/2013)