A Look Back: Highlander and Highlander 2

Having not looked back for a while, I decided now was the time to do with the 1986 fantasy hit Highlander and it's 1991 sequel Highlander II.

Highlander starred Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod, who lives with his clan the Macleod's in the Scottish highlands, one day during a clan fight he receives a fatal stab wound but instead of dying he survives, banished from his home he learns from a man named Ramirez played by Sean Connery that he is immortal, destined to battle down the ages until only a few remain, where those who are left will fight for the Prize, which could spell doom if it falls into the wrong hands.

With all of that, you would expect a jumbled piece of filmmaking, right; wrong, Highlander works in every area, Australian Russel Mulcahy keeps a firm hold on the direction of the film while also bringing a strong editorial style to the piece, Lambert, Connery, Clancy Brown as the Kurgan the film's main villain and Roxanne Hart as Brenda the film's main love interest are solid here and perform very well, there's a very strong story regarding the nature of immortality, some great swordfights and of course, some kick ass songs contributed by the rock band Queen, as I said all of that adds up to a movie that simply worked.

If anything it worked a little too well for it's own good, and from here on there will be spoilers so read on at your own risk, the whole coda of the movie and the entire series is "There can be Only One" meaning that in the end, only one can remain before the Prize is given and that's exactly what happens at the end of the first movie, MacLeod kills the Kurgan and claims the Prize, meaning that there's now only one, doesn't leave a lot of room for a sequel let alone a franchise now does it.

Well, Producers William Panzer and Peter Davis decided to give it a shot, upon receiving pressure from the foreign distribution market they decided to make Highlander II, but unfortunately they failed miserably to make it work despite having a bigger budget, a big name cast with Lambert and Connery reprising their roles plus adding Virginia Madsen and Michael Ironside who were then enjoying some box office success and mainstream recognition plus Russel Mulcahy returning to the director's chair, but why did this film fail where the first film succeeded, especially with those elements listed above.

1. The Necessity of the Film Itself: My own principal reason as to why this film failed was that we didn't need it at all, the first Highlander movie ended things on the right note with there now being only one, why not leave it at that, so many sequels fail time and time again because they only exist because of the box office of the previous film demanding it and that's what happened here, the first film was a hit so the industry demanded a sequel within a certain amount of time, as a result fans don't get the sequel they deserve and the one they get makes some of them think "why did we need this movie at all".

2. The Script: The second reason H2 failed is the lack of a coherent script, because of the way the first film ended, there would have been enormous difficulty going forward on a sequel that could take place afterwards, a prequel could work easily, just show Connor in a different time period before the time of the Gathering, living under a false name like his Russell Nash identity the first film and also remembering what Ramirez taught him and fighting another immortal villain.

Interestingly enough Lambert did a movie called The Sicilian with Michael Cimino, something along those lines might have worked instead of the 25 years later story we got, even though the idea of the Shield protecting the Earth is a good one, mainly because it actually builds on what we learnt in the first film in terms of Connor and the Prize.

On top of that we also get a script that doesn't know what it wants to do with itself, trying to capture the new sci-fi setting as well as the mysticism of the first film when it should have been one or the other.

3. Revealing the Immortals Origin Story: This would be number 1 for most people but since I value a coherent script more, this is number 3 instead, in the first Highlander we knew nothing about how people became Immortal and it made for some interesting intrigue, this time around their origins are revealed as aliens from the planet Zeist, which was enough to make every Highlander fan seeing the film for the first time have a sour taste in their mouth, again a story idea that simply didn't work.

4. The Return of Ramirez: In one of the first film's most dramatic and exciting moments, Ramirez and the Kurgan face off, resulting in Ramirez being carved up 3 ways to Tuesday and losing his head, here through the Quickening, he's magically brought back to life and for no genuine purpose, even though Connery does a nice job and gives the film it's only source of comedy that works.

5. The Use of the Queen Songs: Again an insult to fans of the first film was the use of that films songs by Queen, both A Kind of Magic and Who Wants to Live Forever can be heard on the film's soundtrack and again it serves no purpose but to make you remember the first Highlander movie and how good that was, way to go guys, it's bad enough this sequel was insulting to begin with.

I could go on and I probably have for some people but you know, I'm a big fan of Highlander and I wanted to cover it in this kind of way, as for me the success of Highlander 1 led to the failure of Highlander 2 as all that film was to sum it up was pointless, incoherent and insulting to the fans who enjoyed Highlander 1 and yearned for a sequel despite the fact that we didn't really need one at all, perhaps in the end, There should have Been Only One.

Film Review - Last Action Hero (1993)

Last Action Hero stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jack Slater, a fictional action hero who is idolised by a young boy named Danny Madigan played by Austin O'Brien, but when a magic ticket catapults him into the movie, life gets a whole lot interesting.

I had heard terrible things about this film, and was expecting a bomb, but the combination of director John McTiernan who directed Die Hard and cinematographer Dean Semler who was also the cinematographer on Mad Max 2, both of which I would rank as the finest action movies of all time was too good to resist.

But did such a dream team create a winning result, sadly not, for this reason, and that is the film has no idea what it wants to do with itself, whether it be a silly comedy, a straight up action picture or a satire about Hollywood action movies, it tries to do all three at once when it should have done one or two of those and run with that instead.

If you want this kind of film, go get 2007's Hot Fuzz, it does it FAR FAR better, mainly because Edgar Wright has a firm handle on Action and Comedy, here McTiernan is good at the action but hopeless at comedy, so despite a few good laughs here and there, skip this one, 1 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Hurt Locker (2009)

The Hurt Locker concerns a squad of US Bomb Disposal Soldiers in Iraq who are winding down their tour of duty, but when their CO is killed in a bomb explosion, they get a new one who is a little addicted to his job.

This movie is a tough film to review as it plays on the emotions of the audience watching it; some scenes drip with heart stopping tension which gets to a point where you can't watch the events on screen as you're waiting for the bomb to go off and blow everyone to kingdom come, but while director Kathryn Bigelow does a good job with the material, the material itself borders on predictability as you can't help but think 'they're all gonna die', probably the only other saving grace of this film is Jeremy Renner as the mad CO, his scenes play totally straight and are full of conviction as a man who is totally addicted to what he does and outside of that, is a complete wreck.

But does that save the film as a whole, no it doesn't as the borderline predictability with the characters got on my nerves one too many times, so it only gets a 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Percy Jackson, The Olympians and the Lightning Thief (2010)

Percy Jackson is the latest in a long line of fantasy novels headed for the big screen since the success of the Harry Potter movies and concerns the gods Zeus and Poseidon who are threatening war after Zeus's lightning bolt is stolen, and one demigod may be the key to it all.

Now, it must be said that this is not a terrible film, as there were a couple of sight gags that did make me laugh and there were some okay action sequences that didn't exactly set the world on fire but also weren't too bad either.

But this film fails on two very big points: character and structure, and I'm going to look at both points separately, in the character side of things, none of the heroes or their quest are made important enough to suck you into the plot of the film, as they go about their business in a very workman like fashion and Percy's mother is not on screen long enough to make her interesting or make you care when she's kidnapped.

And in terms of the film's structure, the events on screen move too fast for the audience to take in what they're watching and come to root for the three heroes to succeed and Hades is simply not seen enough to be a presence in the background of the film and be felt when the heroes go about their quest.

But as I said, it's not a terrible film but it's also a film that fails all three of the fundamental principles, it doesn't have a good story, interesting characters or a strong villain so as a result, it only gets a 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Hot Tub Time Machine stars John Cusack as a man who along with his nephew and two best friends go to an old ski resort but they manage to find an old hot tub, which is also a time machine.

Time Travel has always been an interesting genre in film but not the easiest to make work either, some like the first two Terminator movies make it work but most flounder, which is also the case here as for the most part I found this movie to be fowl and obnoxious as well as a little on the predictable side, Cusack is good but the scene stealer is Chevy Chase, looking like he's crawled out of the Jurassic era but is also sadly seen too little, I also was reminded of the first Back to the Future film and in all honesty, you're better off renting that instead as this film suffers from an identity crisis, wanting to be both Back to the Future and last year's The Hangover rolled into one.

1 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Rocky II (1979)

Rocky II is the sequel to the 1976 film Rocky and sees Sylvester Stallone back as Rocky Balboa and also in the director's chair, taking over from John Advilsen who directed the first film, the story here is that Apollo Creed played by Carl Weathers wants a rematch as he becomes convinced that the first fight was little more than a fluke, but the Italian Stallion wants none of it, or does he.

Rocky II starts off slow, spending the first half of the film with him and Adrian and their life together, it is here that the heart of the film if not the entire series is felt; that of someone who is determined to do what's right and go the distance to achieve that goal, even though he tries to find a normal life in order to please others, he also can't deny the one thing that gives his life meaning.

But I can't mention this film and not mention the terrific climax bout, the first film didn't have such a climax, it felt empty as a payoff, here that's rectified as much of the last act is devoted to the boxing match, and wow what a heart stopper, at times you really feel you're a part of the crowd cheering along with them even though you're only watching it, a very cool feeling indeed.

All in all, an entertaining sequel, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Tomorrow when the War Began (2010)

Tomorrow when the War Began is based off a series of novels written by John Marsden, the story here is that a group of young teenagers go off for a weekend camping in a secluded country spot, but when they return they find all their loved ones missing and a maelstrom of decay, where ordinary kids can become battered and smashed.

To be honest, I walked into this movie expecting nothing at all, as having seen the previews for this when watching Iron Man 2 earlier in the year, it reminded me of Mad Max and as long time readers will know, I am a massive fan of the first two movies in that series.

But did my expectations get surpassed or not, well they did but not by anything special as this movie felt very by the numbers, I mean don't get me wrong the young actors are solid and I enjoyed myself but all I thought when I walked out was that it was okay, but nothing special.

But if anything my main objection with this film is this, when I think of Aussie action pictures what comes to mind is the Mad Max series (well the first two movies in that series mainly) and I'm sorry but this movie is nothing but a pale shadow of that great film, at times taking direct inspiration from Mad Max 2, boy I'm REALLY starting to get sick of this, if anything it feels worse here than in Book of Eli or The Road because it's Australian filmmakers getting in on the act, I have said this before but I'll say it again, please make this stop someday.

So all in all, don't have high expectations and you might enjoy yourself, a 2 out of 5.