Star Trek Sequel Amusement

I just laughed when reading this trivia on IMDB concering the next Star Trek movie:-

Sceenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman explained that the dilemma for the sequel was whether to pit the crew against another villain, or to have an "exploration sci-fi plot where the unknown and nature itself is somehow an adversary," like in "Star Trek" (1966)

Nah... you don't want to do anything daft like make it like Star Trek mate!

Guess Who Avoids B&W Films?

Oscar Meme

Films that have been nominated for the Best Film Oscar. How many have you seen?



1920s

1927-1928: Wings; The Racket; Seventh Heaven

1928-1929: The Broadway Melody; Alibi; The Hollywood Revue of 1929; In Old Arizona; The Patriot

1929-1930: All Quiet on the Western Front; The Big House; Disraeli; The Divorcee; The Love Parade

1930s

1930-1931: Cimarron; East Lynne; The Front Page; Skippy; Trader Horn

1931-1932: Grand Hotel; Arrowsmith; Bad Girl; The Champ; Five Star Final; One Hour with You; Shanghai Express; The Smiling Lieutenant

1932-1933 Cavalcade; 42nd Street; A Farewell to Arms; I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang; Lady for a Day; Little Women; The Private Life of Henry VIII; She Done Him Wrong; Smilin' Through; State Fair

1934: It Happened One Night; The Barretts of Wimpole Street; Cleopatra; Flirtation Walk; The Gay Divorcee; Here Comes the Navy; The House of Rothschild; Imitation of Life; One Night of Love; The Thin Man; Viva Villa!; The White Parade

1935: Mutiny on the Bounty; Alice Adams; Broadway Melody of 1936; Captain Blood; David Copperfield; The Informer; The Lives of a Bengal Lancer; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Les Misérables; Naughty Marietta; Ruggles of Red Gap; Top Hat

1936: The Great Ziegfeld; Anthony Adverse; Dodsworth; Libeled Lady; Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; Romeo and Juliet; San Francisco; The Story of Louis Pasteur; A Tale of Two Cities; Three Smart Girls

1937: The Life of Emile Zola; The Awful Truth; Captains Courageous; Dead End; The Good Earth; In Old Chicago; Lost Horizon; One Hundred Men and a Girl; Stage Door; A Star Is Born

1938: You Can't Take It with You; The Adventures of Robin Hood; Alexander's Ragtime Band; Boys Town; The Citadel; Four Daughters; Grand Illusion (La Grande illusion); Jezebel; Pygmalion; Test Pilot

1939: Gone with the Wind; Dark Victory; Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Love Affair; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Ninotchka; Of Mice and Men; Stagecoach; The Wizard of Oz; Wuthering Heights

1940s

1940: Rebecca; All This, and Heaven Too; Foreign Correspondent; The Grapes of Wrath; The Great Dictator; Kitty Foyle; The Letter; The Long Voyage Home; Our Town; The Philadelphia Story

1941: How Green Was My Valley; Blossoms in the Dust; Citizen Kane; Here Comes Mr. Jordan; Hold Back the Dawn; The Little Foxes; The Maltese Falcon; One Foot In Heaven; Sergeant York; Suspicion

1942: Mrs. Miniver; 49th Parallel; King's Row; The Magnificent Ambersons; The Pied Piper; The Pride of the Yankees; Random Harvest; The Talk of the Town; Wake Island; Yankee Doodle Dandy

1943: Casablanca; For Whom the Bell Tolls; Heaven Can Wait; The Human Comedy; In Which We Serve; Madame Curie; The More the Merrier; The Ox-Bow Incident; The Song of Bernadette; Watch on the Rhine

(at this point, sanity prevails and the Academy only accepts five nominations each year)

1944: Going My Way; Double Indemnity; Gaslight; Since You Went Away; Wilson

1945: The Lost Weekend; Anchors Aweigh; The Bells of St. Mary's; Mildred Pierce; Spellbound

1946: The Best Years of Our Lives; Henry V; It's a Wonderful Life; The Razor's Edge; The Yearling

1947: Gentleman's Agreement; The Bishop's Wife; Crossfire; Great Expectations; Miracle on 34th Street

1948: Hamlet; Johnny Belinda; The Red Shoes; The Snake Pit; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

1949: All the King's Men; Battleground; The Heiress; A Letter to Three Wives; Twelve O'Clock High

1950s

1950: All About Eve; Born Yesterday; Father of the Bride; King Solomon's Mines; Sunset Boulevard

1951: An American in Paris; Decision Before Dawn; A Place in the Sun; Quo Vadis; A Streetcar Named Desire

1952: The Greatest Show on Earth; High Noon; Ivanhoe; Moulin Rouge; The Quiet Man

1953: From Here to Eternity; Julius Caesar; The Robe; Roman Holiday; Shane

1954: On the Waterfront; The Caine Mutiny; The Country Girl; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; Three Coins in the Fountain

1955: Marty; Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing; Mister Roberts; Picnic; The Rose Tattoo

1956: Around the World in 80 Days; Friendly Persuasion; Giant; The King and I; The Ten Commandments

1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai; Peyton Place; Sayonara; 12 Angry Men; Witness for the Prosecution

1958: Gigi; Auntie Mame; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; The Defiant Ones; Separate Tables

1959: Ben-Hur; Anatomy of a Murder; The Diary of Anne Frank; The Nun's Story; Room at the Top

1960s

1960: The Apartment; The Alamo; Elmer Gantry; Sons and Lovers; The Sundowners

1961: West Side Story; Fanny; The Guns of Navarone; The Hustler; Judgment at Nuremberg

1962: Lawrence of Arabia; The Longest Day; The Music Man; Mutiny on the Bounty; To Kill a Mockingbird

1963: Tom Jones; America, America; Cleopatra; How the West Was Won; Lilies of the Field

1964: My Fair Lady; Becket; Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; Mary Poppins; Zorba the Greek

1965: The Sound of Music; Darling; Doctor Zhivago; Ship of Fools; A Thousand Clowns

1966: A Man for All Seasons; Alfie; The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming; The Sand Pebbles; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1967: In the Heat of the Night; Bonnie and Clyde; Doctor Dolittle; The Graduate; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

1968: Oliver!; Funny Girl; The Lion in Winter; Rachel, Rachel; Romeo and Juliet

1969: Midnight Cowboy; Anne of the Thousand Days; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Hello, Dolly!; Z

1970s

1970: Patton; Airport; Five Easy Pieces; Love Story; MASH

1971: The French Connection; A Clockwork Orange; Fiddler on the Roof; The Last Picture Show; Nicholas and Alexandra

1972: The Godfather; Cabaret; Deliverance; Sounder; The Emigrants

1973: The Sting; American Graffiti; The Exorcist; A Touch of Class; Cries and Whispers

1974: The Godfather Part II; Chinatown; The Conversation; Lenny; The Towering Inferno

1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; Barry Lyndon; Dog Day Afternoon; Jaws; Nashville

1976: Rocky; All the President's Men; Bound for Glory; Network; Taxi Driver

1977: Annie Hall; The Goodbye Girl; Julia; Star Wars; The Turning Point

1978: The Deer Hunter; Coming Home; Heaven Can Wait; Midnight Express; An Unmarried Woman

1979: Kramer vs. Kramer; Apocalypse Now; All That Jazz; Breaking Away; Norma Rae

1980s (where I was born and thus might have a chance?)

1980: Ordinary People; Coal Miner's Daughter; The Elephant Man; Raging Bull; Tess

1981: Chariots of Fire; Reds; Atlantic City; On Golden Pond; Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982: Gandhi; E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; Missing; Tootsie; The Verdict

1983: Terms of Endearment; The Big Chill; The Dresser; The Right Stuff; Tender Mercies

1984: Amadeus; The Killing Fields; A Passage to India; Places in the Heart; A Soldier's Story

1985: Out of Africa; The Color Purple; Kiss of the Spider Woman; Prizzi's Honor; Witness

1986: Platoon; Children of a Lesser God; Hannah and Her Sisters; The Mission; A Room with a View

1987: The Last Emperor; Broadcast News; Fatal Attraction; Hope and Glory; Moonstruck

1988: Rain Man; The Accidental Tourist; Dangerous Liaisons; Mississippi Burning; Working Girl

1989: Driving Miss Daisy; Born on the Fourth of July; Dead Poets Society; Field of Dreams; My Left Foot

1990s

1990: Dances with Wolves; Awakenings; Ghost; The Godfather Part III; Goodfellas

1991: The Silence of the Lambs; Beauty and the Beast; Bugsy; JFK; The Prince of Tides

1992: Unforgiven; The Crying Game; A Few Good Men; Howards End; Scent of a Woman

1993: Schindler's List; The Fugitive; In the Name of the Father; The Piano; The Remains of the Day

1994: Forrest Gump; Four Weddings and a Funeral; Pulp Fiction; Quiz Show; The Shawshank Redemption

1995: Braveheart; Apollo 13; Babe; Il Postino (The Postman); Sense and Sensibility

1996: The English Patient; Fargo; Jerry Maguire; Secrets & Lies; Shine

1997: Titanic; As Good as It Gets; The Full Monty; Good Will Hunting; L.A. Confidential

1998: Shakespeare in Love; Elizabeth; Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella); Saving Private Ryan; The Thin Red Line

1999: American Beauty; The Cider House Rules; The Green Mile; The Insider; The Sixth Sense

2000s

2000: Gladiator; Chocolat; Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; Erin Brockovich; Traffic

2001: A Beautiful Mind; Gosford Park; In the Bedroom; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; Moulin Rouge

2002: Chicago; Gangs of New York; The Hours; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; The Pianist

2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Lost in Translation; Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World; Mystic River; Seabiscuit

2004: Million Dollar Baby; The Aviator; Finding Neverland; Ray; Sideways

2005: Crash; Brokeback Mountain; Capote; Good Night and Good Luck; Munich

2006: The Departed; Babel; Letters from Iwo Jima; Little Miss Sunshine; The Queen

2007: No Country for Old Men; Atonement; Juno; Michael Clayton; There Will Be Blood

2008: Slumdog Millionaire; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader

Lovecraft on YouTube

Here are some of the best Lovecraft movies on YouTube IMHO... Shadows over Innsmouth - The Musical



The Terrible Old Man - the Cartoon



Shadows over Innsmouth - The Radio Theatre Version



Shadow out of Time



The last two are radio shows I really want from here.

Inalienable

I finally got round to seeing Inalienable on DVD. This is a film written by Walter Koenig and stars a virtual who-is-who of science fiction. The main character is played by Richard Hatch who is most famous Apollo from old Battlestar Galactica. Hatch is a research scientist who is infected by an alien parasite that forces him to give birth to a child.

Now you'd think that the parasite would be evil - mutating Hatch's character or turning into a Godzilla type monster. It actually protects Hatch while it is gestating and after the kid is born Hatch actually bonds with the child when the US government then takes that child away and separates Hatch and the alien-child. It becomes obvious that Hatch and the alien need each other for their physical and emotional well-being.

Hatch's lover starts a massive campaign to free and reunite the 'father' and 'son' which, with the aid of some leaked footage on the internet, culminates in a massive legal battle between Hatch and the US Government. Sadly the entire story is rended moot by a hasty ending that neatly resolves everything in far to neat a manner - which is sad as being a single standalone movie it could end however its author sees fit.

The first third of this film feels like an episode of the Twilight Zone, the second third is definitely ET and the end is a legal drama with a sci-fi twist. It actually works quite well - the lousy ending aside and is thought-provoking, if the morality is perhaps a little too "thump on the head", and a little black and white.

For example - Koenig plays Hatch's hateful boss, who inexplicably is put in charge of separating Hatch and his kid by the US government. Koenig relishes this role as it is in the vein of Bester from Babylon 5. While this relationship is explained in the third act he is portrayed as evil with a capital E. Amusingly Patricia Tallman, Walter Koenig and Marina Sirtis all play various bad guys working for the government. Which struck me as odd as they all played telepaths in their various sci-fi incarnations.

There is little moral ambiguity in the 2nd and 3rd acts - the Feds are evil. In particular the government prosecutor in the trial does not seem to have to rely on any facts, making claims like "There might be hundreds of these parasites out there!" without any evidence. They also cheat - wheeling in last minute evidence on two occasions.

The film is well worth checking out! 7/10.

Lynching Jedi

David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Inland Empire, Mulholland Drive - in short a lot of scary shit) was approached to direct Return of the Jedi by George Lucas. He refused. But if he'd said yes, I bet RotJ wouldn't be regarded as "mediocre" by people who don't know what they're talking about... as this movie proves.

Star Wars Deleted Scenes

Jimminy Cricket - the whole Biggs subplot from Episode 4 pretty much restored. The first scenes are pretty awful but the one with Biggs at the end sure would've paid off later in the movie.

Sweet!

News just in...

Director Peter Jackson, New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc said on Tuesday they have agreed to make two movies based on the book "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien, ending months of legal wrangling.

Jackson, the director of the smash hit "Lord of the Rings" movies, and producer Fran Walsh will executive produce both a "Hobbit" movie and a sequel, but no decision has been made about who will direct the films, Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, co-chairmen and co-CEOs of New Line told Reuters.

I'd say squee but that would be hideously inappropriate.

Dragonlance The Movie Trailer

The trailer for the new Dragonlance movie that's coming out in 2008 is here. If you're not in the know Dragonlance is the Dungeons and Dragons book range answer to the Lord of the Rings. This is the first in what will presumably be 3 animated movies. My impressions are the animation looks akin to the old D&D cartoon, except for the way-too jarringly different CGI for the dragons. But I'll see it - the story is pretty good.

Lucy Lawless (Xena) is playing Goldmoon, a character who largely becomes irrelevant after the first story, while Kiefer Sutherland plays Raistlin, a character who becomes increasingly important in the first books, and the focus of the second trilogy. Michael Rosenbaum is doing Tanis's voice which means, given how he voiced the Flash in JLU, Tanis probably speaks with a strong US accent. Hmmm...

Vengeance Competition

I appear to have won an autographed DVD of Highlander: Vengeance. This is nice as I don't usually win things in competitions, I don't have this film on DVD and it's actually not that bad a movie.

Movie Round-up #2

So I finally got to see Highlander: The Search For Vengeance, a film with a subtitle even worse than Highlander: The Source. This is the story of another Macleod, Colin, and is in a separate continuity to the movies and TV show. So no Duncan, Connor, Methos, Ramirez or whatever. What we do have is Colin Macleod, an immortal who is a bit grumpy because about 2000 years ago his wife was killed by the head of the invading Romans, Marcus Octavius.

Colin has spent the ensuring 2000 years or so chasing Marcus, always getting close but ultimately failing. His quest for vengeance has taken him to Rome, Feudal Japan, Trafalgar, the Battle of Britain, all of which show his disastrous attempts at chasing after his nemesis. In the meantime Marcus has quested for perfection, mastering art, music and craft. He's still evil, but he's a very refined and cultured type of evil, an opposite to the Kurgan. He even questions whether Macleod has wasted his immortality while he has tried to rebuild and move on. Unfortunately this 3rd dimension to his persona is discarded in the final act.

Colin becomes a highlander eventually when he is adopted by the Macleods when he fights at their side. Octavius was working for the English. The ensuing brief flashback in the Highlands is reminiscent of the original film - bad guy is a black knight on horseback, there's a battle, our hero "dies", comes back from beyond the graves and is banished from the clan by a benevolent elder. The only difference is his girl, Debra, does not hate him for resurrecting and wants to come with him. Debra is in fact the reincarnation of his wife Moya from his first death.

When not flashing back we are in the 22nd century where society has collapsed. There are cannibals (much like in the Source but handled a little more convincingly) and people live in giant walled metal cities patrolled with spider robots, ruled over by tyrants. Marcus is one of those tyrants and he rules by over a virus infested New York that cows down to him in fear. Colin gets the chance to side with the resistance (led by a suspiciously familar prostitute who is the reincarnation of his dead wife again), but it may be his desire for vengeance will work against the resistence.

It doesn't all work - there's a spirit following Colin, Amergan, that talks to him through electrical signals and animals. It works as a Ramirez type figure (explaining the concept of immortals etc.) but there's little explanation for Amergan being around. Was he immortal? Is he there to only guide Colin? Is he setup for a sequel? Who knows Highlander? Who knows?

I haven't watched much anime, except Akira and Ghost in the Shell but neither of those really worked for me. However because of the funkiness of this movie I will most assuredly be checking out Ninja Scrolls.

Next time: More Christopher Lambert

An Interesting Find

Trawling through the net I've found a website selling interesting looking Call of Cthulhu movies - Rough Magik, which is an abandoned BBC pilot for a series starring Paul Darrow that sounds like Cthulhu meets Ultraviolet, Out Of Mind (featuring also an adaptation of the story Music of Erich Zann, not the actual music itself which causes insanity and thus not the best choice for a movie soundtrack) and Pickman's Model. They also have Cool Air but I've seen this story adapted already in the movie Necronomicon and it's not one of H.P. Lovecraft's better ones.

Movie Roundup #1

Mirrormask was brilliant. Reminiscent of Labyrinth (angst riddled teen girl who was played by a 21 year old actress I found to my relief) this involves an imaginative heroine who wants to escape her life in the circus and is transported to a bizarre realm where everyone wears masks and there is a mirror opposite to everything. She must rescue her mother, who has slipped into a coma, and return to the real world where her "opposite" has taken possession of her life.

Robert Llewellyn (Kryten from Red Dwarf) and Stephen Fry are in the cast (as is Ben Miller's doppleganger Rob Brydon). Very good fun, if a little too stylistic. I should also say that my test audience is very discerning and they liked it.

Day of Wrath was surprisingly good. It did feel like it had been editted with a sledgehammer (there were references to conversations that I must've blinked and missed etc.) but definitely a murder mystery in the vein of Brotherhood of the Wolf (minus the wolf and the kung-fu). Brian Blessed was in it a lot, though Christopher Lambert looked as haggard as he did in Highlander: Endgame. Given that he is a drunken sheriff locked in an unhappy marriage, not an immortal, he can get away with it.

Too Many Films...

This is my DVD viewing list for the rest of the month.

Mirrormask - This must have had the worst distributor in the world, because it never actually seemed to come out in the mainstream cinemas (or if it did I was in a cave at the time).

This is a Neil Gaiman film, though my only exposure to Gaiman was the TV show Neverwhere (which is brilliant BTW). Supposedly this is a film in the vein of Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal (and is sometimes bundled with them despite being 20 years younger).

Pan's Labyrinth - This film is utterly amazing, and I've managed to order it with 2 other films from the director (the only major release he made that crossed the Atlantic was Hellboy, which was not his best film). This is like Labyrinth, the Dark Crystal and other films of this ilk but is utterly dark as well and shares a few themes with Life on Mars and the Thomas Covenant novels.

The Hobbit - Apparently Peter Jackson's The Hobbit will never happen thanks to him suing New Line Cinemas for not giving him the planet in exchange for the Lord of the Rings films. Greed on both ends there methinks, I doubt PJ is short of change for a pair of shorts, and similarly New Line should treat their star act better.

However Rankin Bass made a surprisingly good 77 minute version of the Hobbit which I finally will have on DVD. There's also a cartoon of Return of the King which isn't quite so good designed to vaguely dove-tail into the ending of the Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings animation.

Day of Wrath - A Christopher Lambert film, which might be good. A 16th century murder mystery with Chris as the Sherriff. Also featuring Brian Blessed this cannot fail to be good.

More Highlander Ramblings

And you thought that my obsessive Highlander posting was over right? Well, wrong, 'cos not only did they bring out a new movie (Highlander the Source) which is supposedly being reedited to be less silly and (hopefully) have an ending but they've been doing an anime for quite some time now.

It's called Highlander: The Search for Vengeance and stars Colin Macleod.

That's right, this is apparently a new continuity with a fourth Highlander. So far there's been Connor Macleod (original and best, now roughly 8 inches shorter in the series continuity), Duncan Macleod (made-for-TV goody-goody heart-throb preferred by older women) and Quentin Macleod (animated cartoon series for kids guy with red hair). Now he have the amazingly named Colin.

Actually one trailer's been out for ages:-



But now there's a much longer and slower non-YouTube trailer that looks okay. Here it is, but be prepared to go for coffee while it streams.

As for me, anime's not really my thing. Watched Akira, thought it was alright but not what I expected, watched Ghost in the Shell, thought it was pretentious though some of the stuff I occassionally peered at while living in Casa Al.

Age, Juju and Fuzz

It's been a while since I posted an update saying how things are going. Mainly because it'd be a long rambly post and because I was waiting for something interesting to happen to blog about.

Things are going good - in fact I was going to reflect how things are much better they are than this time a year ago. Tomorrow's my birthday and in honour of this the university has decided to host a beer festival. (Actually I'm pretty certain they were going to have one anyroads, but allow an old man his senile delusions).

Work has seen its fair share of bad juju - but the juju has been aimed at someone deserving for being a pain in the backside for 2 years. I'll make a long ranty post about it sometime.

I saw Hot Fuzz on Wednesday with some chums - actually quite a lot of chums. It's very, very good - the first half is quite slow but the second half is cinematic brilliance and the idea of Lethal Weapon type cop films being transplanted into southern English villages works on so many levels. I'd say it tops Shaun of the Dead, but that may be the post-cinema afterglow talking.

Anyroads, that is for me to be honest - beer tomorrow, followed by Tapas which will hopefully rival the ones in Glasgow's merchant city.

The Source Reviewed

The postman delivered my Russian DVD of Highlander: The Source today. Oddly it comes without any special features. :) However I was slightly alarmed to open the jewel case and find no DVD - until I realised those whily chaps had put the DVD in a separate envelope inside the DVD case to prevent it getting loose or scratched. Actually a very sensible idea for a postal DVD company.

I'd read some pretty negative reviews of it, and had actually downloaded it before hand but managed to keep my willpower and only peaked at the film before the DVD arrived at my door. Then after digesting the Source and a roast dinner I thought I'd share my thoughts.

Overall the Source is not bad, it's not as good as Endgame as it lacks any attempt at real depth. It's pretty much a no-brainer 90 minute action movie - there's not much sophistication to the plot.

Pretty much the story is that it is the near future. The world is falling apart, or at least Eastern Europe is. Duncan MacLeod is depressed because his latest wife has left him to go seek something mysterious. He is seemingly tracking her through "Eastern Europe" (at least that's what the subtitles said, it's actually Lithuania) when he sees the results of a massive quickening, meets the Immortal who received it, gets his ass handed to him by said immortal and escapes, falling in with Joe Dawson and Methos from the TV show, along with his wife Anna, a cockney stereotype immortal called Reggie and Cardinal Giovanni who are all looking for the Source. They all seem pretty up on where the Source is, and the immortal who is guarding it - the Guardian. They don't seem to waste much time discussing it or explaining how they suddenly know all this stuff that they never mentioned in the TV series before going off on a modern day Lord of the Rings style jaunt.

Suffice it to say by the end only Duncan and Anna are left, and he has to claim the power of the Source to defeat the Guardian. The final fight is very matrixy, but seems okay, if a little anti-climactic.

Overall the acting seems pretty good. With the exception of Joe the rest of the cast are British or European and give a good performance. The only character I felt got short shift was Cardinal Giovanni (pictured) - how exactly he became a catholic cardinal is a mystery - at first he appears serene and wise, if a little arrogant, but before long he's whimpering, selling everyone down the river and claiming he's The One and that God shines on him, and generally being an unhelpful twat that reminds me of a certain someone I know in real life. Not exactly cardinal material, much less the kind of material that survives for thousands of years - if he'd obviously become genuinely unhinged by certain events in the film it'd be nice if they made it clearer.

Anyroads, nice no-brainer film, but no real depth that adds to the source material of Highlander. And some pros-and-cons...


Pros:
- No confusing flashbacks, or flashbacks within a flashback within a flashback. Endgame suffered from that problem.
- Good SFX (although the Source looks a little dodgy).
- Nice orchestral soundtrack
- Lots of Methos being Methos (albeit one who is trying to fill Duncan's shoes for most of the movie until Duncan gets his act together at the end).
- While some of the movie looks a little cheap it actually looks rather spectacular in places - there's a very nice monastery for example.

Cons:

- The Guardian is goofy, like most Highlander villains. He even sings Who Want To Live Forever (admittedly better than the covering band).
- The story doesn't really begin. There's no indication as to how Methos et al. become aware of the Source given in 6 seasons of Highlander the Series it was never mentioned.
- No Scotland. This is supposed to be Highlander.
- No historical flashbacks bar 1 short one.
- No explanation of what the Source is. Given the film is The Source you'd at least have some inkling as to its nature beyond being some sort of powerful force.
- Maybe it's me but 90 minutes is too short for a film. This film needs a decent epilogue.
- Princes of the Universe : The Karaoke Mix. ARGH! And let's not even start on Who Wants To Live Forever.

Another Source

Another trailer for Highlander: The Source - this time in Russian.

Russian Mafia Discs

I've ordered Highlander 5 on DVD from DVDigitall, even though the official US release is September 2007. Apparently 'an early cut' been released in Russia of all places, straight to DVD. I'll probably watch and maybe even sell the Russian one on ebay and buy the proper DVD when it comes out.

Don't worry - I paid paypal so the mafia don't have my credit card details, and it seems the DVD and certainly the website are legit. I'm looking forward to watching this film, though the mutterings I've heard from those who already have the DVD suggest the film is not going to be amazing, unless they have some pretty major reshoots due before September 2007!

Expect a review forthcoming, but for now everything is in the hands of the Russian postal service.

Speak of the Devil...

... and it appears. There's a new Highlander: The Source trailer on the web, which is good as the previous one was a bit amateurish.


1. Good grief! Never, ever ever ever cover a Queen song again. If I was going to update Queen for 2007 I'd still keep Freedie's vocals.
2. This looks even more angsty than Highlander Endgame.
3. The dark future setting doesn't look particularly dark in this trailer.
4. That's Joe driving. Hello Joe!
5. Good dialogue.

Duncan: "What do you want from me?"
Anna: "The impossible."
Stuart: "Typical woman."

There's Nothing Like A Challenge...

...To Bring Out The Best In Man.

Scenes like these remind me why I like Highlander 2 despite some plotholes. I may be the only person on Earth to feel this way, but hey-ho.



Mind you it's still not as good as my all-time favourite part of the series, even if it is a lot more depressing.