Amph It's A Kind Of Magic... Highlander (The Remake Thread)

So, they are remaking Highlander which, generically, I'm okay with.

Of movies out there, this would probably be a decently good shot to be improved in the modern era with a remake (except for lack of being able to capture super-gritty NYC).

I love, love, love the original film and Christopher Lambert, famously, can't see worth a damn so the swordfighting -- as good as it was -- was necessarily limited in his scenes. So given what we've seen in films (Nick Gillard -- I'm looking at you) I think this could be a good thing.

Except... Ryan Reynolds was going to be Connor MacLeod... until today! So, now we'll get a totally new slate -- no director attached, no star attached.

What are everyone's thoughts?



PS - Queen soundtrack or GTHOTB!!!

 

Thank God Ryan Reynolds is out. I like the guy as an actor, but he obliterates characters if not entire franchises wherever he goes.

 

I actually like him quite a bit in the right thing. But this... was not it.

 

I'm pretty optimistic. I'm a big fan of the original, but the sequels are honestly so bad that it would take careful, concentrated effort to be worse. Even if there were somehow no Queen in the soundtrack (Which I'd view as blasphemous and possibly impossible), the bar's crazy low and the premise naturally lends itself to great action sequences.

 

No joke, whenever I'm in my Hong Kong hotel I look across the street at the rooftop of the mall and all of the industrial piping and large fans and think "That'd be an awesome spot for a Highlander fight!"

But, even with the sequels being bad, there are still spots of goodness in all of them and not a small amount of heart, which helps.

I also happened to love the series with Adrian Paul (at least until the last season) and have pics of me outside the "dojo" in Vancouver in Gastown (actually not a dojo)...

 

Why are you in Hongkong, dp? You cruisin' for a piece of ass?

The original is such a wonderfully amazingly awesome film.

 

I did not go down to Hong Kong for a blow job...

(PS - You're sick...)

And yes, it's awesome.

PPS - Great Clancy Brown or GREATEST Clancy Brown?

 

(I'm quoting that line from Connor/"Nash" to that ******* cop in New York...)

*like the reference, but ya gotta star out the whole word.

 

Yes, I know -- so spaketh my followup lines!

 

Touche.

Also, greatest Clancy Brown. He was so damned metal.

 

Wasn't Highlander 3 just a retread of Highlander? Except with Mario van Peebles?

 

Yes, basically a shot for shot remake almost except ended in Newark vs. the Silvercup studios.

But it did have some decent scenes in it...

 

I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY! IT'S BETTER TO BURN OUT THAN TO FADE AWAY!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, LADIES!!!

 

Honestly, not even his best line delivery.

"Hi... I'm Candy."
"Of course you are..."

 

Now, add to this Clancy's Mr. Krabs laugh from SpongeBob SquarePants, and you have it all.

 

Never seen any of the Highlanders, but I find the general concept sufficiently interesting to look forward to a remake.

 

All this part is true.

 

You should at least check out the original film (preferably the Director's Cut which involves Nazi killing!) and, possibly the first three seasons of the TV series with Adrian Paul.

The original movie is also awesome because people still ask me "Was New York City really like that around Times Square?" (having now seen only the Disney-fied version) and I can honestly say "Yep."

 

It shares a lot in common with Gregory Widen's other "urban fantasy" movie, The Prophecy. You know, the one about murdering angels and starring Christopher Walken as a terrifying angel Gabriel. Fantastic concepts, executed nicely on a low-ish budget, subsequently killed off horribly by pestilential sequels.

But, as Ender has so notably quoted, everybody gets awesome lines in Highlander. It's one of the best parts of the film:

"Yeah, uh, you want broads, uh, ****, just ... dial 0, huh?" (Clancy Brown's expression throughout that scene is glorious.)

"Hey, Moran! You seen what it says here? ... What does "in-com-pe-tent" mean? (Snigger, chuckle) Hey, Moran -- what does "baffled" mean?"

"So what you've got Brenda, is a guy who's been creeping around since at least the year 1700 -- pretending to croak every once in a while -- leaving all his goods to kids who've been corpses for years, and then assuming their identities." (Also, remember the stuff computers could do back then? Like match signatures on documents from three centuries ago? )

"Holy ****."
"Yeah, this one came unassembled."

(Nasal voice) "--with warder frahm thuh sprinklers. It awlso left a meyanne's decapitayted bodee lying on the floor next to his own severed head -- a head, which at this time, has no name!" ("I KNOW HIS NAME...")

 

I think we should have a party.

Christ, was that actually Panaka? Damn, I didn't recognise him.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and I'm pretty sure most of the cast from the Scotland scenes showed up again in Braveheart about 10 years later Angus did, he was Hamish's father in Braveheart. Dunno if DOOOGULLLL did, though.