Highlander

Saw Highlander (thanks, Basil!) Well, I was just complaining about pretentious navel-gazing in the last review so it's fitting that this film be one the most bombastic, ridiculous pieces of 80s excess I've seen in a long time. The plot is familiar but here it is again: for no very well explained reason there are immortal people who roam the world battling each other and absorbing the life-force (or something) of their foes. On the arbitrary date of 1986 they must finally battle it out on the rooftops of New York City and determine a winner. In one corner is a floppy-haired Scottish dude who sounds like Peter Lorre and in the other corner is an industrial-goth-y Russian dude who sounds like a werewolf (he's the evil one btw. The black leather is a dead giveaway.)

Most of the film is concerned with mapping out this mythology and with the mechanics of exactly how immortal people could exist in present-day society. All that is very fun and interesting. On top of that is a thick layer of 80s hair-metal, neon lighting, fog machines, cartoon special-effects, pointless lightning storms, and a soundtrack exclusively composed of music by Queen. It's glorious 80s trash all the way, baby! The film is tremendous fun.

I found the fight sequences most interesting. They predate the now-ubiquitous wire-fu and shaky-cam and instead are lumbering, clumsy-looking affairs with giant swords being swung around like axes or baseball bats. Also not to be missed is the roulette-wheel of accents on display! Sean Connery makes an appearance as a Spanish/Egyptian dude with a trade-mark, thick, Scottish accent. The protagonist is supposed to actually be Scottish but is unplaceable (his native tongue is German if imdb is to be trusted. Why didn't they just make his character german??) (Edit: apparently that was on purpose.)Crazy accents everywhere!

The film is really brainless fun. It was precisely what I was looking for. Full of interesting but irrelevant ideas it catches the imagination and dazzles the senses. It does not engage our brains or our hearts so much, but it's not repulsively brain/heart-less either so ok. A fun movie.