Well, I am certainly surprised. After hearing about so many false starts, treatments and contracts, I guess I tuned the news of this actually being made out. It once again stars Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod and was directed by Brett Leonard. A weird rough trailer has popped up on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EzByZleUro

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299981/

Well I'll be a...

Looks like I'll have to make a call to my Lionsgate contact/s and see what I can dig up. No one ever confirmed anything about this.

Said weird, rough trailer looks like an opening credits sequence to me. Most odd.

I've heard about this film for months from a friend of mine who is such a dedicated fan that he has replica swords. I'm not sure of his, uh, source, but I understand that Lion's Gate hopes to reboot this franchise and start a new trilogy.

For a reboot, this film sure looks like a straight-to-video CROW sequel, but that makes an ambitious leap for this franchise.

As it stands, I find the orignal to be an overrated "classic," the sequel to be deliciously awful trash, the third film to be mundane, awful trash and the fourth film to be a very nice slice of ripe, tasty, ambitious cheese.

For a concept so limited, this franchise really does have the freedom to go just about anywhere.

So, who knows, Highlander? Who knows?


EDIT: Weirdly, I just noticed that the second half of this that I'd typed out had not posted. So, the extension is actually just the entire original post pasted in.

I always thought Methos was more inherently interesting than Duncan MacLeod, but they are locked in with the whole highlander thing. Peter Wingfield is probably getting too old to play an ageless immortal anyway, though Adrian Paul must be getting a little long in the tooth too.

Indeed, Adrian Paul is three years older than Peter Wingfield, according to IMDb. They could always get Thomas Jane to step in as a younger version of Christopher Lambert. ;)

Well, it seems that this mysterious HIGHLANDER sequel is currently available as a Region 0 PAL Russian dvd from xploitedcinema.

http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/highland...ce-p-11258.html


Unfortunately, the news is not good. I also have a couple of reviews that may give you pause before reaching for your immortal credit cards. I'm reading that it's almost as bad if not worse than HIGHLANDER 2. Like, wow. Of course, I enjoy HIGHLANDER 2 as a guilty pleasure, but I have a sneaking suspicion that HIGHLANDER 5's badness may not be quite so pleasurable.

Reviews:

http://www.beyondhollywood.com/highlander-...7-movie-review/

...and...

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=27260

Let's be honest, guys--has there ever been a good HIGHLANDER anything?

I've taken the plunge and checked it out.

This movie is, um, something else.

It gets off to a good start, provided you're down with seeing HIGHLANDER reimagined as a mash-up of THE CROW, UNDERWORLD and THE MATRIX. There's some dodginess involving incoherent flashbacks and an opening sequence where the movie flashes all over Gotham City as well as the rest of the wide world. Sure, it's incomprehensible, but the nice momentum and a hollow sense of epic scope at least give the impression that this movie is going to go somewhere.

And then after the first 20 minutes of false slickness, semi-fun CG enhanced battles and a conversation with a futuristic Vatican which manages to be gayer than the Vatican in STIGMATA...

...the movie drops dead and plops right in front of you like a piece of excrement in a puddle. It's not a pretty sight.

After the initial bombing around on some rather cool post apocalyptic sets, HIGHLANDER: THE SOURCE seems to run out of money and ideas so it just sits up on the screen for the next 40 minutes sort of gurgling at you.

Duncan is obsessed over another lost love (no sign of Faith from the previous film), but this crucial relationship is only ever conveyed in epileptic flashbacks inspired by the original CROW. Duncan, Methos and Joe Dawson obviously mean a lot to one another, but you would never know why or even what Joe Dawson's function as a Watcher means in this movie. Yeah, I know that similar things were said about ENDGAME, but THE SOURCE is almost belligerent in its lack of context or information or common sense.

It's a failure as a sequel and it's a failure as a reboot. After the first half hour, it fails to even qualify as a guilty pleasure.

Until the climax that is.

Ho boy! If you never thought that a HIGHLANDER movie could sink lower than the second film, you haven't seen anything yet.

Can your heart prepare you for the sight of Adrian Paul floating on wires like Tinker Bell or a heroine who spends the entire climax stuck in a digital twirl for no good reason?

This movie is delicious garbage. It's far more atrocious than the last Uwe Boll movie.


EDIT: I was actually acting as a way station, ordering this dvd online for a friend who is a true HIGHLANDER fanatic.

Amusingly, he gave me a call this morning and explained the ending to me and to his credit, I can at least appreciate what the intended story actually was. That doesn't change the fact that the visuals and execution of the climax look absolutely ridiculous, but it's fascinating to know that fans might actually take something positive away from this movie.

I can't wait until this thing hits the SciFi channel. Maybe they'll do an all day marathon with the other HIGHLANDER flicks, though it might be excrutiating torture to watch this and HIGHLANDER 2 in one sitting.

I've been hearing good things about HIGHLANDER - THE SEARCH FOR VENGEANCE. It's an anime sequel to HIGHLANDER. From what I've read it may be the best HIGHLANDER movie since...HIGHLANDER. Everyone has apparently (with good reason?) forgotten about the animated Highlander series, which looks like it lasted at least a couple of seasons ('94-'96). As far as I know all the movies (animated/non-animated) and tv series (animated/non-animated) are considered canon. After all, it stopped making sense with HIGHLANDER 2, so let'r rip.

"To Zeist!"

So I copied this when it debuted on the Sci-Fi Channel, but didn't get around until watching it last night.

OH...

MY...

GOD!

To steal a line from Marty's D-WAR thread, you'll laugh, you'll cry...nah, you'll just laugh. This is absolutely one of the worst films I have seen this year. But, even more astounding, this manages to top HIGHLANDER II both in terms of confusion (the opening narration is priceless) and ridiculousness (the main villain The Guardian makes Clancy Brown and Michael Ironside look subtle; he even sings, "Who wants to live forevvvvver" at one point). Yes, it is denser and dumber than THE QUICKENING!

Director Brett Leonard has previously made films that actually resemble films so it was a surprise to see this from him. It unfolds like a video game flick shot in Romania and edited by a speed junkie. Seriously, the fights with The Guardian (who is faster than the speed of light) are so delirious that they would make HK filmmakers shake their heads and plead, "Slow down!"

I don't know when this is hitting video, but it is a must for all bad movie fans.

I haven't seen the version which has been airing on The Sci-Fi Channel, but I understand that it differs from the Russian dvd that I watched. So, if you want the full, uncensored HIGHLANDER: THE SOURCE experience (or even the simple convenience of a home video release), you're going to have to click over to xploitedcinema for the that.

Region 0 Russian dvd:

http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/highland...ce-p-11258.html

And then there's this Region 2 disc in a metal slipcase, but there's no indication of which cut it is:

http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/highland...se-p-12608.html

Since the Russian release, the film has apparently been "tightened" in an attempt to "save" it, but while that's understandable, it's still folly. The only way to save it would be to almost completely reshoot it, redub it and thoroughly change the story. Even then, Adrian Paul would probably still look tired and bored by the whole thing.

Among the cuts I know of, the original encounter between Duncan and The Guardian involved Duncan asking what the love-of-his-life du jour has to do with The Source. Instead of answering outright, The Guardian goes off on some kind of divided tirade where he mocks, "Everything! Nothing! Everything! Nothing! Everything!" in two different tones of voice.

In the new cut, he apparently just says, "Everything!"

There are apparently little nips and tucks all throughout, but the biggest changes were done to the climax or so I've been told.

As my friend, a huge HIGHLANDER fanatic puts it, "There is no Tinker Bell flying."

Now, that's a pity. You've truly not lived until you see Adrian Paul foppishly flying on wires as though he were starring in a dinner theater production of "Peter Pan." You may not believe that a washed up b-movie actor can fly, but you will believe in fairies.

I realize that HIGHLANDER should have never had a sequel in the first place, but why is it seemingly impossible to find filmmakers with talent, intelligence or taste to tackle one of these films?

HIGHLANDER: THE SOURCE is so aggressively awful that it reeks of contempt for the audience. I wonder.

In fact, the first I ever saw of it was part of some documentary included with one of the many series box-sets that my friend purchased. In it, the franchise's two producers (one of whom is now deceased) lay on the fan love rather thick before running a shameless reel which butters up the fans with the "legacy" of this franchise over the years before momentously segueing into an early trailer for what it pompously announces as HIGHLANDER V.

Even my friend, a true die-hard fan was skeptical.

One wonders what that poor room of HIGHLANDER geeks thought.

Please, please, please let there be no more "sequels."

Besides, isn't this thing ripe for a remake right about now?

I believe it is a unwritten law that all HIGHLANDER films must exist in at least 4 different cuts. Thankfully, this one killed the (insane) desire I once had to see them all.

I decided to throw a clip up on YouTube to show you guys how bad this flick is. Look at the editing in this fight scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks3HO5pk0AA

Ugh. I'll give you guys ONE guess why I can't stand this series.


marc mccloud

So, that's what the "tightened" version looks like, eh? Good grief.

That fight is far shorter and a lot less "fun" than in the Russian cut.

A few changes (do we require *SPOILER* warnings at this point?):

--Just before The Guardian tells Duncan to "pick up the pace," he pogos around on his sword threatening to "skewer" our hero.

--At one point, Duncan kicks The Guardian sending him flying back (almost as though he were on wires).

--The Guardian whips his sword around in the sand and conjurs a CG sand twister which he pushes towards Duncan. Duncan, ever the hero, catches the CG sand twister and flings it back towards The Guardian. Determined not to go out like that, The Guardian then catches the CG twister (are you following this?) and tosses it back at MacLeod. Mercifully, Duncan actually thinks to disperse the silly looking thing at this point.

This is one point on which I can certainly understand the need to "tighten" it, but it's certainly funny in its original form. One imagines Leonard and the editors trying to figure out just how many instances of catching and tossing a CG dust cloud qualified as exciting.


--Duncan then advances on The Guardian with his blades twirling on his palms like propellers. You would almost think that he's wearing prop blades strapped to his hand with a tacky motorized effect.


--Just before Duncan starts to twirl The Guardian, thus screwing him into the sand like a Looney Tunes character (and it really does look like something from the Looney Tunes), the heroine starts to twirl up on that rock. I guess this has something to do with her being assimilated by The Source, but seriously. There's no conceivable reason why she breaks into a CG twirl other than the fact that Brett Leonard must suffer from some kind of twirling fetish. Picture the menu from STIGMATA sped up with a tackier digital look and you get the idea.

In fact, Leonard even gives us a wide shot in which the heroine is twirling over to the left of the screen while Duncan is twirling The Guardian into the ground.

In the Sci-Fi Channel version, you'll notice that she's standing her ground rather than, uh, spinning around. It's a rare instance of good sense winning out in HIGHLANDER: THE SOURCE.



--The final montage as The Guardian tempts Duncan is completely different. After reprising the death of a major character, Leonard decides to try something "artsy" and has Duncan and The Guardian facing off on some other level of reality by placing each of the actors in front of a green screen and matting in a cheap-looking "stargate" effect behind them. I assume that this is meant to look trippy or something.

There's a bit of combat going on, I guess, which explains why The Guardian is literally voguing at the camera with his swords. I'm not making that up. You get the idea that he's supposed to be attacking Duncan, but he is seriously just posing for the camera like a rock star in a music video while waving his swords back and forth.

So, yeah. The Russian cut is definitely the way to go here

HIGHLANDER 5 in 5 minutes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWkPBt_qgu8