An excellent film with an outstanding soundtrack. Ignore the sequels though - as its tagline says: **There can be only one!**

One of the best parts about Highlander is how despite itself, it somehow manages to work. The plot has inconsistencies all over the place, the accents are terrible and the cast seem split on whether to take it all seriously or ham it up. But that is part of its charm in many ways. The filmmakers wisely keep much of core mythology vague, doling out key elements that develop the central character, whilst ensuring the larger backstory remains mysterious. Its a lesson the sequels failed to heed. It’s also clear the filmmakers expected no future franchise with the film providing a satisfying closure for the characters and the themes explored. Indeed this focus on the central character is what makes the film work so well, with the location and historical setting lending the film an epic quality that would otherwise be absent and the core idea that immortality is as much a curse as a gift brought to the fore. For all his difficulties with the accent, Lambert takes the character seriously and whilst he endlessly broods in the present, its the exploration of his past that works to make the audience care and relate to his isolation. Both Sean Connery and Clancy Brown ensure the audience doesn’t take it all too seriously and provide some much needed humour and fun. It helps that the film also has a killer soundtrack from Queen.

This is so bad. And to think I was actually looking forward to seeing it based on the cult status it has achieved. Christopher Lambert is terrible. Couldn't they cast someone better in the lead role? Sean Connery is absolutely awful as an older immortal who trains Lambert's Highlander. This features some of the worst effects I've seen for a mid-1980s action movie. The relationships of the characters are flimsy and hastily established, yet the director asks us to care about them. It's not possible because they are unattractive and uninteresting. Also, why would Connery's character train Lambert if he would eventually need to cut Lambert's head off? It makes absolutely no sense. And speaking of sword, play the sword fights here are some of the poorest I've seen. And it's not just because I'm sick of the glut of Fantasy films we've been forced to suffer through in recent years (thanks "Lord of the Rings"!). The conclusion of "Highlander" is another cornball happier-than-happy ending with some horse hockey about Lambert's hero knowing the thoughts of all men and being able to father little immortals and some such crap. The only thing I liked about this movie was a couple of the Queen songs on the soundtrack.

It's a magic movie of its time. It's a time when movies were entertaining and not over bloated with nonsense. I watched it when I was 15 and now I'm 50 and I still love it. I can't say that about everything from my youth. The film introduced me to so many things, especially music. You can tell Russell made music videos first as the soundtrack is as much a part of the films as the actors. The sequels are horrible and I'd imagine the remake will be too. There can be only one.. and this is it!

Overall a great film. The editing is fairly bad though. Some of the scene changes are so jarring it's hard to watch. However, the back story is interesting and exciting. There is the right level of detail to explain things without explaining anything, which is as it should be. The details are really just trivia and aren't necessary. I have to say, the use of Queen for the soundtrack was fantastic. A quintessential 80s film.