Movie 2 - Highlander

"There can only be One"

Or so I've been told after watching Highlander.  

My first thoughts:

• So much hair
• lol at the suspense filled car park
• freaked out cops are freaked out
• why is Sean Connery an Egyptian Spaniard with a Scottish accent?
• so much blue special effects

I have to say I enjoyed Highlander quite a bit.  

That the music was done by Queen added to the enjoyment of the movie, it was well timed and worked with the scenes as well as just being awesome.

Kurgen - super cool villain, love the overall terribleness of him, the hair, the scars and the totally irreverent behaviour.  He makes for a very good bad guy. 

On the subject of irreverent, I was slightly surprised at how not PC this movie is; I shouldn't be because it was filmed well before the day of political correctness, it made me think a bit about how film and tv writing has changed over time to keep up with general language and behaviours.  It was only today I was looking at a new printing of Enid Blytons Faraway Tree books and noticing that Fanny is no longer the name of the little girl, more PC changes which I think in some cases (like a name) is a little extreme but overall perhaps worth while to encourage that people show courtesy and respect to one another in general.  

Anyway, back to my movie reviewing.  The effects were very entertaining to watch now that CGI is de rigueur, lots of blue out lines and lightning bolts.  The movie oes feel somewhat dated, the fashion, hair and effects but the story doesn't really hurt for being shown old school.  

The flashing back and forth was somewhat strange to begin with although eventually made sense as the story progressed.  

I found the ending kind of anti climactic after the big lead up.  I guess that's why someone though making more would be a good idea although I've been told to skip stright to number 3 to save the pain of watching number 2 at all.  But once there is only one where do you really go?

I'm going to give this a 7/10.  I liked the storyline, the movie was good, the costumes were a bit naff in the "current" day sections (that jacket?) The fight scenes were kind of cool but seemed somewhat overly scripted and occasionally stilted.  Some excellent one liners and qutable sections though.

"Hi I'm Candy"

      "Of course you are"

Movie 1 - The Running Man

Who loves you and who do you love?

Movie number one down.  The Running Man (1987).  

This one was fun, interesting and I can see some of the story lines for more recent dystopian media mind control societies.  

Ben Richards the hero is painted as a bad guy and made to fight gladiator style for his and the lives of his friends whilst trying to take down the ICS media mogul and save the people in general.

I can't say that the movie has stood the test of time as it were, I can see how dated it is in some ways, the computers, the spandex, the hair and fashions.  However; the story itself is somewhat timeless (as seen by the recent rush of similar movies / stories) and the Arnie one liners are still just as good. .

Arnold Schwarzenegger does the one liners well, some which stand out:

"Killien, I'll be back" - Now where have I heard that before?

"What happened to Buzzsaw?" 

"He had to split" 

The comment about Subzero being a plain zero and Fireball arriving in the game zone, "jesus christ", "Guess again".  

Yeah you can tell that they made the lines nice and easy for him to work on.  Katniss Everdeen on 300 pounds of steroids.

I really enjoyed the 80's revival in this movie, the music worked well with the scenes and it was a good watch from start to finish.  The cheesy lines added to the overall effect and I kind of expect them in an Arnie movie.  I noticed like lots of his films other than him and maybe one other person that was in the movie no one else seems to have made more movies, not big ones I've seen at any rate. 

I'm not sure how I'm going to rate them, I might need to come back and rejig the ratings as I watch more of the movies on the list but for number one I'm going to give this a 7/10.  Worth watching and a good start for my cult classics catch up.