so every year since 2010 i've challenged myself to watch 50 new-to-me movies in a year. i've never achieved it; the closest i ever came was 2012, in which i watched 38 movies. (some more math i did the other night: i average 27 movies a year. least movies watched was 10, in 2014. my overall total -- since 2010, anyway, when i started keeping track -- is 221.)
anyway, i'm not going to make it for this year -- i've watched 35 movies, and i do not have the time (or, frankly, the mental energy) to watch 15 movies in the next 3 days. but it'd be nice to hit 40, since i've rewatched 10 movies this year, so that at least would get me to 50 overall. (i, uh, might end up on a rewatch binge though. the first few fast and furious movies are on hbo, and you know i can't resist that siren call. i don't count rewatches in my count for each year though unless i haven't seen it since before 2010, in which case i barely remember it anyway.)
ANYWAY. tonight i watched highlander, a film i have been meaning to watch for months and months, given, you know, i have been writing (pseudo) highlander fic for the past year. and. boy oh boy do i have some thoughts about this movie. boy oh boy.
below the cut: tl;dr about a 30-year-old movie
FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: HOLY SHIT, CONNOR WAS SUCH A CREEP
like
there's no two ways about it
kurgan might be the villain but WHAT EVEN WAS CONNOR'S DEAL
he spends the whole movie basically being a weird guy who says as little as possible and glaring at the camera and/or anyone in his general direction
like no wonder everyone suspected him, HE ACTS GODDAMN SUSPICIOUS
but to that point, the whole storyline with brenda investigating him is completely lackluster and pointless because we already know he's immortal
it would be one thing if that fact had been hidden from the viewer but spanish sean connery is right there spelling out every single detail
there is no dramatic tension whatsoever to that storyline
and before i get too far away from it......... what was sean connery's accent. what even was that.
the outfit and the eyeliner were great but....... that accent.
all the on-location stuff in scotland was really lovely though. it's a shame there was so little of it in the tv show. you'd think they could find the budget for it given, you know. it's a show called highlander. (though the show worked fine without it.)
anyway back to the movie...
kurgan was REALLY over the top but tbh i didn't really mind that, it kinda added to how villainous he was
it was just that connor was such a douche that i couldn't care about him at all LMAO
ALSO
WHAT EVEN WAS THE SEX SCENE
WHY
HOW
WHAT????
that was up there with that part in twilight where bella declares she knows edward's a vampire and that is not a comparison i make lightly
SERIOUSLY, HOW THE FUCK DID THEY GO FROM "I KNOW YOU'VE BEEN TAKING THE NAMES OF DEAD BABIES" "YEAH LOL I'M IMMORTAL ISN'T IT COOL HERE STAB ME" to FUCKING
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
oh wait
i know
it was to give him a reason to go after the kurgan
because you know it's not like he didn't have ample reason already
they absolutely needed to kidnap brenda. yep.
and then the prize was........... mind reading and babies.
highlander i can't even with you. i can't even.
but damn the queen music was good.
so yeah, i didn't find it to be a stunning example of modern cinema. the premise is fantastic, and i do love it, but the execution is sloppy. i'm glad there was a tv show, because it's a premise that just begs to be examined in depth (which the tv show did) -- a film just isn't enough time to get into it, especially not the first one like this. so i can forgive it a bit for that, but: seriously, there's some really weak stuff.
that said: this film has 70% on rotten tomatoes. highlander 2 has 0%. i can't fucking imagine what that film is like to watch. thank god it wasn't on hbo when i sat down to watch highlander, or i might have put myself through it.