Highlander 4: Movie Review

 by D. A. Houdek

Review written Sept. 2000 when the movie was still in the theaters.

Reviews of Highlander 1 and 2 in SF Movies Worth Watching

Yup, one of them gets whacked, and it's not Duncan. This was "Star Trek: Generations"--the hand-off movie to the next generation.

They softened the blow, so to speak, by providing for Connor's immortality through his Quickening in Duncan. It really wasn't all that bad to watch, so if that's what's holding you off from seeing the movie, don't fret too much about it. That part they made work reasonably well.

Now, if you were thinking this movie might be worth waiting for video rental, well, I wouldn't argue with you there. As a big screen movie it was a pretty good TV episode of the series.

It was sort of long and slow at times. Yet it was infinitely better than The Movie We Do Not Name (okay, I'll name it: "Highlander 2 The Abomination"). Panzer and Davis are amazing--four Highlander movies and not even the vaguest shred of internal consistency amongst them. The very beginning of this one is funny in that they adamantly say that the immortals do not have any known origins. Ha! Still living down that Planet Zeist fiasco.

Duncan was still cute, despite having short hair in too much of the movie (and they did a naked butt shot of him!). Connor is looking a bit craggy for an Immortal, but okay. The Scottish accents were, as ever, painful. Nice returns of a couple other original actors in their roles. There was too much exposition as they tried to make things clear to non-Highlander fans (an impossible task they shouldn't have attempted). Methos was still Methos; the Watchers were still dysfunctional. They recaptured some of the first movie's flare with transitions between eras and the dynamic shooting and editing, but only somewhat--no where near the brilliance of the first movie. All in all, worth seeing but not a must-see-in-the-theater movie.

The film's biggest failing is that it's totally forgettable. A month after seeing the film it was hard to remember that we had seen it.

Reviews of Highlander 1 and 2 in SF Movies Worth Watching

Time/Edit comparison of the first Highlander movie

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