Highlander: Endgame

[KLAXXON]

The sword-wielding immortals are back--Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) from HIGHLANDER and Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul) from television's HIGHLANDER series. In HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME, the two MacLeods do battle across time and space (from 15th century Scotland to present-day New York). Their foe is the evil, ultra-powerful Jacob Kell (Bruce Payne). Kell's immortal purpose is to make Connor's immortal life miserable--Kell was responsible for the death of Connor's mother and his wife, Heather. Kell is assisted by Kate (Lisa Barbuscia)--she seeks revenge on Duncan for giving her no choice about becoming an immortal.




Nobody thought highly of old Hong Kong swordsman movies or Italian Hercules flicks when they were filling out double-bills in the '60s and '70s, and likewise, the Highlander series--which includes now five films and three TV series--gets no respect. A generation down the road, they might be appreciated as the epic, pulpy nonsense they are.

In fact, Highlander: Endgame might not seem so silly if it did share a ticket with a Godzilla movie or some such thing; standing on its own, it's more than a little gassy. Still, it's not half bad: the Immortal scenario is referenced in a haphazard hailstorm of flashbacks (time, to one of these centuries-old warriors, being of little concern), and the subtextual angst of the tale is everywhere.

You wonder what it is exactly that the filmmakers and the series' cult of fans obsess over--it can't be the clumsy fighting scenes. Rather, it's the emotional traumas of immortality: watching your children grow old and die, forgetting loves and family centuries ago, being tortured by the neverending-ness of it all.


In the new film's sharpest point, mango-lipped Lisa Barbuscia plays an Immortal still lost in hatred for her three-hundred-year-old husband Duncan (Adrian Paul), since he lovingly stuck a knife in her heart on their wedding night, thus setting her deathlessness in motion. Beneath the hooey, there's a little poetry.

Of course, there's the hare-brained mythology about The Game, with its Rules and Prize, with which director Douglas Aarniokoski's movie assumes we are thoroughly conversant. There's also a lot of mano a mano to wade through; you'd think Immortal beings would have better things to do than clink swords and perform wrestling moves on one another.

As for the plot, it's about a really bad Immortal (Bruce Payne, whose face must've driven his own mother to worry about the forces of evil) who's out to settle a grudge against Christopher Lambert's Connor and his buddy, Paul's Duncan. But Endgame isn't the shoulda-been-straight-to-tape debacle you'd assume; it's fast, short, restlessly plotted and, at times, pure bananas. Which is why we love B-movies, if sometimes a few decades too late.
 





Christopher Lambert ...  Connor MacLeod
Adrian Paul ...  Duncan MacLeod
Bruce Payne ...  Jacob Kell
Mihnea Trusca ...  Villager
Lisa Barbuscia ...  Kate MacLeod / Faith
Donnie Yen ...  Jin Ke
Ian Paul Cassidy ...  Cracker Bob
Peter Wingfield ...  Methos
Damon Dash ...  Carlos
Beatie Edney ...  Heather MacLeod
Douglas Aarniokoski ...  Kirk
Jim Byrnes ...  Joe Dawson
Adam Copeland ...  Road bandit (as Edge)
Sheila Gish ...  Rachel Ellenstein




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