I'm not expecting a George Lucas styled intervention just fix what they didn't have time to fix in that one scene. Originally a production by Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, a company imploding during the mid-80s and sold to Alan Bond, who then sold it to The Cannon Group. And we’ve got lots more disc reviews coming over the weekend and early next week, so be sure to check back for them.

The set will include The Mummy (1932), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Phantom of the Opera (1943), and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). It endures because it has a charm, a child-like innocence to its mythical tale of ‘goodies and baddies’ and a super-stylish aesthetic matched to one of the all-time great rock opera soundtracks. And this extends to the highlights themselves that are now much more identifiable across – the close-ups of Lambert’s face as he’s quizzed in the police station shows his face to be a wonderful melange of lighter areas and darker textures, whereas previous versions were more a solid slab of colour.The Immortal Attraction of Highlander is that hour-long doc and has a treasure trove of facts of and opinions on the film, in particular Clancy Brown shows up energetic and self-effacing when talking about his work, adding to the sheer joy that this genre classic has clearly brought out of people since its theatrical release. Even selecting English from the startup still gives you French audio unless you go into 'versions' and select the English soundtrack. In keeping with its theme of never dying it also gave the world the tag line “There can be only one”, and an immortal soundtrack by the legendary band Queen. While that can mostly be attributed to the low budget of the film and the fact that the film doesn’t have the kind of full-throated action soundtrack we’re used to nowadays, we get two decent audio presentations to choose from here.

That being said, this presentation reveals incredible depth of detail in those grainier shots, maybe even too much since it sometimes reveals the budgetary limitations in terms of physical special effects and makeup effects. There will never be another Highlander, as even its poor raft of sequels showed… there will only ever be one.

The release includes some pretty epic packaging with some incredibly 1980s artwork, Connor MacLeod in all of his iterations, and some intense lightning strikes. It stars French actor Christopher Lambert (who reminds me of Ghostbusters II Wilhelm Von Homburg – Vigo) as Scottish clansman Connor MacLeod and Sean Connery as Spanish/Egyptian Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez, complete with his Scottish accent. Neil is a regular and knowledgeable contributor to film music discussion, and here he gives a great insight into why Queen were so well placed to do the soundtrack, along with Michael Kamen. Highlander has every reason not to work and you’ll probably spend most of the time wondering why it doesn’t, but this lightning-in-a-bottle actioner continues to charm with its madness. The solo Clancy Brown interview titled There Can Only Be One Kurgan is especially fun, with Brown talking about how hard the makeup and effects team had to work to cover the massive canvas that is his body.

A certified ‘80s cult classic, the film was directed by Russell Mulcahy ( Swimming Upstream, The Real McCoy) and stars Christopher Lambert ( Mortal Combat, Fortress), Sean Connery ( James Bond), Clancy Brown ( The Shawshank Redemption, Starship Troopers) and Roxanne Hart. The Immortal Attraction of Highlander’ is an interesting retrospective of the film and manages to assemble many of the most important people, both from in front of the camera and behind. It’s also believed that the titles in the studio’s Volume 1 set— Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Wolf Man (1941), and The Invisible Man (1932)—will finally be released as single-film SKUs, for sure in the UK and possibly in the US as well.All are great value, especially the new look back, which has interviews with all key cast and crew and offers up plenty of wonderful on-set anecdotes and obvious love for the film and the experience of making it. A mysterious, towering warrior named Kurgan (Clancy Brown) tries to kill Connor in a war with the McLeod Clan, yet fails and Connor recovers from his wounds miraculously, forcing his family to extricate him on charges of witchcraft. The rest of the cast are strong too; Roxanne Hart in particular has a touch of Sarah Connor about her character, even if ultimately she remains the archetype damsel in distress. Presenting the film in stunning 4K, the release presents fans with a chance to see Highlander looking better than ever.

IIRC StudionCanal (or Canal+ Image as they were known then) had nothing to do with wire removal around 2000 and that was just some lo-fi DVD releases in the USA.

Multiple new bonus features have been produced for this release, plus it comes in StudioCanal’s hardbox packaging with a ton of physical goodies inside.