Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The 1986 cult classic "Highlander" is one of the most fondly remembered films from that glorious decade. While by no means perfect, it features fun performances, a cool story concept, stylish direction, a dose of 80's cheese and a great soundtrack by Queen. It is most definitely a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Even though it tells a single self cotained story, it wound up spawning some truly awful sequels along with a decent television series as well as an animated film in 2007. This film has seen many DVD and bluray releases over the years. The previous Studio Canal bluray release in the UK was a fully loaded special edition that featured copius extras but had picture quality which suffered from noticeable digital noise that robbed it of much of its potential detail. The previous Lionsgate release in the states utilized the same transfer but left off the extensive feature length making of documentary featured on the Studio Canal release. It was announced earlier this year that Studio Canal was performing a 4K restoration of the film for a new bluray release which featured an expanded version of the prior making of documentary (from originally about 90 to now 120 minutes), new interviews with the director Russel Mulcahy and star Christopher Lambert (about 20 minutes each) in addition to the vintage commentary track from the director and prior featurettes. Lionsgate would bring this new 30th anniversary bluray out here in the states. The new transfer from the 4K restoration is truly breathtaking for fans of the film. All of the digital noise that plagued the previous bluray transfer is gone. Detail has been greatly improved along with contrast and black levels, skin tones look much more natural and it is like seeing the film again for the first time. No digital noise reduction appears to have been used so the natural film grain levels are retained for a nice filmic touch. The bit rate is healthy getting into the mid 30's during busy moments. I doubt the film ever looked this great before even in theaters! Audio is well defined and punchy. Feel free to upgrade to this new edition as this is truly the definitive edition of the director's cut of "Highlander". There can be only one.