Lambert, Christopher

Highlander

This 1986 fantasy/action thriller has since spawned two sequels, a popular syndicated TV series, numerous comic-book spinoffs, and a loyal (if somewhat oddly obsessive) following of fans. Directed by music video veteran Russell Mulcahy (which explains the dizzying camera work), the original theatrical release made hash of an intriguing story about an "Immortal" from 16th-century Scotland (Christopher Lambert) who time-leaps to modern-day America with his archenemy (Clancy Brown) in hot pursuit. It becomes a battle to the death (yes, Immortals can die), and Lambert seeks survival training from an Immortal mentor played by Sean Connery. Dazzling, energetic, and altogether confusing in its original form, the film has since been released on video, laserdisc, and DVD in this revised widescreen "director's cut," with additional footage, director and producers' commentary, a photo and artwork archive, the original trailer, and an official time line of the film's evolution from script to screen. A must for Highlander fans ... and you know who you are! --Jeff Shannon

Highlander - The Final Dimension (Special Director's Cut)

Despite a typically haphazard plot, Highlander: Endgame is a marked improvement over previous sequels. This is the "torch-passing" chapter, in which the Immortal Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) passes his life force to his heroic brother, Duncan (Adrian Paul, star of the 1993-96 Highlander TV series). These appealing stars make a fine onscreen duo, and Paul is a terrific choice to keep the franchise alive--strikingly handsome but possessing enough gravitas to make the prospect of future sequels unexpectedly promising. The movie is incoherent to the uninitiated, but established fans will be reasonably impressed by Endgame's cagey mix of romance, swordplay, and history-spanning action. While the movie's chaotic construction is regrettable, the frequent battles (including dazzling work by Honk Kong action star Donnie Yen) are adequately impressive, and Douglas Milsome--cinematographer of Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket--ensures that every scene is strikingly photographed. All in all, Highlander: Endgame is surprisingly worthwhile. --Jeff Shannon

The last incredible chapter of the thrilling action-adventure series, HIGHLANDER: THE FINAL DIMENSION finds the immortal Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert -- HIGHLANDER 1&2, FORTRESS) destined for a decisive battle with his ruthless eternal enemy, Kane (Mario Van Peebles -- GUNMEN, POSSE, NEW JACK CITY). Pursued across time by his arch rival, MacLeod must make a heroic last stand if he is to rid the earth of the seemingly unstoppable Kane! Packed with intense action and astonishing special effects -- the Highlander's greatest challenge will become your ultimate adventure!

Highlander - Endgame

Despite a typically haphazard plot, Highlander: Endgame is a marked improvement over previous sequels. This is the "torch-passing" chapter, in which the Immortal Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) passes his life force to his heroic brother, Duncan (Adrian Paul, star of the 1993-96 Highlander TV series). These appealing stars make a fine onscreen duo, and Paul is a terrific choice to keep the franchise alive--strikingly handsome but possessing enough gravitas to make the prospect of future sequels unexpectedly promising. The movie is incoherent to the uninitiated, but established fans will be reasonably impressed by Endgame's cagey mix of romance, swordplay, and history-spanning action. While the movie's chaotic construction is regrettable, the frequent battles (including dazzling work by Honk Kong action star Donnie Yen) are adequately impressive, and Douglas Milsome--cinematographer of Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket--ensures that every scene is strikingly photographed. All in all, Highlander: Endgame is surprisingly worthwhile. --Jeff Shannon

Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan

One of those legendary missed opportunities, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes is a movie that should have been great but wound up the victim of conflicting egos and wrong-headed choices. Based on a screenplay by Robert Towne (who took his name off it when he wasn't allowed to direct) and directed by Hugh Hudson (riding high on the basis of Chariots of Fire), the film tried to rethink the Tarzan legend of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and boy, did it have to: By casting French-accented Christopher Lambert as Tarzan, the filmmakers had to transform his white-hunter mentor Ian Holm into a Frenchman to explain those inflections in Tarzan's monosyllabic speech. The film has some amazing jungle footage and a truly touching relationship between Tarzan and the apes--but it gets pretty silly when Tarzan gets to London and hooks up with Sir Ralph Richardson, as his grandfather. --Marshall Fine

An infant raised to manhood among savage apes, living by his wits and the law of the jungle, returns to society to claim his inheritance of humanity and privilege. This collision of "wild" and "civilized" worlds is the extraordinary saga of Tarzan, chronicled in Edgar Rice Burroughs' popular book series. Starring: Christopher Lambert, Andie MacDowell, Ian Holm

Highlander 2 - Renegade Version (The Director's Cut)

Theatrically released in 1991 as Highlander II: The Quickening, this sequel was later reedited and gained a small but loyal following (prompting a spinoff TV series), but at the time of its release critic Roger Ebert called it "the most hilariously incomprehensible movie ... almost awesome in its badness." In other words, you might find some guilty pleasure in this chaotic sequel to 1986's Highlander, in which Christopher Lambert reprises his role as Connor MacLeod, a member of the alien race known as "Immortals," banished to Earth from his home planet Zeist some 500 years ago. In the year 1999, Lambert owns a corporation that has created a shield to protect the Earth following the depletion of the ozone layer. But the shield is seized by an evil cartel, and Virginia Madsen plays a scientist who assists MacLeod in his mission to destroy the cartel. Sean Connery also reprises his role from Highlander as the Scottish Immortal named Ramirez (?!), but by the time he starts engaging in dashing swordplay you may wonder if he's wandered in from another movie altogether. Highlander fans welcomed the laserdisc and DVD release of this "renegade" director's cut, which attempts to clarify the original version's confusing plot. --Jeff Shannon

Mortal Kombat

based on the best-selling home video game, this action adventuretells of a group of expert fighters who compete in a dangerous tournament for the fate of mankind on a mysterious island.

The Hunted

Christopher Lambert, the imposing French actor with the nasal whine best known to American audiences as Scottish swordsman Highlander, plays a rank amateur in The Hunted. He's an American businessman in Japan who lucks into a one-night stand with slinky Joan Chen and winds up a witness to her murder by a mysterious band of black-clad ninjas. Escaping not one but two attempts on his life by a little quick thinking and a lot of dumb luck, he winds up on a harrowing bullet train ride. As swarms of masked assassins decimate passengers in search of the elusive eyewitness, Lambert's laconic protector, rough-edged samurai Yoshio Harada, unleashes a martial arts frenzy of flashing swords in close quarters. His savior is not as altruistic as he seems, however. He just wants to lure mysterious ninja overlord John Lone out of hiding and into a fight to the death on Harada's island fortress, and Lambert is little more than live bait. Though it made few ripples at the box office, The Hunted is a slick and surprisingly smart thriller. Lone and Harada cut striking figures as the warriors following ancient codes in the modern world, and writer-director J.F. Lawton (screenwriter of Pretty Woman and Under Siege) gives them almost as much screen time as ostensible hero Lambert. The action scenes are furious and fast paced, lacking the grace and precision of real Japanese samurai adventures but full of clever flourishes. --Sean Axmaker

Beowulf

Beowulf translates the ancient epic poem of the same name into a postapocalyptic Road Warrior-style future, in which a military outpost is being invaded by a monstrous, blood-thirsty creature. Drawn hither by the evil emanations comes Beowulf (Christopher Lambert from Subway and the Highlander series), a powerful warrior with dark secrets of his own. There he meets the beautiful Kyra (Rhona Mitra), a woman warrior with a couple of cleavage-revealing outfits. Her father Hrothgar, meanwhile, is haunted by dreams of a blond, seminaked succubus with crimped hair, who has some mysterious connection to the murdering monster. Everyone, even father and daughter, has a different accent. It's all pretty trashy--the script is full of bravura lines like, "The only thing that keeps me from becoming evil is fighting evil"--but the cinematography and special effects are capable, there are lots of cool-looking swords and weaponry, and there's some pleasantly cheesy techno-metal music that plays intermittently for no good reason. Christopher Lambert, with white hair and a full-length leather duster, looks a little bored, but he's still his competent brooding action-hero self. If you enjoyed Mortal Kombat, this is right up your alley. --Bret Fetzer

Christopher Lambert (MORTAL KOMBAT, HIGHLANDER) stars in this futuristic update of the classic poem written in 900 AD and set in a world of supernatural evil and inexplicable danger! Torn from a legend whose roots are buried in the mists of time, Beowulf is half man -- half god. Living in a techno-futile world of the future, a medieval land where technology's secrets are locked away in a mute past, Beowulf fights his way through a besieging army and into a mysterious, ominous castle on the edge of nowhere to face an evil within ... a beastly spawn of man and demon named Grendel. Now he must fight to the death in order to quell the raging violence hidden deep in his own bedeviled soul!

Highlander (The Immortal Edition)

This 1986 fantasy/action thriller has since spawned two sequels, a popular syndicated TV series, numerous comic-book spinoffs, and a loyal (if somewhat oddly obsessive) following of fans. Directed by music video veteran Russell Mulcahy (which explains the dizzying camera work), the original theatrical release made hash of an intriguing story about an "Immortal" from 16th-century Scotland (Christopher Lambert) who time-leaps to modern-day America with his archenemy (Clancy Brown) in hot pursuit. It becomes a battle to the death (yes, Immortals can die), and Lambert seeks survival training from an Immortal mentor played by Sean Connery. Dazzling, energetic, and altogether confusing in its original form, the film has since been released on video, laserdisc, and DVD in this revised widescreen "director's cut," with additional footage, director and producers' commentary, a photo and artwork archive, the original trailer, and an official time line of the film's evolution from script to screen. A must for Highlander fans ... and you know who you are! --Jeff Shannon

Druids