Highlander: Endgame (2000)
Starring: Christopher Lambert, Adrian Paul, Bruce Payne, Lisa Barbuscia, Donnie Yen, Jim Byrnes, Peter Wingfield, Damon Dash, Beatie Edney
Director: Douglas Aarniokoski
Action Director: Donnie Yen
Back in the late 90s and early 00s,
mainly before I left for my religious mission in September ’01, my friends and
I did our very best to support Asian actors in Hollywood. We saw Black Mask in
the theater…twice. I saw both Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Rush
Hour 2 no fewer than three times at the cinema. Hell, we even paid
weekend evening prices to watch Chow Yun-Fat in Anna and the King. We
did our best to show our support to those from Hong Kong who tried their hand
at Hollywood.
It was that same mentality that drove us
to watch Highlander: Endgame at the theaters, despite none of us being
fans of the franchise. To be perfectly honest, in 2000, all I could recall
about Highlander was the director’s cut of the infamous subway sequence
from Highlander 2: The Quickening. But, Donnie Yen was making his
Hollywood debut in this movie—far less auspicious than Jackie Chan’s return to
the Silver Screen in Rush Hour and Jet Li’s villainous take in the
popular Lethal Weapon franchise. But work is work, and Yen’s Hong Kong career
was in a bit of a slump by that time. So, we were just glad to see him working
at all.
The movie opens with an older lady being
killed by a bomb inside of an antique shop. That lady is Rachel Ellenstein
(Sheila Gish, reprising her role from the first Highlander), the adopted
daughter of Connor MacLeod (Mortal Kombat’s Christopher Lambert).
MacLeod is obviously heartbroken to lose the closest thing to immediate family
that he’s had in centuries, so he heads over to The Sanctuary, where Immortals
go to spend eternity in a sort of forced slumber.
Some years later, a bunch of Immortals
led by Jacob Kell (Bruce Payne, of Passenger 57) raid the Sanctuary and
murder everyone there, both the normal humans who guard it and all of the
Immortals, too. We learn that Kell was the son of a maniacal clergyman back in
16th century Scotland who had Connor MacLeod’s mother burned at the
stake for witchcraft. I guess giving birth to a son who can survive getting
killed in battle would raise a few eyebrows at that time. In his subsequent
bloodlust, MacLeod slays Kell’s father and runs Kell himself through, too.
Unbeknownst to both of them, Kell was an Immortal, too.
The story switches back to Duncan
MacLeod (Adrian Paul, who starred in the Highlander TV series), who has
had dreams of IMPORTANT STUFF happening, even though he’s not quite sure what’s
going on. He learns from a colleague, Methos (Peter Wingfield, also from the
series), about the bloodbath at the Sanctuary, which he didn’t even know
existed. Thinking Connor is dead, he visits the ruins of the MacLeod antique
shop, where he is attacked by his ex-wife, Kate (Serpent’s Lair’s Lisa
Barbuscia), and Kell’s minions. There’s a big fight and Duncan is eventually
knocked out the window and impaled on a spike. A Shady Van comes to take his
body away.
The Van belongs to a group known as The
Watchers, mortals who make sure that the Immortals are playing The Game by the
rules and not interfering with mortal affairs. Following the sacrilegious
attack on the Sanctuary, there is now a shortage of Immortals and The Watchers
are volunteering Duncan to be the first member of a new establishment. He gets
saved and finds out about what he’s up against: although Duncan MacLeod has
about 180 kills and Connor MacLeod had around 270, Jacob Kell has racked up
more than 600. The odds are stacked against him…
Highlander: Endgame was meant to the be the Stark Trek: Generations of the
franchise, allowing the movie MacLeod (Connor) and the television MacLeod
(Duncan) to share the screen for the first time. The result is lukewarm. There
really isn’t much of a plot: Jacob Kell wants to make Connor MacLeod’s eternity
miserable and Duncan gets caught up in the middle. That’s about it. About half
of the running time is dedicated to flashbacks detailing the time that Connor
and Duncan spent together back in the 17th and 18th
centuries, while the other half is spent with the small kernel of a main
storyline and a couple of subplots that go absolutely nowhere. That said, I’m
sure that Highlander fans were glad to see their two leading men spend
as much time together onscreen as they do here.
The fault belongs to writers Eric Bernt
and Gillian Horvath. The former is best known for Hollywood action films like Romeo
Must Die and Surviving the Game. Those aren’t really the best
written movies in the genre, but the former had a particularly complex story
and the latter was a decent Most Dangerous Game rip-off. Horvath has
spent the vast majority of her career working for TV, which is basically what
this movie feels like: an extended TV episode (or made-for-TV movie). The
extensive flashbacks combine with the thin plot to kill any forward momentum,
which gives it that less-urgent TV episode feel.
The acting is just okay. Christopher
Lambert is his usual self. If you like him in other things, you’ll like him
here. If you don’t, this movie won’t change your mind about him. Adrian Paul’s
performance is a bit uneven, as if there were a difference between TV acting
and film acting and he hadn’t figured it out yet. Lisa Barbuscia is mainly
around to look pretty and occasionally show off skin, which she also did in Serpent’s
Lair. Then there’s Bruce Payne, once again overacting a storm like his
notorious performance in Dungeons and Dragons. I thought he overacted
with a bit more nuance in Passenger 57, but by 2000, the man was
completely unhinged. I guess you need him to provide a counterweight to Lambert’s
understated muttering.
Donnie Yen was the film’s action
director and also has a supporting role as an immortal named Jin Ke. Yes, that
Jin Ke. The same one who tried to assassinate the Emperor Qin. The same guy
who was the subject of the critically-acclaimed The Empress and the Assassin.
The same one who was the inspiration for Jet Li’s character in Zhang Yimou’s Hero.
That guy. According to Donnie Yen’s website: “Yen contributed to the
development of his character. Inspired by the assassin who fails (and appearing
recently in The Emperor and the Assassin), Yen gave Jin Confucian values
and made him an honorable man. Look for him in fight sequences and dramatic
scenes.” [1]
What that basically means is that he
gets two short fight scenes, a couple of lines of dialog, and then gets killed
in a particularly ignominious way. I mean, do any of us really believe for two
seconds that Bruce Payne can kill a sword-wielding Donnie Yen in a single
blow? No. The entire scene in which Donnie kicks the bucket is so stupid
that even 18-year-old me wanted to scream, “[Eff] you, movie!”
That said, the fight scenes aren’t bad.
Donnie’s first fight has him doing his trademark double jumping back kick and a
few other quick kicks. During the melee between Duncan MacLeod and Kell’s
minions, Yen shows up wielding a kwan do and has a one-on-one with Adrian Paul.
There is some good weapons choreography here, especially by Hollywood
standards. The two eventually go at it hand-to-hand and both do some nice,
complex wing chun-esque handwork—Donnie also unleashes his other
trademark move, the jumping back kick. Sadly, the scene is interrupted by Bruce
Payne and after that, there’s little reason for martial arts fans to continue
watching. If you’re not a Highlander fan, just watch Donnie’s scenes on
Youtube and move on.
The fight between Adrian Paul & Donnie Yen is the best thing about this movie. Other than that, it's a wasted effort. Shame, too.
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