Should you import the Highlander Blu-ray Steelbook from the UK or Europe? I guess the question should really be, should you bother watching Highlander again at all? Probably not. But if you, like me, have a real soft spot in your immortal heart for this film, then yeah, maybe you want to consider an order to Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de.
Here’s the deal: this movie is super-lame. I remember it being awesome but I know my memory is wrong. Yeah, the Queen soundtrack is pretty 80s-good. The sword fights are cool. And everybody likes a little Sean Connery in their cinematic fantasies. But this is not going to be a good movie to re-experience.
That being said, I want this thing on Blu-ray (so full of contradictions!) But we’re not getting it in Canada. Not anytime soon anyway (That goes for you folks in the USA too!) Those lucky buggers across the pond, however have gotten themselves a nice “Steelbook” edition. Chris Gould‘s early review of the UK version of the Blu-ray disc over at DVDActive.com paints this as a less-than-stellar release but as he hated every aspect of his experience I’d say it might be a biased review.
So, to answer the question, should you import a copy of the Highlander: Special Edition. Looks like it might be a good bet, if you’re a fan of the film. It’s the best Highlander has ever looked and sounded. It’s packed with extras, And it’s marked for regions A and B, which means it will play in your North American player. Special features like featurettes, if in PAL (old-school Standard Def) may not play through some machines (like the PS3) but an import edition might just be the best we North Americans are going to do for a little while.
Here are the UK disc details:
HIGHLANDER: SPECIAL EDITION
(July 6, 2009 – MSRP £24.99)
Video: 1.85:1 Widescreen Transfer (1080/24p VC-1)
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Surround, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Surround, Portuguese (Brazilian) DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
Special Features:
• Feature Commentary with Director Russell Mulcahy
• A Legend is Born: Interview with Gregory Widen and Peter Bellwood on the Highlander Script
• The Visual Style: Interview with Cameraman Gerry Fisher and Architect Allan Cameron on the Highlander Look
• A Strong Woman: Interview with Roxanne Hart
• Interview with Christopher Lambert
• Deleted Scenes (HD)
• Trailer (HD)
NOT INCLUDED ON ANY BLU-RAY VERSION: 4th part of Documentary, exclusive to German Kinowelt DVD release
[...] love and the fact that the first film isn’t available on this side of the Atlantic yet (I still have yet to place my Amazon.uk order for the steelbook Blu-ray!) but luckily for me Panzer-Davis Productions is here to help me come out of the immortal-loving [...]
[...] upon a time I wrote an article for The Blu-ray Blog called “Should You Import the Highlander Blu-ray Steelbook from UK, Europe?” Now that Lionsgate Home Entertainment has announced that they will finally be releasing the [...]