80s Movie Redux: The Highlander

My roommate has watched approximately zero classic movies from the 80s.  Sometimes I torture her by making her watch one with me.  Occasionally, we strike gold.  Case in point, she loves ‘Pretty in Pink’. 

Today’s edition of 80’s Re-Watch: The Highlander

This 1986 sci-fi, sword fighting cult classic features a soundtrack by Queen, New York City in the mid-eighties, and questionable casting choices. (Why you would have a Frenchman play a Scottish guy while sharing the screen with Sean Connery is beyond me.)  Much like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the movie also spawned a 90s TV series.  Movie Highlander and TV Highlander join forces in the fourth feature film. Yes, they made more than one Highlander movie.

And yet despite these drawbacks, I still love it.  My father instilled in me an unyielding love of 80s and early 90s action films, especially action films with flimsy sci-fi plot devises.  I’ve been watching this movie since I was 9 and to this day can sing every line of every Queen song featured in it on command. 

My roommate sat through movie asking ‘why?’  ‘Why make this movie?’ ‘Why all the swords?’  And the logician that she is, she poked a lot of holes in the movie’s main premise.  Yes, ok, a plot about immortal men who cut each other’s heads off in pursuit of ‘The Prize’ is not bulletproof.  She told me the only redeeming qualities were ‘Freddy Mercury and you singing along to all the songs.’  (Highlander is a movie musical in my mind.)  But let’s not forget there’s the awesome sword fight at the end and the Kurgan is pretty hilarious.

90s Rewatch: Drive Me Crazy

‘If your mom is still up she’s going to see right through that Dean Martin impression’ 

Ahh remember being 14 in the 90s and thinking this was a totally acceptable outfit to wear to school.  Are things different now or did I just get old? Because I wouldn’t wear that at Halloween MJH, Clarissa, Sabrina the Teenage Witch – this is a casual dress, educational environment.

Yes, ‘Drive Me Crazy’ the oft forgotten of the 90s teen comedy cannon.  Everyone remembers ‘She’s All That’ and ’10 Things I Hate About You’ (no one remembers ‘Whatever It Takes’ even though James Franco was pretty close to naked in it, or ‘Jawbreaker’ which is fantastic, or Regina George’s favorite movie, ‘Varsity Blues’…)

But where else do all the crucial 90s tropes mix together so well as in ‘Drive Me Crazy’? – A ‘millennium’ themed prom, a bet that ends with the two protagonists falling in love, a makeover montage, an eponymous Britney Spears song, and 90s and aughts collide with the romantic pairing of Clarissa Explains It All and Vinny Chase.  Plus it is ahead of its time with video taped pranks (this movie would have loved YouTube, not to mention Twitter) online dating and a division between popular richies and artsy ironic kids (read: hipsters). Such hipsters in this movie.

 

And this bitchy girl, who is also a bitch in ‘Center Stage’ and just weird in ’10 Things’, is in it and they give her all the best lines.

Prom, biggest night of our lives.