Episode 154 - Highlander II: The Quickening LIVE!

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

 

 

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

So, let's talk about the train scene, where Michael Ironside kills everyone with 0-700 acceleration.

 

Before the crash, which obviously would have killed most everyone on the train, the train sustains massive damage just from the acceleration force alone. People are flying around, seats are getting ripped out, etc. Assuming that the numbers are in miles per hour, that train accelerates from 0-300 meters/second in roughly 90 seconds. Let's allow for some variability because the numbers depend on what you're using for reference: During the cuts to the speedometer, you see the train accelerate roughy 30 MPH (13 meters/second) in approximately two seconds. This works out to an acceleration of somewhere between 3.7 to 6.5 meters/second squared, or 0.38 to 0.66 G (force of gravity). Considering that we live under constant 1G force, this isn't exactly a big deal.

 

Now, a New York subway line will have a lot more jerk than say, a roller coaster, which top out at 2.7G. So it's conceivable that people riding the train will be thrown side to side as the wheels hit bumps or the train attempts a corner. And at that velocity it would have the effect of really bad airplane turbulence, which has killed people before. But everyone on a train? You certainly wouldn't see people flying off the ends of the subway poles, or bolted-down seats being ripped out, at least not before the crash.

 

Another thing that the movie messes up is that the effects of acceleration seem to increase with the train's velocity. It doesn't matter if your starting speed is 10 MPH or 300, the force of acceleration remains constant.

[JoeyCrown 10]

I was surprised the gang never touched on the fact that Katana kept making modern references and using modern language even though he was from several hundred years prior.

[Cam Bert 8145]

 

 

 

 

 

(although I'm firmly in the R camp)

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

As a former theater kid and Big Time Literary Nerd, I am personally offended that this movie has a Scotsman (even if it's a Scotsman playing an Egyptian by way of Japan and Spain) on stage ruining a Shakespeare play.... and it's NOT MACBETH?!?! I mean, it's called "The Scottish Play" and has more superstitions surrounding it than a whole herd of Maria Ouspenskayas giving fortunes to men bitten by werewolves. FOR EXAMPLE: If any cast member utters the name of the play, he or she must then exit the theather, spit over one's shoulder, spin around three times, and reciting a line from another Shakespeare play. You know, dumb nerd bullshit like that.

 

So, since a rather famous line from another Shakespeare play is "All the world's a stage," maybe Highlander II takes place in a Cursed World in which a Macbeth production has gone so terribly wrong that the Ozone Layer has been fried to nothing, necessitating MacLoed constructing the shield in the first place? The events, after all, of the play Macbeth are set in motion when the titular Scottish Thane hears a prophecy from three mysterious witches (the Weird Sisters) that he will be king but his Battle Brother Banquo will generate a line of kings, while Macbeth's line will end with him. Thus, Macbeth sets about murdering all his rivals in order to achieve THE PRIZE that is the Crown! All the prophesying the Three Witches do in the play is the same type of scrying the denizens of Zeist do on their home planet in The Quickening, so perhaps the witches in the play are really just immortals getting other immortals to slay each other so THEY can be the Last Immortals left! Maybe the Immortals and Highlanders and Zeistians are all just pawns in the Three Witches' schemes, murdering each other so that these three crones are gifted The Prize all the while never having the lift a finger!

[NathanGordon 1096]

This reminds me of the only Hamlet joke I know -- right as the play starts, just before the guard says the very first line, look to the person next to you and say "knock knock".

[MatthewArdill 2]

This is my first time commenting on the forums (lurked a bit and been listening for ages) so I wanted to start by thanking Jason, June and Paul for their sacrifices watching some truly terrible movies and their great creative output. I love the work all three of you have done and really appreciate it!

 

I have a "complex" relationship with the film Highlander II, growing up I was (and still am) what Jason would call a "Nerd". As a kid I loved the original Highlander, it had a deep mythology and an amazing sound track. I was young enough to not understand how much of an A-Hole that Sean Connery was and Clancey Brown was one EPIC bad guy! You had magic, a sympathetic hero with a tragic past, and a redemptive journey where he "saved the world" at the end. All of that was undone by Highlander II.

 

Of course, my friends who I played D&D with shared this same opinion, we all thought the original was the bee's knees and when the sequel was announced we were ecstatic. How was it going to pick up? The ending was very conclusive, was it going to tell some of Connor's past? Maybe it'd touch on that assistant who they hint he had a love affair with back during World War II? So after a day of playing D&D my D&D group and I headed out in an overburdened orange Toyota Tercel for a film experience that would forever change my relationship with cinema.

 

We have to remember first that this was released in January 1991. The internet was a "thing" back then but it certainly didn't have the life it has today and was by no means as accessible to the general public. We didn't have early reviews warning us away, we didn't have fan sites dissecting the movie and telling us about the behind the scenes production drama, we had a trailer and buzz and that's about it. The six of us drove to the theater the next city over in a five person car. Parking we lined up excited to see this movie only to find the theater had sold all but five tickets. At 16 this was the end of the world and we didn't know what we would do. One of our crew decided he would stay in the car while we watched the film. We thanked him for his great sacrifice and went into the theater for a two hour segment of our life we will never see back.

 

To this day that is a two hour segment of my life that is a blur, what little I remember of watching the movie at the time is a mix of sadness and disappointment with a sprinkling of shock at the effects which were already at the time out dated. Leaving the cinema I felt cheated, for the first time in my life I felt a film maker had let me down and this is when my entire relationship with films changed. Before this film I had led a pretty charmed life where I was able to find magic in every film I saw. Mere weeks earlier I saw Edward Scissorhands at that same cinema and left enthralled by the cinema with Burton's love letter to an era gone by but this time I left changed and not for the better. I had the earth shattering realization that films could not only be bad but they could be a craven sad money grab that exploited people's expectations and took advantage of an audience.

 

This was a time before we had six super hero movies and 12 big budget science fiction films a year. Genre films were still for "geeks and nerds" and hard to come by. This was one of maybe a half dozen science fiction and fatasy films we'd get all year and when one of the other ones was Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country despite the fact we also got Terminator 2 and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (a love letter to Ingmar Bergman films) it still felt on the hole sci-fi and fantasy fans got a kick to the groin. Walking out of that cinema a degree of cynicism crept into how I watched films and I've never been able to recover and watch films the same way, with that wide eyed innocence I was able to before.

 

The real punch line of the entire experience was the guy who had to stay in the car claimed a couple were in the car next to him and got it on. Even at the time I found it gross that he'd watch a couple snog but honestly if given the opportunity to maintain my innocence and stay in the car freezing my backside off in the Canadian January or go and see that TERRIBLE Highlander II I'm not sure what I would do. Yeah I wish that film hadn't sucked so bad I felt it had ruined the potential of a great story but at the same time it equipped me with the tools I need to be critical of films and not just take everything at surface value. In the end, I guess I owe it a debt of gratitude because I've never been suckered in the same way and despite it all it helped me realize a crappy sequel can't "ruin my childhood" it's just a crappy sequel. The original can still be magic if you want it to be.

[Cameron H. 23786]

R.I.P. Mary Tyler Moore

 

[FisterRoboto 7499]

R.I.P. Mary Tyler Moore

 

That really bummed me out. I grew up watching The MTM Show with my mom. So much of the television landscape owes itself to MTM. She was amazing, and I think I'm going to go watch the first three seasons of the show that are on Hulu when I get home today.

[NathanGordon 1096]

dang heaven is turnt right now

[SeveralCircles 426]

Question:

 

Why was Christopher Lambert ever a sex symbol?

 

Male beauty appreciation isn't really my specialty, but I get why people liked Van Damme in the 80s. Was Lambert like a Britishname Complicated kinda wierd looking hot for people or was George Michael stubble so prized in the 80s that that's all you needed. I'm confused.

 

What am I doing with my life.

 

I had to google what he looks like but dude has TOTAL bang-eyes. His face is kind of odd and hard to reoncile, but his stare is basically full penetration. I might be Junior style man-pregnant right now.

 

So I assume thats why.

[JoeFindlay 10]

Correction and Omission:

 

Long time listener, first time forum poster.

 

I had a thought about Connor's motives in the creation of the Shield, Connor, having lost his wife, was in such pain that he wanted to ensure that he was allowed to die, being the only immortal left on earth. The failing ozone layer inspired him to build a shield that would not only protect the people of earth, but potentially disrupt the ability of immortals from Zeist to zap themselves to earth, at least long enough for him to die an old man. Sure he could have let the Ozone kill him and everyone else, but he didn't want to sacrifice the world to guarantee himself mortality.

 

And if we want to get crazier, is it possible that one Connor Macleod of the Clan Macleod, after years under an electromagnetic shield and experiencing multiple instances of the quickening, was himself zapped off of earth to another dimension, OUTWORLD, where he took the name Raiden and trained others to fight as the Spaniard once did for him?

[jarrycanada 2483]

I have taken 3 years of college Japanese--where oral exams are part of the curriculum--taught by native Japanese speakers, and except for 2 'B's, have gotten all 'A's. Obviously, that is no comparison to someone who has lived in Japan for years, but I'm also not someone who taught myself Japanese so I can read scanned untranslated manga online. Since Paul has trouble even pronouncing "Louise", an attempt at correctly pronouncing "fu" would probably kill him. So I just transcribed what I think sounds the closest to the correct pronunciation.

 

Here's a native Japanese speaker saying furikake a bunch of times.

[media='']

[/media]

 

For the curious, here's a

that teachers you how to say "fu", and here's

with native Japanese speakers saying "ri".

 

PS. I know I sound crazy defensive, but I'm really not. Cam Bert is a good tamago, and I don't mind his corrections.

 

 

I had a good food recall snack that got recalled. Let me see if I can find it.

 

but tell that time enjoy. "Soylent brand Food Bar" got recalled because it's made out of people!

 

[Chainsaw Starring Nic Cage 95]

@2:00:

 

Ebert: "You know, as a matter of fact, I don't think a zombie would like this film."

 

Siskel: "[incomprehensible drunken slurring]"

 

Ebert: "That's probably why you didn't like it."

 

 

Meow! Ebert, you catty bitch!

 

It makes you wonder if, after Roger said that, Gene took him aside and said "Roger...I have cancer."

[jarrycanada 2483]

knew I would find it...Pee Wee Pizza Supreme Flavored Snack

 

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

ah shit ... watership down, alien, the elephant man, 1984 ... the field!!! "you're the bull! you're the bull! you're the bull!" ... just a few from a quick look at his early years .. the naked civil servant! .. on and on from 1962 ... he never stopped working ... RIP John Hurt

[taylor anne photo 11311]

You can't forget about Ollivander!

 

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

yeah, paddy considine posted this today on twitter

 

 

you could treble the amount of boxes and you'd still only capture a fraction of his work.

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

the orchestra are going to have to play-off the in memoriam section at the oscars there's been so many amazing people lost in the past year

[Jack Frost 252]

On Independent Focus, David Lynch said John Hurt "Has a hairless left arm."

[jarrycanada 2483]

John Hurt 1984

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcTP7YWPayU

btw when david stewart does that 1984, with his guitar and mic, that's called a talkbox.it's a little tube you talk into and it makes your guitar sound like what ever your saying into the tube or mic.

[jarrycanada 2483]

speaking of 1984, is anyone else getting this annoying "connection is no longer secure message?"

 

 

 

if your using firefox click the Exclamation mark to see?

 

never noticed it before but it started going red and it freaked me right out, not that i should worry.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

 

Quick question: I keep reading that people are being told via the newsletter that they're doing the new xXx movie. I still haven't gotten the newsletter thing to work for me. Is that really happening?

[tomspanks 9039]

Quick question: I keep reading that people are being told via the newsletter that they're doing the new xXx movie. I still haven't gotten the newsletter thing to work for me. Is that really happening?

 

I got the newsletter yesterday. Under "Homework," it says "Podcast TBD! (But soon)" with a picture of the XXX movie.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

 

I got the newsletter yesterday. Under "Homework," it says "Podcast TBD! (But soon)" with a picture of the XXX movie.

 

Is xXx suitable for my four year old son? Keep in mind, he reeks of Axe Effect and is totally X-treme...