Highlander
Director’s Cut
Blu-ray Edition
Directed by Russell Mulcahy
Starring Christopher Lambert, Clancy Brown, Sean Connery, Roxanne Hart
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: November 2, 2010

There can be only one.

Even if you’ve never seen Highlander, chances are you’ve heard that phrase uttered countless times. It’s the battle cry of the sword-wielding Immortals in the 1986 fantasy-action film, starring Christopher Lambert.

Lambert appears as Connor MacLeod, a young Scotsman in the year 1536 who one day meets his fate on the battlefield at the hands of the Kurgan (Clancy Brown), a massive Slavic warrior out to slice Connor’s head from his neck. When Connor seemingly comes back to life after dying from his battle wounds, his superstitious clan banishes him, leaving him to build a new life for himself elsewhere. Five years later, a mysterious man named Ramirez (Sean Connery) seeks out Connor to become his mentor, explaining that they are of a group of Immortals who will eventually meet for The Gathering, where they will fight each other for The Prize until only one survives.

We learn about Connor’s early life through flashbacks, as the immortal now lives in present day (1985) New York City as antiques dealer Russell Nash, who’s currently being investigated by police after they catch him fleeing the scene where a man was found decapitated. Between dealing with the police and the probing questions from their overly curious forensics expert Brenda (Roxanne Hart), Connor also begins to feel the pull for The Gathering, which includes having to fight his old enemy The Kurgan, who’s wreaking havoc across the city in his quest to find and fight Connor.

The Gold Box spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is Alfred Hitchcock – The Masterpiece Collection DVD box set for only $50.99 (that’s 58% off the list price of $119.98).

Note, this sale is only for today, Tuesday, October 19, 2010 until midnight PST while supplies last.

This DVD box set comes with 14 classic Alfred Hitchcock suspense films, which starred actors like James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Anthony Perkins, Sean Connery, and Doris Day: Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds, Shadow of a Doubt, Family Plot, Frenzy, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Marnie, Rope, Saboteur, Topaz Torn Curtain, The Trouble with Harry.

Let’s do the math: that’s about $3.64 per movie — that’s an insane deal, and even lower than the last time this item was up for sale. These movies are all great and therefore worth more than just a few bucks each.

Peter Jackson is best known as the man behind one of the biggest cinematic trilogies of all time: The Lord of the Rings. As we all know, Jackson is a born and bred New Zealander, and due to its never ending beauty and perfectly other-worldly look, he crafted his wonderful adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s vision there, creating the perfect Middle Earth. The trilogy went on earn itself an incredible 30 Academy Award nominations, with 17 Oscar statues coming through in the end. Since then, Jackson has become one of the most recognizable and desired directors working today, and it was only a matter of time before some major accolades would find him.

It’s being reported that Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who is New Zealand’s Head of State due to it formerly being a British colony, has officially named Jackson to their yearly honors’ list, officially making him Sir Peter Jackson. He joins an elite group that includes Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Sean Connery, Sir Elton John, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, and honorary representative Steven Spielberg.

I’m a big fan of The Golden Girls. Though I followed the series back in the 1980’s, I still enjoy watching episodes in syndication today and every so often I catch something I didn’t notice years ago. For instance, in the 1987 episode “Whose Face Is This Anyway?”, Rose (Betty White) mentions the 1974 Sean Connery science fiction film Zardoz.

In the episode, the vain Blanche (Rue McClanahan) attends her college sorority’s reunion thinking she’ll be the most beautiful one there. When she gets there, she feels that her natural beauty is nothing compared to the other women, who’ve all had plastic surgery. When she returns home, she tells her friends that when she got to the reunion, it was as if time stood still for 30 years and the other women looked like they’d hardly aged at all.

That’s when the airheaded Rose (played by Betty White) says these women sound a lot like the ones from the movie Zardoz. She asks Blanche, “Did any of them mention a leader named Zardoz?”

In light of today’s release of the lastest Bond flick Quantum of Solace on DVD and Blu-ray, the Gold Box spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon is a special on James Bond box sets for DVD and Blu-ray.

Get the James Bond Blu-ray Collection Six-Pack for $64.95 (that’s 64% off the list price of $179.96). This 2-volume Blu-ray box set contains six movies from three different Bond actors: Sean Connery in Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and Thunderball; Roger Moore in Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only; and Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day.

Also up for grabs is the James Bond Ultimate Collector’s Set for $89.95 (that’s 69% off the list price of $289.98). This 42-disc DVD box set contains 21 James Bond films, from Dr. No to Casino Royale (that’s all the movies except Quantum of Solace), plus another 21 discs full of bonus features.