Christopher Lambert Films on DVD Guide

How to Avoid Renting Druids or Any of the Cult Actor's Worst Movies

Sep 3, 2009

A handy guide designed to help anybody seeking to purchase or rent a Christopher Lambert movie on DVD. These are the ones worth watching.

Best known for starring in the cult movie Highlander (Russell Mulcahy 1986), Christopher Lambert gets stick these days for his straight-to-DVD output. Admittedly Lambert has appeared in some very bad movies over the years. There are however a few gems hidden amongst the rubble. Here’s a list to help any fans of the beguiling Frenchman and prevent them from ever having to see Adrenaline: Fear the Rush (Albert Pyun 1996).

Lambert was awarded a Cesar (French version of an Oscar) for his charismatic performance as a safecracker hiding out in the Paris Metro. Fred (Lambert) steals documents from a rich criminal so he can make an assignation with the crook’s beautiful wife (Isabelle Adjani). Besson’s 80’s thriller dated fast, but has considerable charm and Lambert is out of this world.

So he sounds like a Frenchman, rather than a Scottish Highlander. Get over it. Born in New York, raised in France and schooled in Geneva, Lambert’s English accent was always going to be unusual. However Lambert’s otherworldy presence suits this tale of an immortal warrior masquerading as a New York antiques dealer perfectly.

Seriously weird comedy-drama from cinematic mentalist Marco Ferreri. Handsome ladies man Michel (Lambert) falls in love with a blonde key ring, who answers “I Love You,” every time he whistles. A satire on male attitudes towards women, it may also be a work of lunacy.

Quintano’s direction is functional, but Donald E. Westlake’s adaptation of his own novel has plenty of laughs. Lambert and Christopher Lloyd play safe-crackers who inadvertently steal a priceless gem from Armenian rebels, who stole it from the US Government, who were supposed to hand it back to the Turkish people. Now everybody’s after them in this enjoyable comedy-thriller.

A bounty hunter (Mario Van Peebles) teams up with a bandit (Lambert) to uncover the location of a hidden fortune, before bad guy Denis Leary kills them in this loose reworking of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone 1966). Serafian also directed Lambert in another unpretentious thriller Roadflower aka The Roadkillers (1994) which is worth a look as well.

Ninjas versus Samurai with Lambert’s businessman caught in the middle. Grumpy samurai Takeda (Yoshio Harada) uses Lambert as bait after he is witness to ninja leader Kinjo (John Lone) decapitating a prostitute. Lambert is almost a bystander as his charismatic co-stars fight it out, but gets to pull some Highlander-style moves in the finale.

From the Oscar-winning director of Medditeraneo, reclusive games designer Jimi (Lambert) is stunned when his new creation develops feelings and independent thought. The games sequences are rubbish with Jimi’s creation looking more like Ron Jeremy’s Italian cousin. The rest of the film successfully evokes a Blade Runner-style dystopia though.

A bunch of psychos, gangsters and moral degenerates are locked in a prison, given a bunch of weapons and told only one of them gets out. Lambert is a disturbed vigilante hitman seeking vengeance for the murder of his wife. Pyun has committed some serious crimes against cinema, but Mean Guns is cheap and cheerful fun and Lambert gives one of his best turns as the embittered killer.

Medieval English is difficult to read so you may want to forgive the filmmakers for turning the epic poem into a post-apocalyptic martial arts B-movie with a heavy metal soundtrack and plenty of nudity. In fact forgive them because this is much more fun than Robert Zemeckis’s ponderous cartoon.

French comedy with Lambert as a 70’s drug casualty who believes he once had an encounter with John Lennon while he was wasted. Now middle-aged he runs a record store with some rare stuff on display. A conman (François Cluzot) tries to exploit him by pretending to be John Lennon and hiring a housewife (Marie Trintigant) to impersonate Janis Joplin.

Kelly’s critically reviled movie is a mess, but it is mesmerising if you are willing to along with it. Lambert appears in a small but pivotal role as an enigmatic arms dealer selling his wares from an ice cream truck.

Former Bond-girl Sophie Marceau’s directorial debut is an intriguing thriller about an emotionally fragile cop (Lambert) investigating the murder of a film actress twenty years ago. Things are complicated when he begins to see visions of the dead woman and his colleagues begin to think he’s gone nuts.

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