Highlander 2

Buy This Item Highlander 2 by Republic Pictures  Available from Amazon  $14.98  on 11-16-2008     Theatrically released in 1991 as <I>Highlander II: The Quickening</I>, this sequel was later reedited and gained a small but loyal following (prompting a spinoff TV series), but at the time of its release critic Roger Ebert called it "the most hilariously incomprehensible movie almost awesome in its badness." In other words, you might find some guilty pleasure in this chaotic sequel to 1986's <I>Highlander</I>, in which Christopher Lambert reprises his role as Connor MacLeod, a member of the alien race known as "Immortals," banished to Earth from his home planet Zeist some 500 years ago. In the year 1999, Lambert owns a corporation that has created a shield to protect the Earth following the depletion of the ozone layer. But the shield is seized by an evil cartel, and Virginia Madsen plays a scientist who assists MacLeod in his mission to destroy the cartel. Sean Connery also reprises his role from <I>Highlander</I> as the Scottish Immortal named Ramirez (?!), but by the time he starts engaging in dashing swordplay you may wonder if he's wandered in from another movie altogether. <I>Highlander</I> fans welcomed the laserdisc and DVD release of this "renegade" director's cut, which attempts to clarify the original version's confusing plot. <I>--Jeff Shannon</I> Reader Reviews There's alot of cool stuff in Highlander 2 that adds to the saga and makes it a satisfying wrap to the first film. Despite not being fully developed to it's full potential due to money issues in the production, the re-edited and new effects work brings it up to a level that continues the fantasy of the first in a daring new way. It is a great noirish looking fantasy this time around in the dsytopian future and the thread of super natural powers and immortality remains strong. The whole starting set-up at the start is well done and with the new effects work and additional footage, it really does enter back into the quality on many ways of the imagination in the first film while being a different fresh film. The film's weak points are firstly that the back story of first planet "ziest" and then changed to the distant past are not really properly explained or set up, which is a pity cause it is central to the events in both films and also was actually a very good and exciting concept in which to fill in that blank. It did nicely explain things as well as being full of potential for further drama but at best the bare minimum gets given for a complicated plot point; which originally was incomprehensable, due to the film makers having the money pulled to complete the filming of it- being now the ancient forgotten past(originally "ziest"-both work for me n don't see the difference). That combined with the jumbled editing of the theatrical cut, created a sure fire way to create a deep backlash for what was actually a great direction to go in! The end of the film is a bit lacking in omph, which again is probaby due to not being able to film all the finishing that the creators had planned, but it nevertheless manages to bring the story to a decent conclusion while hinting that alot more could have been packed in. The other thing it doesn't have is the immediately grabbin musical score that the first one had throughout, being lucky enugh to have many of Queen's great tunes which got used really well, but "who wants to live forever" in this Highlander 2 remained very fitting as were other musical accompaniments at times like the song at the opera . Despite unfortunate circumstantial flaws there is much magic to be had in Highlander 2 Special Edition and it is just a pity that the "Ziest/Distant origins" and ending section have the feeling of a sketch, rather than the fleshed out sweeping epic that is in much of the rest of the film. There is alot of great imagery, imagination and effort in this re-presented sequel which despite becoming abit unstuck, makes the highlander fantasy a wothwhile saga rather than one great standalone film, meaning that this and highlander one are the canon as far as i'm concerned. If the above problems weren't in the film, i would probably have given it a five star, and for some strange reason, i probably still find it just as good if not better than the first highlander...perhaps it's the lighting.

Highlander 2 Available from Amazon Price: $14.98 Updated on 11-16-2008.

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