Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

[RyanSz 3140]

The director's cut is actually a pretty decent version of the movie. They completely remove the alien subplot and replace it with them being from the past. They are then punished and sent to various points in time so as to be unable to earn the Prize easily. The jilty fight scenes are also cut together to be more fluid and the subplot about deadly radiation is actually given an ending where it's revealed there is no more threat of it and the city shield in unnecessary.

[seanotron 2307]

The director's cut is actually a pretty decent version of the movie. They completely remove the alien subplot and replace it with them being from the past. They are then punished and sent to various points in time so as to be unable to earn the Prize easily. The jilty fight scenes are also cut together to be more fluid and the subplot about deadly radiation is actually given an ending where it's revealed there is no more threat of it and the city shield in unnecessary.

 

Decent in comparison to the theatrical I suppose, but still not a very good movie (and nothing compared to the first one).

[PhillipMedoc 648]

Goddamn, I love this song so much.

 

[jarrycanada 2483]

it just hit me who Sean Connery looks like in that trailer.

 

Puss in Boots

[RyanSz 3140]

 

Decent in comparison to the theatrical I suppose, but still not a very good movie (and nothing compared to the first one).

Well considering that it went from 0% to upper 60s is quite a jump. True it doesn't compare to the original but is a decent attempt, especially considering the abortion the first cut was.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Goddamn, I love this song so much.

 

Holy shit, this reminds me, I caught most of "Highlander: The Source" (or it could be "The Sauce", the accents are fucking all over the place) on SyFy, which was the first made-for-TV installment, and it has someone doing bad COVERS of "Princes of the Universe" and at least "Who Wants to Live Forever". Balls, man. Balls.

 

Here's a Breaking Benjamin cover of "Who Wants to Live Forever" that's pretty decent though...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSO-0-R0d5E

[RegFranklin 19]

Oh, and then there's the European ending which has Connor and....redheaded woman whose name I can't be arsed to remember...go all transparent to return to Zeist, which leads to one of the biggest questions possible:

 

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO GO BACK THERE?! The planet looks like a shithole!

[jarrycanada 2483]

Ensign_Ricky, You mean it could of been worse? I've never seen this ending tell now. thanks for pointing this out as I could use a good laugh. Spoller alert, it's called on youtube Highlander II:

or European ending as it's called.

 

I think this is worse then the return of the Jedi special edition with Hayden Christensen's ghost showing up rather then Darth Vader. love the Sean Connery voice dub. " Remember to see highlander three, and be sure to write that check out to the bank of Scotland, no funny business this time.." almost that bad.

[RegFranklin 19]

Oh I can think of a few ways that Highlander 2 could've been worse. No Michael Ironside would've made it a lot worse. He's one of those actors who no matter how shitty the rest of the movie is, he's always a ton of fun to watch.

 

Oh, and of course, one other thing I forgot to point out is how one of Ironside's henchmen points out the GINORMOUS FUCKING PLOT HOLE and gets slapped in the chops for it.

[Johnny Unusual 525]

This must have been suggested already. If so, let's merge 'em.

 

BTW, here's the trailer.

 

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

[RegFranklin 19]

Oh god, nothing in that trailer even looks appealing. I can only imagine what people who were fans of the first one thought when they saw that.

 

Also, MacLeod and Ramirez are totally space-married.

[jarrycanada 2483]

Oh god, nothing in that trailer even looks appealing. I can only imagine what people who were fans of the first one thought when they saw that.

 

Also, MacLeod and Ramirez are totally space-married.

 

There can only be one! or two or three. it's not as bad as the highlander Three was. that's the breaking point of the trilogy and the beginning of ridiculousness.

 

With two it had it's moments, like the part with Sean Connery coming back to life and showing up on earth again. going to the tailor shop, I love that part of the movie, he steals the film with that scene. but I can't remember for the life of me how they explained him coming back. I have not seen this film in a long time.

 

The first one is the only one I've ever re-watched.

[RegFranklin 19]

but I can't remember for the life of me how they explained him coming back.

 

Because they were space married. Also, I'd assume that as Kurgan absorbed Ramirez's essence, then Macleod absorbed everything that Kurgan had, and somehow via the energy released during the second quickening of the movie, and combined with the space marriage, Macleod accidentally restored him to life as he last saw him.

 

Now, that would be the answer if they had a, y'know, writer.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

 

Because they were space married. Also, I'd assume that as Kurgan absorbed Ramirez's essence, then Macleod absorbed everything that Kurgan had, and somehow via the energy released during the second quickening of the movie, and combined with the space marriage, Macleod accidentally restored him to life as he last saw him.

 

Now, that would be the answer if they had a, y'know, writer.

I'm a pretty tolerant fellow, but this movie just took it entirely too far with it's same-sex intergalactic union agenda. It's Adam and EVE, not Adam and Gleepglorp!

[RegFranklin 19]

I'm a pretty tolerant fellow, but this movie just took it entirely too far with it's same-sex intergalactic union agenda. It's Adam and EVE, not Adam and Gleepglorp!

 

Don't you mean Adam and Eve, not Adam and Ramirez?

[Johnny Unusual 525]

Yeah, both versions are pretty awful and confusing and just... ugly. It's one of those really ugly movies about a machine that fills the sky with ugly puke and also aliens.

[RegFranklin 19]

And shits all over a promising film franchise, you forgot that part.

 

Also, the original VHS box made the claim that Highlander 2 "is the smartest movie since Blade Runner".

 

:mellow: :mellow:

[RegFranklin 19]

Whoops, double post.

[AdamWhitmer 0]

Highlander 2 took everything established in the first film and threw it out the window, taking a hard right turn into fantasy.

 

It's also a horrible fucking movie and batshit bonkers. Plus, you can do no wrong with Christopher Lambert.

[BasilKarlo 3]

Every version of Highlander 2 is terrible. The "Renegade" version is just as bad as "The Quickening" because the plot changes introduce so many massive plot holes. I think this review from Amazon sums it up pretty well:

 

This is quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. Seriously.

I really liked the first Highlander. It had its flaws, obviously. But it was a very cool movie based around a very cool idea. Highlander 2:Renegade Version is not cool, nor does is even have a single cool idea in it. There are so many problems with this piece of crap. I'll list some of them for you.

1- The movie opens with Lambert's MacLeod an old man, apparently afflicted with throat cancer. Lambert was trying to employ an old man voice, but ended up sounding like he just had radiation therapy for cancer of the throat. It was ridiculously bad.

2- The constant reuse of the same room as different rooms. It was like watching a video game from 1993. They literally used the exact same set for 4 different rooms. One of which was supposed to be in a completely different building. All they did was move around tables and chairs to make it seem like a different room.

3- Michael Ironside's minions, sent to kill MacLeod. Where do I begin with these 2 characters? One of them had a penchant for laughing like a lunatic while sticking out his tongue for no reason whatsoever. He did this about a dozen times, each time for no reason. And the other one sounded like Goofy. If he were heavily sedated and tripping balls on quaaludes. And the manner in which MacLeod kills both of them is some of the worst movie effects this side of 1955. The fight choreography with these 2 morts was also some of the worst I have ever seen. I could complain about this one particular part for hours, but I need to move on.

4- Sean Connery's Ramirez's nonsensical return. They explain this with some sort of ritual that involved orange drink and the waving of fingers in front of MacLeod's forehead. All MacLeod had to do was say "RAMIREZ!" just after he killed the lame minions and Ramirez was brought back to life. Which lead to 3 or 4 god awful scenes with Sean Connery basically goofing off and trying to become a member of the Mile High Club. Why didn't MacLeod just do this after killing Clancy Brown in the first Highlander, you ask? Because that was a good movie.

5- Michael Ironside. Just Michael Ironside in general. He's not a bad actor(unless you're watching Scanners. But why would you be watching Scanners?). I actually like him in most movies. But this was one of the dumbest villains I've ever seen. When he first teleports himself to Earth, sorry, I mean when he first beams himself to our time, he decides to commandeer a subway train and somehow cranks it up over 800 MPH, killing the passengers with g-forces, I guess. This is very possibly the worst scene I've ever seen in my entire life. And I used to watch horror B-movies all the time. The way they achieved the effect of making it look like the passengers were being thrown against the back of the train(due to sheer SPEED!) was by simply tilting the train and making the passengers ROLL and FALL to the back. It was completely unconvincing and laughable. At one point a passengers eyes were bugging out of his head, but the makeup effects were so bad it looked like he was wearing goggles with big eyes painted on them.

Ironside's character also does things like grab John C. McGinley's balls, destroy cabs for no reason, and break people's necks by putting his fingers in their mouths. Moving on.

6- The entire plot was nonsensical. I'll lay it out for you. The Earth's ozone layer was depleting and disappearing entirely. So MacLeod's company makes this satellite thing that puts up a red shield around the planet, blocking out the sun's light. Despite the planet still being fully lit during the day and dark at night somehow, this shield is a problem for people and the Earth because... because... well crap, I guess they forgot to work that in. So anyway, this scientist leading a group of the least stealthy saboteurs ever decide they need to shut this mother down because they find out that the ozone layer has replenished itself and the shield is no longer needed. This hot lady scientist also says that the shield is killing the earth, but never says how. But what's worse than the plot missing its entire foundation is the laziness with which they showed this shield. The sky is red and trippy looking. When they show the sky you can see no horizon. But in several scenes throughout the movie you can plainly see a blue sky. This is just lazy.

7- The sex scene. Yuck. After killing Ironside's 2 minions, MacLeod, now young again, just strolls up to the lady scientist and starts boning her. And he's done in 20 seconds. So he's not just creepy bordering on rapist, he's also a premature ejaculator.

8- So many stupid lines and plotpoints. I can't go through them all with a movie this bad, but I'll name a few.

Ironside knows that MacLeod is dying when the movie opens, but he decides to send his 2 goons to kill him. But their very presence on our world, sorry, in our time, makes MacLeod immortal again.

Ramirez says(spoiler alert, I guess), just before he sacrifices himself for no reason, that it will take both MacLeod and lady scientist to shut down the satellite. How he knows this, I'm not sure. But when it comes time to destroy the satellite, MacLeod just walks into a beam of light and destroys it while lady scientist watches on, doing nothing. They even made a point of replaying Ramirez's proclamation just before MacLeod destroys the satellite by himself.

 

Do not watch this movie. Not even for a laugh. It is too bad to fall into the "So bad it's funny" catalog. It nearly made my eyes bleed.

[greyman24 6]

It was my freshman year of college and I was broke, but I had several rare blessings. One was a VCR with a couple of tapes--including Highlander. We watched it endlessly. Another was a car. I was one of two people in our group that had one, and it had a full tank of gas.

 

When we heard a sequel to Highlander was coming out, we were all excited, but none of us had any money. 70 miles away in my home town, I worked at a movie theater over vacations and breaks and could get an employee pass for myself and two others, so we decided to do the smart thing--drive the 90 minutes from my college home to see the movie for free. Then we could crash at my mother's place.

 

So we head there. Through a blizzard. Halfway there, my car died. We walked a mile through the snow to the nearest rest stop, and discovered the Thruway Authority turns off the heat in rest stops after a certain time to discourage people sleeping there.

 

We could have gotten something to eat, but everything was closed. Also, we had no money.

 

Many hours later, we got home. We went to see the movie. And you can guess how that went. The whole trip was a complete failure, and wound up costing a ridiculous amount of money. For many years, I refused to acknowledge any Highlander property because of the scars that shitty movie left on me.

 

But at least we got to see People Under the Stairs. That was pretty good.

[jarrycanada 2483]

I was thinking about this movie and found this photo, you know how they say a picture says a thousand words.

 

Caption says: Sean Connery says to Christopher Lambert, "I told you I had to goto the bathroom about an hour ago.

but you had to go and test me on this didn't ya sunny, now look at the lovely mess we are in."

[dlo burns 129]

I haven't fully seen Highlander II in about 15 years, but the one that is far and above worse is Highlander: The Source (2007), which while in the tv show continuity has fuck-all to do with it, and worst of all is just confusing and boring at the same time, probably making a poor match for the show.

 

On the other hand, the anime Highlander: The Search for Vengeance is actually pretty damn kick-ass, starting in a new continuity it's pretty similar to the original but on a grander scale, but the animation really allows them to show off what powers being an Immortal grants. And apparently the whole thing is officially on youtube.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

The title alone is HDTGM-worthy: Highlander: The Quickening?!?

[TheFrenchTeacher 0]

This movie was so disappointing and it made no sense. But, sword fights! Please do this movie.