Highlander II: The Quickening review by Matt Fuerst

@JackassMatt

Highlander II is a sinful delight for me. It is wonderfully bad in a very bad way. Confusing and perplexing I know. But stick with me. Highlander II was initally released to theatres after control of the movie was taken away from the director and producers due to economic issues where they were filming. The film was finished and cut without their input and the resultant movie was a thing of horror.

Thanksfully, the Highlander Television series came along and there was a resurgance in the popularity of the Highlander movies, and for a 1997 DVD and Laserdisc release the director and producers managed to scrape together an additional 19 minutes of footage and change the movie entirely. The half of the movie that in the theatre was taking place in the future were now taking place in the past. People from the planet Zeist were now just from a Desert area. Marvelous. All this is prime goodness for a bad bad bad movie. And Highlander II delivers in spades.

Overall the movie is pretty tough to sit through. I have to admit there are some nice directorial touches, the beginning sequence is actually quite beautiful, a suprising crane shot that doesn't end when you expect it to. Sadly, it's pretty much downhill from there. There is a mid-movie sword fight against some assassins sent to kill MacLeod that doesn't live up to the sword sequences of the first movie. The special effects are pretty subpar. Michael Ironside is so over the top that it's pretty fun to watch, he would be prime MST3K material. Be sure you are paying attention when Ironside throws John McGinley out the window (Don't worry, I didn't spoil anything).


3 out of 10 Jackasses
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