Subject: REVIEW: HIGHLANDER II: THE QUICKENING

From: [email-masked] (Roger Snappy Rubio)
Date: 22 Nov 91 16:22:48 GMT

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			  HIGHLANDER II: THE QUICKENING
		       A film review by Roger Snappy Rubio
			Copyright 1991 Roger Snappy Rubio

Starring Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Virginia Madsen, and
         Michael Ironside
Directed by Russell Mulcahey

     They say that patience is a virtue.  Well, for the most part, I
tried to stay virtuous all throughout this movie, and it was going well
until the bottom fell out.  I figured I should go see a moronic movie,
and I couldn't have picked a better one to go see.

     HIGHLANDER II: THE QUICKENING claims to be a sequel to HIGHLANDER,
also directed by Russell Mulcahey.  An interview of Chris Lambert I saw
on HBO explained why this sequel is so different from the original:
Mulcahey wanted to do something completely different, because most
sequels nowadays are virtual carbon copies of the original.  Ok, fine.
Commendable conjecture.  So I went into this movie expecting something
different, and I was not disappointed.  That is, on the difference part.

     This movie is interesting, to say the least, but after sitting
through the first twenty minutes of this movie, I could tell that this
was a cut and paste movie.  Oh, I'll put a scene here, paste a scene
there, throw in some of the old music from the first film, and not worry
about the editing.  Put it all together, slap it on a long roll of
celluloid, and voila, a movie so *bad* that it will probably become
another cult classic like HIGHLANDER did.  Or so the director thought.

     The only good thing about this movie is Sean Connery.  No matter
how bad the lines are, Connery always makes them sound good.  If you
*have* to see this movie, just see it for Sean.  When he's done with the
movie, that's your cue to leave.  After all, Virginia Madsen's character
is completely useless, Michael Ironside's resembles the Joker from
BATMAN too much, and this business about Zeist and flying immortals; I
mean c'mon!  Having a bad immortal's head land on a train track and then
having a train come by two seconds later just in time for McCleod to
have his immortal orgasm is, frankly, an all-out assault on my
intelligence (as if the original HIGHLANDER wasn't already).  But I can
forgive HIGHLANDER for being outrageous; HIGHLANDER II doesn't merit any
such charitable emotion.

     Now I have to tell the truth here.  The first few times I saw
HIGHLANDER I didn't like it.  The next few times I saw it, it kind of
grew on me.  As of now, I think it's an okay movie.  But after seeing
this collage of cutting room floor rejects, I believe HIGHLANDER was
overlooked for an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.  I could have
written a better script than this!  Hey Mulcahey!  RICOCHET was good,
why couldn't you have made this one good too?  You've got to adopt the
philosophy that Schwarzenegger has: give the people what they want, not
what you *think* they want.

		THE SNAPMAN
		[email-masked]
		(Roger Rubio)