| Highlander II:The Quickening (1991) Cast:Christopher Lambert,Sean Connery,Michael Ironside,Virginia Madsen Lackluster sequel to the highly inventive original, has Lambert and Connery now aliens(!) instead of Scottish or in Connery's case Egyptian. Incoherent and dull this movie is a great disappointment. The problem with this sequel is that it leaves too many questions unanswered, the one I wanted to know was how after Connery's demise in the first, did he come back again? Naturally the film makes no attempt at explaining this. It doesn't make any sense and Highlander II has annoying villains which just add to the frustration at hand. Ironside is a fine actor who tries way too hard and in the attempt comes off as laughable. It's a terrible performance but on par with the movie. Lambert and Connery both look understandably confused although seeing Lambert as an old man is one of cinema's most painful moments. Indeed the only one who is tolerable is Virgina Madsen. The plot involving a shield which protects Earth from harmful rays and then of course having the "atmosphere repair itself" is so highly unlikely that I would've laughed had I not been so bored. The problem with the movie is that it seems like Mulcahy exhausted himself on how to make a sequel to a movie where Lambert was the last immortal who won the prize so bringing new immortals would contradict the first. Actually a better movie (At least something that would be mediocre) would've had Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery defend earth from alien immortals trying to take over the planet because who's to say that there aren't any immortals on another planet? However there wouldn't be a connection between them other than Lambert and Connery fighting them off. This could've worked. Even if it didn't it would've still been better than this. Sadly the things that made the first Highlander film so noteworthy and enjoyable turn sour here because the story took the story as far as it would go, Highlander II exhausts itself to bring something new to the table but it only became ridiculous instead. Indeed as far as this awful sequel is concerned they might as well have stuffed the movie in a ripped potatosack then wrap a bunch of duct tape around the sack and sell it this way afterall that's how much care went into this movie.. D.Russell Mulcahy * |