Post by Quillford on Sept 11, 2011 21:28:37 GMT 2
THE BLU-RAY VERSION
Highlander II. Even the title for this 'exclusive' Blu-Ray edition is wrong, a mess, incorrect. If this is your first time looking at this after the fantastic 1986 film Highlander directed by Russell Mulcahy, you are in for a treat. This is the not so sequential sequel. Why do you buy a Blu-Ray? Usually it is because it offers something a DVD can't for a film you believe is amazing or is part of a series you believe to be amazing, right? You would think that it would be cooler on Blu-Ray. Lots of things to make a fan explode with excitement. Wrong, completely and utterly one hundred percent wrong!
The first thing you see when you go to purchase this title is the cover. If your in a hurry to buy the next chapter in the Highlander story, you may overlook the cover and see 'Blu-Ray' in that shiny italic writing and the words 'Highlander 2' etched onto it. I have to point out the film was actually titled "Highlander II: The Quickening". Sadly this isn't the only version of the film to do that since the cross over to digital. DVD's are just as guilty. Cover art. It is cheap, tacky and obviously done in a matter of minutes on Photoshop (and that's being extremely generous). Proof being save the cover image from Amazon yourself. Blow it up the accurate Blu-Ray cover size. The pictures of Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert are pixelated at a distance never mind when you focus. The main feature on the front is the "Macleod" sword featured heavily in the first one. Only the first one, it wasn't in any section of this film - flashback or otherwise. "Director's cut" an infamous pack of lies on a lot of products these days. This is just another case. There is nothing cut or otherwise in this film. It is the same as the Theatrical, VHS & DVD release. Wanna know the worst part, it has no Special Features, what so ever. Not one. No deleted scenes, no commentary - NADA. I have had VHS with deleted scenes for goodness sake. This is a Blu-Ray that isn't in mainstream shops any more (and I can see why!). I was appalled at the shabbiness of it all. No special features, wrong title, poor cover art and it has NO menu. Straight into the film. The only subtitles were Dutch (there is a reason behind why in Dutch). Finally what this page and the sellers forget to tell you is that this is a Dutch Blu-Ray. PAL Region B it be but even the blurb (not featured in the pictures of Amazon) was in Dutch.
R.R.P of this piece of crap? £20 - £25. Are you for real? If I had the slightest inclining into what state the Blu-Ray was in I would of abandoned ship without hesitation. Do the same, this product actually lies to you. At the bottom of the front cover you will see "Maximum Hi-Def Experience". I'm sorry, I was unaware that 1080p was around in 1991. Another fabrication, they have adjusted the screen resolution - that is all. This is in no regards High Definition. Another common mistake that these corporate sado masochistics pump out like yesterdays News of The World.
THE FEATURE FILM
After I saw the first film I had a feeling about this film. I thought it would be awesome but wouldn't touch the first one. I was wrong, it wasn't awesome. It was the worst film I have ever seen. That's right the worst film I have ever seen. Not even in the sense that this film went and changed the entire narrative of the first one for all it's film buggering pleasure and that was it. No. It was a bad film, period. Alright Highlander fans prepare your self for something that can't and won't spoil a thing but still has to have an ***alert*** on in case you want to watch this ungodly creation. Tune in and you see Connor, he's old, he may be dead - no he's asleep, where? At the opera. Great. During this dotty 20 minute (that's right 20 minute) scene. He dot's back and forth between dreaming and watching this woman at the opera give us all headaches. So he's dreaming, he's dreaming of -- of course. Being from an alien planet unknown to earthlings. I must have forgotten that's where he was from in the first one. In fact it completely slipped my mind that he had come to earth because he was exiled from the Planet Zeist (to earth for some, again unknown reason) for trying to upstage an alien government dictatorship (Try saying that three times fast, wait don't). He's awake! He missed the end of the opera. "Mr McLeod, the opera's finished." "Thank you Charlie". He talks as if he has had throat cancer. He is actually forcing a raspy voice. Such bad acting. It is like when your playing around and trying to do an old man's voice. That is exactly how Lambert sounded. Shocking. You find out here major flaw number one, that Ramirez (Sean Connery) actually knew Connor before the first film on this planet and hand picked him to lead the rebels they fought with and got caught in the process. Oh and they were joined mentally by an alien technique (this included dipping your hands into a pot of glowing yellow ooze and touching the others forehead wiping it on them and nodding - in my days that was called being a wanker.) never referred to in the film but is sadly apparently "The Quickening". (You know that thing they felt with the stag in the first one). The Quickening now means when your joined you can call back the other person if they pop their clogs and the other truly needs them at any time and like 'Magic' there living again. Connor of course had known this through the first film and his entire life and only chose two weeks before he was meant to be dead as a mortal to use it. Oh and for what reason because people from Zeist attacked Connor in an ally about 500 years since they exiled him and decided they wanted him dead now in case for some reason he comes back because since he served his sentence. WHAT?! You send him away and in case he comes back (somehow? Last time I checked we - earth - didn't know the planet Zeist existed let alone could get there), have him killed. Orders "Kill The Highlander" (The Highlander who actually isn't from the Highlands now). The whole feel for this films scenery is Judge Dredd The Movie (The 2nd Worst Film of All Time) and Total Recall (Awesome). Make your own minds up on that. At this point I would like to note that the same director is back on this one and a lot of his staff like the script writer (I know right?) and the the set designer. How can you go from getting it so right to getting so unbelievably wrong!
So were half an hour into this film so far this film has destroyed the first film. Through out some tripe about politics on another planet and had Jedward dressed up as porcupines attack Connor and loose making him immortal and young again. The film continues. Sean Connery is brought back to this almost destroyed world due to the O-Zone layer collapsing (which killed Connors second wife Brenda now played in a flashback scarred and covered with bandages by actress Karin Drevler. WHO?!)and the skies are covered in a shield powered by Connor's soul from the first one. GREAT. *shudders* The next hour of the film the main antagonist Michael Ironside (Who has a scar on his face even though immortals can't scar in this like the Kurgan did in the first one. There invulnerable as well as immortal apart from the head thing... it makes you wonder how the hell they go these actors to sign on.) comes to earth to do the job himself (kill Connor) and McLeod finds a terrorist who hates the shield and how it's made the world awful, humps her against a wall within minutes of meeting her. (To the tune of Who Wants To Live Forever) - an insult to both Freddie Mercury and the music. Then takes her home formulates a plan bumps into Ramirez in the last 20 minutes of the film (Connery was mostly in this film by voice, he had 12 minutes of dialogue. 7 of which were in Lambert's head!). The antagonist for some reason magically knows that the shield corporation is someone who will team up with him to do whatever and takes on the Highlander 1 posse plus the terrorist chick. Oh the guy who plays Dr.Cox in Scrubs is the owner of the Shield Corporation. So cox gets killed by ironside and ironside kills Ramirez with a big fan (who has his sword that McLeod had in the first one and dies with it again) then goes to find Connor and the terrorist chick (cue terrible evil laugh that happens from Ironside 5 times through the film), finds him and fights and looses to the sword of Ramirez (the one that got blown up by the big fan along with it's owner ten minutes ago). Cut to credits in the over starry sky over Manhattan in the year 2024.
More flaws than I actually care to name. This film is just bang right awful. Never watch it. The acting is terrible surprisingly since it had some A-List stars. It was really bad filmed (I saw 12 repeated scenes, 12!). Stupidly written. The amount of loathing felt for this film is just incomprehensible. Don't just take my word for it, there isn't a film magazine in the world that I have seen that has had anything good to say about this film apart from the cast (and not even all of them agreed on that). This was the start of a big fall, although the worst film in the series. the films that proceeded tried to pick it up and failed. As did the series and the anime etc. This dried dog mess ended the Highlander story at the first one. If you had any respect for the original you would nod and walk away. End.
The slogan from these films can never be more correct. There can be only ONE! Go and buy the Immortal Edition of the first film with about 30 pounds worth of awesomeness packed in it's steel book pages.
Highlander: Immortal Edition (Limited Edition Steelbook) [Blu-ray] on Amazon now.
Highlander II. Even the title for this 'exclusive' Blu-Ray edition is wrong, a mess, incorrect. If this is your first time looking at this after the fantastic 1986 film Highlander directed by Russell Mulcahy, you are in for a treat. This is the not so sequential sequel. Why do you buy a Blu-Ray? Usually it is because it offers something a DVD can't for a film you believe is amazing or is part of a series you believe to be amazing, right? You would think that it would be cooler on Blu-Ray. Lots of things to make a fan explode with excitement. Wrong, completely and utterly one hundred percent wrong!
The first thing you see when you go to purchase this title is the cover. If your in a hurry to buy the next chapter in the Highlander story, you may overlook the cover and see 'Blu-Ray' in that shiny italic writing and the words 'Highlander 2' etched onto it. I have to point out the film was actually titled "Highlander II: The Quickening". Sadly this isn't the only version of the film to do that since the cross over to digital. DVD's are just as guilty. Cover art. It is cheap, tacky and obviously done in a matter of minutes on Photoshop (and that's being extremely generous). Proof being save the cover image from Amazon yourself. Blow it up the accurate Blu-Ray cover size. The pictures of Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert are pixelated at a distance never mind when you focus. The main feature on the front is the "Macleod" sword featured heavily in the first one. Only the first one, it wasn't in any section of this film - flashback or otherwise. "Director's cut" an infamous pack of lies on a lot of products these days. This is just another case. There is nothing cut or otherwise in this film. It is the same as the Theatrical, VHS & DVD release. Wanna know the worst part, it has no Special Features, what so ever. Not one. No deleted scenes, no commentary - NADA. I have had VHS with deleted scenes for goodness sake. This is a Blu-Ray that isn't in mainstream shops any more (and I can see why!). I was appalled at the shabbiness of it all. No special features, wrong title, poor cover art and it has NO menu. Straight into the film. The only subtitles were Dutch (there is a reason behind why in Dutch). Finally what this page and the sellers forget to tell you is that this is a Dutch Blu-Ray. PAL Region B it be but even the blurb (not featured in the pictures of Amazon) was in Dutch.
R.R.P of this piece of crap? £20 - £25. Are you for real? If I had the slightest inclining into what state the Blu-Ray was in I would of abandoned ship without hesitation. Do the same, this product actually lies to you. At the bottom of the front cover you will see "Maximum Hi-Def Experience". I'm sorry, I was unaware that 1080p was around in 1991. Another fabrication, they have adjusted the screen resolution - that is all. This is in no regards High Definition. Another common mistake that these corporate sado masochistics pump out like yesterdays News of The World.
THE FEATURE FILM
After I saw the first film I had a feeling about this film. I thought it would be awesome but wouldn't touch the first one. I was wrong, it wasn't awesome. It was the worst film I have ever seen. That's right the worst film I have ever seen. Not even in the sense that this film went and changed the entire narrative of the first one for all it's film buggering pleasure and that was it. No. It was a bad film, period. Alright Highlander fans prepare your self for something that can't and won't spoil a thing but still has to have an ***alert*** on in case you want to watch this ungodly creation. Tune in and you see Connor, he's old, he may be dead - no he's asleep, where? At the opera. Great. During this dotty 20 minute (that's right 20 minute) scene. He dot's back and forth between dreaming and watching this woman at the opera give us all headaches. So he's dreaming, he's dreaming of -- of course. Being from an alien planet unknown to earthlings. I must have forgotten that's where he was from in the first one. In fact it completely slipped my mind that he had come to earth because he was exiled from the Planet Zeist (to earth for some, again unknown reason) for trying to upstage an alien government dictatorship (Try saying that three times fast, wait don't). He's awake! He missed the end of the opera. "Mr McLeod, the opera's finished." "Thank you Charlie". He talks as if he has had throat cancer. He is actually forcing a raspy voice. Such bad acting. It is like when your playing around and trying to do an old man's voice. That is exactly how Lambert sounded. Shocking. You find out here major flaw number one, that Ramirez (Sean Connery) actually knew Connor before the first film on this planet and hand picked him to lead the rebels they fought with and got caught in the process. Oh and they were joined mentally by an alien technique (this included dipping your hands into a pot of glowing yellow ooze and touching the others forehead wiping it on them and nodding - in my days that was called being a wanker.) never referred to in the film but is sadly apparently "The Quickening". (You know that thing they felt with the stag in the first one). The Quickening now means when your joined you can call back the other person if they pop their clogs and the other truly needs them at any time and like 'Magic' there living again. Connor of course had known this through the first film and his entire life and only chose two weeks before he was meant to be dead as a mortal to use it. Oh and for what reason because people from Zeist attacked Connor in an ally about 500 years since they exiled him and decided they wanted him dead now in case for some reason he comes back because since he served his sentence. WHAT?! You send him away and in case he comes back (somehow? Last time I checked we - earth - didn't know the planet Zeist existed let alone could get there), have him killed. Orders "Kill The Highlander" (The Highlander who actually isn't from the Highlands now). The whole feel for this films scenery is Judge Dredd The Movie (The 2nd Worst Film of All Time) and Total Recall (Awesome). Make your own minds up on that. At this point I would like to note that the same director is back on this one and a lot of his staff like the script writer (I know right?) and the the set designer. How can you go from getting it so right to getting so unbelievably wrong!
So were half an hour into this film so far this film has destroyed the first film. Through out some tripe about politics on another planet and had Jedward dressed up as porcupines attack Connor and loose making him immortal and young again. The film continues. Sean Connery is brought back to this almost destroyed world due to the O-Zone layer collapsing (which killed Connors second wife Brenda now played in a flashback scarred and covered with bandages by actress Karin Drevler. WHO?!)and the skies are covered in a shield powered by Connor's soul from the first one. GREAT. *shudders* The next hour of the film the main antagonist Michael Ironside (Who has a scar on his face even though immortals can't scar in this like the Kurgan did in the first one. There invulnerable as well as immortal apart from the head thing... it makes you wonder how the hell they go these actors to sign on.) comes to earth to do the job himself (kill Connor) and McLeod finds a terrorist who hates the shield and how it's made the world awful, humps her against a wall within minutes of meeting her. (To the tune of Who Wants To Live Forever) - an insult to both Freddie Mercury and the music. Then takes her home formulates a plan bumps into Ramirez in the last 20 minutes of the film (Connery was mostly in this film by voice, he had 12 minutes of dialogue. 7 of which were in Lambert's head!). The antagonist for some reason magically knows that the shield corporation is someone who will team up with him to do whatever and takes on the Highlander 1 posse plus the terrorist chick. Oh the guy who plays Dr.Cox in Scrubs is the owner of the Shield Corporation. So cox gets killed by ironside and ironside kills Ramirez with a big fan (who has his sword that McLeod had in the first one and dies with it again) then goes to find Connor and the terrorist chick (cue terrible evil laugh that happens from Ironside 5 times through the film), finds him and fights and looses to the sword of Ramirez (the one that got blown up by the big fan along with it's owner ten minutes ago). Cut to credits in the over starry sky over Manhattan in the year 2024.
More flaws than I actually care to name. This film is just bang right awful. Never watch it. The acting is terrible surprisingly since it had some A-List stars. It was really bad filmed (I saw 12 repeated scenes, 12!). Stupidly written. The amount of loathing felt for this film is just incomprehensible. Don't just take my word for it, there isn't a film magazine in the world that I have seen that has had anything good to say about this film apart from the cast (and not even all of them agreed on that). This was the start of a big fall, although the worst film in the series. the films that proceeded tried to pick it up and failed. As did the series and the anime etc. This dried dog mess ended the Highlander story at the first one. If you had any respect for the original you would nod and walk away. End.
The slogan from these films can never be more correct. There can be only ONE! Go and buy the Immortal Edition of the first film with about 30 pounds worth of awesomeness packed in it's steel book pages.
Highlander: Immortal Edition (Limited Edition Steelbook) [Blu-ray] on Amazon now.
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