Highlander II: The Renegade Version (1995)

Three official versions of the film exist. The theatrical cut (100 mins), known as Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), is an abomination. The Renegade Version (109 mins), aka The Director's Cut, that surfaced in ’95 reconstructs the film by rearranging key scenes, fixing many of the continuity errors and best of all completely rewriting the ridiculous origin story of the theatrical cut. It’s still an illogical mess, but in comparison to its predecessor it’s a masterpiece. A subsequent Special Edition (2004) is reportedly the same as the Renegade Version but with extra CGI and some colour correction; I've not seen it to confirm if that’s true or not. Detailing all of that has left me no room to talk about the actual film. Create a list of synonyms for ‘travesty’ and pick the ten best. That should suffice.

1 shithead out of 5

Highlander (1986)

An American-born, Swiss-raised, fluent in French guy plays a 16th century Scottish highlander. There’s an actual Scotsman playing a 2437-year-old Spaniard who’s really Egyptian. And finally, at least as far as this review is concerned, is an American actor portraying someone from Russia. Even though no one sounds anything like they’re supposed to and much of the plot is ridiculous it’s a bloody good film. Lambert’s myopic gaze has a real strength to it. Connery is pure Connery. The Kurgan is a wonderfully OTT villain that looks like death warmed up. The backlit, fantasy nonsense is eye-wateringly dramatic and the music ranges from eerie to epic. How or why it all works is indeed a kind of magic.

3½ heads are better than none out of 5