Highlander 2 - BAD MOVIES!

hey guys welcome back yet again to another episode of the show where I find some of the worst reviewed movies of all time and take a look at what went wrong back in the 1980s there was this movie that came out called Highlander it starred Christopher Lambert who some of you may recognize as Raiden from the first Mortal Kombat movie and Sean Connery now I think Highlander is a pretty cool movie I mean it's not perfect by any means but I think it's got a really cool story I think it's well directed and it's different I really like that about it you could make the argument that the sequel is different as well and it is it is very different however the sequel is different more it's not different in the good way it's more different in a way that makes you go wait what why why was what Highlander is centered around Connor MacLeod a Scotsman living back in the 1500s who finds out from the character Ramirez that he is actually an immortal being Ramirez trains MacLeod in combat and reveals to him that the only way he can die is by decapitation and that there are other immortals who will all fight each other until only one remains the movie primarily takes place in 1985 but jumps back and forth to different time periods showing Connors progression until the movie reaches its conclusion when Connor is tasked to fight the strongest and only other remaining immortal now Islander really wasn't that successful when it was first released but eventually it went on to become a cult film and drew quite a fanbase there was a Highlander TV series and a bunch of sequels the first of which is what this episode is all about Highlander 2 is a weird movie and coming from me that means it's really weird because like just look at this show and look at the look at the stuff I've been spending my spare time watching for the past seven years like weird has become my new normal I've accepted that just look at the first Highlander movie sword fight between two immortals in a parking lot after a wrestling match I didn't even blink an eye at that that was coolest actually but this I don't even really know what this is it's and I know I said this so many times on this show it feels like a bunch of different things and ideas just mashed together in this movie I'm I'm dead serious it really feels like that you know when you were a kid and do you remember I can remember being a kid and playing with like markers like Crayola markers and you know you'd combine two of the colors to create different colors it was like oh this is cool and then at one point you have the idea what if I combine all of the markers on the box and it just becomes this shitty brown color that's what this is that's that's really what this movie this movie is the the shitty Brown combination of things I also have to mention that there are multiple versions of this film so apparently during principal photography the production went broke and that led to the bonding company which ensured the production to come in and just take over the film and take over editing and that's what led to the horrible theatrical release since then there have been several rillette it's done for the subsequent releases for the felon like the DVD release blu-ray release might have been something done for the European release but in these Reata it's the filmmakers trying to correct the things that audience is hated and I gotta say a lot of this stuff you know it's like putting lipstick on a pig you know it's like yeah okay you did that but still a pig the original theatrical release is actually really hard to find because the DVD and blu-ray releases are all the recut versions of the film so if you want to find that original theatrical version you have to track down the VHS or laserdisc copy of the film and I haven't been able to find a rip of either of those online I did find certain scenes which I'm going to use in this review but for this review I'm going to be doing the the blu-ray copy which is you know the reality of the film but don't worry because like there's there's enough here put it that way like I'm not I'm not I'm not short on stuff to talk about the movie starts in the year 2024 where earth no longer has any ozone layer so a giant shield now protects the planet since McCloud won the Battle of the Immortals in the first movie he became mortal and could read people's thoughts now because he became mortal again he was able to grow old which is why at the beginning of the movie he's shown as an old man and this is where the movie already just takes a dive off the deep end and insults not only fans of the original movie but anybody who remembers what happened in the original movie the movie starts intercutting between MacLeod at the opera and memories of his past which make no sense so 500 years ago there was a rebellion against a general named katana somewhere on earth somewhere with very advanced weaponry because judging my pictures of guns from the 16th century I'm guessing no other civilization got the memo on how to make an assault rifle five centuries ago and not only were McLeod and Ramirez part of this rebellion but Ramirez actually picks MacLeod out of the group for being a man of great destiny and even creates some kind of special bond with him after the fall of the rebels katana captures MacLeod and Ramirez and the priests of the planet have them exiled into the future to compete in the Battle of the Immortals the winner of which will get to choose to either grow old and die in the future or return back with his freedom and faith restored which of course would lead into the events of the first movie now the original version of the movie was a little bit different the rebellion didn't take place on earth 500 years ago it took place on a different planet the planet of Zeist MacLeod and Ramirez aren't exiled into the future they're exiled to the planet Earth to compete in the battle of the Immortals leaders of the rebellion you've been found guilty of treason we hereby sentence you to exile from sized you will be sent to the planet Earth once there will be immortal you can only die if your head is cut from your body and one of you becomes the last of us on earth Z will claim the prize it can return to Zeist or choose to grow old and die on earth fans of the movie were understandably kind of pissed off with the notion that the clouded ramírez were aliens from a different planet however the funny thing is the re-edited version of the movie which takes out all references to the planets ice and instead replaces it with them you know being from Earth and being exiled into the future I would argue doesn't make any more sense in fact ie I think it actually makes less sense therefore I sentence you both to the same exile an exile into the future what in that distant future you will face other immortals in trial by combat from which only one can survive finally the last one to survive will have a choice choice what choice grow old and die in the future or return here with his freedom and faith restored as an audience we're being told that MacLeod and Ramirez knew each other and even shared a special bond with each other and the events that took place before the first movie even though in the first movie Connor MacLeod has no idea who Ramirez is this was kind of a big part of the first movie and Connor McLeod's development as a character the training by Ramirez where he also teaches Connor about his own immortality and the battle that is about to occur amongst the Immortals so if we accept Highlander twos assertion that Connor MacLeod obviously already knew all of these things beforehand then I guess we're just supposed to assume that what he just forgot all of these things at some point oh okay yeah I'm starting to remember now it's yeah it's it's coming back you're you're that guy who you picked me out of a crowd of people and said I was a man of great destiny and then we had some kind of special bonding thing where we dip their fingers and some kind of quickening juice and then there was all this electricity and lightning and then you wrote some shit on my forehead and then we had a battle with the with the rebels and then we lost and then we were exiled into the future to battle it out with a bunch of other exiled immortals oh yeah okay yeah you know I gotta start writing this stuff down now apparently in the original script this was explained by Ramirez and MacLeod being reborn on planet earth and not having any memory of their past until it was time for the tournament however this doesn't make sense either because at no point in the original movie does MacLeod remember this stuff anyways back in the past Kitana and the priests are watching a live stream of MacLeod as an old man and then the priests start talking about how MacLeod still hasn't made his choice yet and that he could still come back from the future okay so I think it was made pretty clear at the end of the first movie that MacLeod made the choice to stay with Brenda have children and use his gift of reading people's minds to make the world a better place why why would he go back in time now to fight this douche or maybe it's because in the original cut katana overheard MacLeod saying this if I win the prize I'll be back anyways there are groups of people who think the ozone shield is no longer needed and that the shield corporation just wants to keep it running for profit so they're trying to take it down one of these groups is run by the character Louise who at one point finds a note in her bag telling her to meet MacLeod at a bar which is very strange I mean it's never explained how the note got in there for her or how anyone knew where MacLeod would be you might think that maybe MacLeod wanted to get this information to her you know but that doesn't make any sense either because when she gets to the bar he wants nothing to do with her taras a dangerous business miss Marcus I'm not a terrorist well whatever you are miss Marcus you'll have to excuse me I had some very disturbing nose did somebody die unfortunately not Marcus for some reason I guess MacLeod has become immortal again he finds this out when his hand is cut and it heals instantly why is he immortal again I don't know he just is I guess the entire plot of the first movie is now meaningless so katana sends some assassins into the future to kill MacLeod because he's worried that MacLeod is gonna come back why is he so worried about that he kicked McLeod's ass the first time so who cares why don't you just go into the future and kill him why send these dipshits anyways the assassins show up and stop them and MacLeod tells louise to hide in the dumpster and not to make a sound but the assassins are right there they can see you I mean what's the point of hiding if the people that you're hiding from can see where you're hiding anyways these guys are kind of like an insanely annoying version of the twins from the Matrix Reloaded so after one assassin gets his head cut off MacLeod is hit with the quickening and turns into younger MacLeod I would say it made him immortal again but as I mentioned earlier it appears like he became immortal again before this anyways after he cuts the head off the other assassin he and Louise decide to start make it out for some reason I really don't understand why the movie tries to make this some intensely romantic moment I mean they don't they don't even know each other they there was no build-up to this at all they met he told her to get lost she spent a few seconds driving with him he comes out of an explosion looking 30 years younger and suddenly it's dry hump city the next scene is hilarious because Louise tries to make sense of everything and it basically just proves that changing the story from MacLeod being from a different planet to being from a different time period just adds confusion because she's talking about him within the context of being from a different planet so it just sounds weird okay now let me just see if I can get this straight you're mortal there but you're immortal here until you kill all the guys from there we'll come here and then your mortal here unless you go back there or some more guys from there come here in which case you become immortal here again something like that now even though Ramirez was killed in the first movie he's suddenly brought back to life thanks to a very convenient piece of writing but we had joined in a way that could never be broken not even by death when you need me you'll only have to call my name Gaetano goes into the future to kill macleod himself and macleod at one point just goes to his hideout i'm not sure how he knew where to find him New York is kind of a big city Ramirez and MacLeod decide to help Louise take down the shield so they drive to a prison to talk to the guy who helped McCloud build the shield 25 years ago and I love how there's no gate or anything they're able to pretty much just drive right in at one point they reach a bunch of armed guards who just completely spray the car with bullets Louise was hiding in the trunk and I have to say this was an incredibly dangerous plan sure Ramirez and McCloud are immortal but Louise isn't and I think in a situation like this there's a pretty good chance of one of those bullets finding its way into the trunk just hide in the trunk hon just hide in the trunk yes there's a good chance we're just gonna get completely turned into Swiss cheese but hopefully you'll be okay back there you know just just curl up in a ball and maybe we'll get lucky anyways Ramirez uses some kind of immortal magic to stop some fan blades which kills him and Louise and MacLeod drive to an area where there's some kind of hole in the shield so they so they climb up a mountain so they can see over the shield and I don't see what the point of this is is this is this to see if the shield is still necessary like if the ozone layer has repaired itself yes I guess nothing beats the old I test everything looks nice up here so I'm gonna guess that the ozone layer is all good so they go to the shield generator and even with all these security guards I guess they're able to just walk in during the final fight McCloud somehow just has his original katana back like there he is with his original sword from the first movie where did this come from it never appeared throughout the movie and suddenly he just has it the funny thing is it's something like this seems pretty small compared to all the other things wrong with the movie the the idea of his item like his sword just coming out of nowhere is miniscule when compared to everything else in the movie that doesn't make sense MacLeod cuts off general katanas hat walks into the I don't know I'm just gonna keep calling this the shield generator and this destroys the shield now the movie ends with MacLeod and Louise outside kissing cut to a shot of the earth pan up to the stars roll credits the end right however and one of the other versions of the film there's a different ending which is called the fairytale ending and this ending consists of MacLeod taking Louise back to his home planets and I'm just gonna roll the whole thing for you right now because it's it's pretty funny [Music] will you show me your home can you see it from here see that little star next to the moon that's where I'm going [Music] come with me I can't and you know it sure you can how it's a kind of magic come on we can do it remember Highlander you're both still got you a full measure of wine use it well and your future will be lunch [Music] you [Applause] and to be quite honest the decision to go back and recut the film and remove any reference to them being from a different planet you know it it really doesn't change all of that much you know in my opinion it doesn't doesn't make the movie substantially better it's like maybe one percent better but then it adds in its its own slew of problems as I outlined before I know there were other changes made to fully grasp that you'd have to watch the original theatrical version but I mean if this version is the better version that I can only imagine what it was like to watch the original cut in the theater when it came out to be fair as bad as this movie is I've definitely seen worse on the show but this is definitely one of the worst sequels I've ever seen the the irony here of course is that one of the like the tagline throughout the Highlander series is there can only be one and after watching this sequel maybe there should have only been one as usual thanks for watching guys my next review I'm gonna be doing Manos the hands of fate that's a review that I've put off for years and I finally dug into so I'm writing that right now and that should be the next video coming up soon so once again thanks for watching guys we'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: FanboyFlicks

Views: 274,837

Rating: 4.8983583 out of 5

Keywords: Highlander 2, Highlander, Sean Connery, Christopher Lambert, Virginia Madsen, Michael Ironside, Comedy, Funny, Hilarious, Bad movies, movie reviews, Bad Movie (Film), movie review, Reviews, fanboy flicks, horrible movies, worst movies, rotten tomatoes, sci fi, fantasy

Id: nJaaAvcjoik

Length: 19min 49sec (1189 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 10 2018