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Highlander 2 Special Edition: anyone buying? (1 Viewer)

JoeU

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May 22, 2002
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The Digital Bits today posted specs for a Highlander 2 Special Edition due on 7/20. It sounds like a nice 2 disc set, but most people who have seen it agree that the film itself is a piece of crap. I'm a huge fan of the original Highlander, but I consider Highlander 2 to be one of the worst films I've ever seen. Even so I'm considering picking this up just for a look at the behind the scenes goings on of this movie. Just curious how many other Highlander fans might buy this even though they hate the film. It looks as if the studio is pretty confident of decent sales since the Bits description said the original effects team produced 100 new shots for this release.

The description doesn't specify so I'm also curious as to whether this will be the original version where
 

Jim Barg

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My Renegade Version experience goes something like this: Bought it on a whim. I watched it for 15 minutes, put it back in its case and returned it the next day (and I enjoy the original Highlander a great deal, so I was hoping it was not as bad as I'd heard).

Perhaps if it's $15 or so, I might take a chance, but I doubt it.

Edit: Just finished reading the Bits, lots of extras for probably around $15... maybe.
 

Matt Czyz

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To quote Ebert (who was referring to "North"):

"I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it."

My feelings towards Highlander 2 exactly.
 

Will_B

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Never again. I enjoyed the film when I was a child. Later I mildly enjoyed seeing the tv version with the "floating" ending. More recently I was really bored by the Renegade Version and regretted the $8 I spent on it. Today if I were to get the Special Edition, I expect I'd go into some kind of coma.

Fortress is probably a better Lambert sci-fi action film than H2.

The only film worse than H2 I can think of is H3 (the one with the villain who sounds like Harvey Feirstein).
 

David_Blackwell

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I like H2. I bought the Renegade Version on VHS for $15 back in 1994. The Renegade version is the one on the SE . I would definitely love to review this SE.

I like the Renegade Version (it improves on the crap editing of the Quickening that made H2 a bad mess).
 

Artur Meinild

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People bashing Highlander 2 need to clearly distinguish between the theatrical version and the Renegade version (director's cut)!
The theatrical version is simply unwatchable, as it's been edited to hell, and it makes no sense with regard to the other highlander movies (outer space???)... My rating: 1/10 (unwatchable, on par with Battlefield Earth or Lawnmower Man 2)
The Renegade version however, actually makes some kind of sense, and it has a number of brilliant scenes and good lines of dialogue. It is nowhere as good as the original, but some poeple (including me) like it for what it is... My rating: 6/10 (average, entertaining but has problems - the same rating as I gave Tomb Raider and The Lost World)
It is very possible I'll buy the new special edition to compliment the Anchor Bay SE of highlander.
 

oscar_merkx

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never saw the Director's Cut as I thought H2 was a waste of time compared to the original

:emoji_thumbsup:
 

Magnus T

Supporting Actor
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I'm tempted, but... could I? Would I? Should I?

This film easily falls in the catagory: "so bad it's good".
 

Stephen Brooks

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Gee, I can't believe no one has started a petition yet demanding the ORIGINAL THEATRICAL VERSION!! It's a piece of history, you know. Don't let them rape your childhood. :rolleyes
 

Derek P

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I hated the theatrical version but these extras sound tempting especially with deep discount dvd price of 10$. But I don't consider this a Highlander film.

My Highlander timeline:
Highlander Orginal movie
Highlander Duncan Series
Highlander Endgame

There are no other Highlander besides that.

But this renegade version is tempting to hear what they were smoking when they thought of this.

For someone with the Renegade verision can you please sum up how they brought Sean Connery back and how they avoided the outer space origin. Thanks
 

Tony Whalen

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Hmmm... I'll think about this one. But first, I want to hear which cut it is. If it's the theatrical Ziest-cut...no thanks.
 

Adam_ME

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May 31, 2002
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Actually, I find it interesting how none of the original theatrical cuts of the Highlander films are available on DVD. None of the fans seem to mind with this franchise though(maybe since most of them choose to ignore the series after the first movie).
 

Grant H

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Actually, how they brought Connery back was, to me, the only thing that made any lick of sense.

Good to see the quickening actually used for something. In H2 MacLeod and Ramirez had some kind of bond with the Quickening that not even death could break. I think Ramirez said all MacLeod had to do was call on him. After MacLeod took a head and called his name, rather than absorb the Quickening in the normal fashion it's power regenerated Ramirez in the very spot he perished. Afterall, MacLeod should have carried his essence anyway since he had all the knoweledge and power of all the Immortals at the end of Highlander 1. Besides, isn't "the quickening" the rising of the dead? (in the Bible I think). Here, it makes a lot of sense. Of course, if I were MacLeod I'd have made a bond with the hottest female Immortal, and then when I was the last one called out her name during the Quickening and lived forever with her.:) Then again, there were no female immortals until the series.
 

JoeU

Grip
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May 22, 2002
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In regards to your post Grant H, I had never put much thought into trying to figure this movie out, but that does actually make sense.
 

Geoff_D

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As much as I love the original Highlander film, and to some extent the TV series, Highlander 2 (theatrical edit) is the worst film I've ever seen. Out of fear, I've never gone near the Renegade version, and I sure as hell never will after reading Joe's assessment of how this edit creatively deals with the 'Planet Zeist' thing. And to be on the safe side, I'm gonna avoid this new DVD like the plague. I'm shaking my head just thinking about this film as I type, and I hope to never mention it again. Ever.
 

Artur Meinild

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Some of you don't get it... You mention Planet Zeist like that was the original script, and that the Renegade version should somehow "get around", when it's in fact the other way around. There was never meant to be anything about outer space, but this was changed in the theatrical cut. Everything that made absolutely no sense was changes made to the theatrical release from the original material which actually did make sense in the highlander universe. Forget everything about Planet Zeist, it does not exist in the script, it is the idea of stupid studio execs.
And sorry, I can't take anyone who hasn't actually seen the Renegade version serious in this discussion. You pretend to know it's as bad as the theatrical version, when in fact it's not. It's still not a masterpiece, but your arguments are as invalid as with any other movie you're trying to discuss without having seen it.
 

Will_B

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Um, perhaps early scripts did not include Zeist. But obviously by the time they started filming, it was a key part of the story.

The Renegade version can't fix everything. There's the impossibility of guards not seeing people rapelling down the dam. There's the oddness that the woman in the story is brave enough to infiltrate a corporate stronghold but hides in a dumpster from a punk on a flying skateboard...
 

PhilipG

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Well, as a fan of Virginia Madsen, Michael Ironside and the music by Queen, I'm going to give the Renegade version a chance. I shall keep my expectations really, really low, and will hopefully be surprised.

(I have the LD of the theatrical version, and watched it only once.)
 

David_Blackwell

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I think Highlander: Endgame makes Highlander 2: the Renegade Version look like a classic. I think Highlander: Endgame is so bad as a movie in the way it has every single characcter in the movie acting out of character and go against some things established in the TV series and ignores Highlander 3 completely.
 

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