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Idiocracy movie

The theatrical release of Mike Judge’s new comedy “Idiocracy” is one of the most egregious travesties of modern cinema. Not because the film is awful, which it most definitely is not. Seeing this film dumped during one of the slowest movie attending weekends of the year, in only a handful of screens, with no theatrical trailer or television commercials and only a single opening-day newspaper, is a crying shame. Or, at least, that is the most polite thing I can write without breaking into a profanity-laced tirade.
We can go on and on about how badly Fox botched the release of Mike Judge’s last feature film, “Office Space,” but the truth of the matter is Fox gave the film a decent release in 1999, putting it out into almost 1,750 theatres. The film simply wasn’t embraced by audiences until its premiere on cable and DVD. Since then, “Office Space” has rightfully found a cult audience, with its dead-on characterizations and wish-fulfillment fantasies of practically everyone who has ever worked in that type of environment. So the question is, why didn’t “Idiocracy” get any kind of chance to sink or swim on its own merits? Why was this hidden away from the press, and kept away from most of the major East Coast metropolitan cities? Elementary, my dear Watson… the film is just too savage in its brutal skewering of modern society for mass consumption. While a movie like “Talladega Nights” might tap the audience it targets with a velvet glove, “Idiocracy” hacks away at both the smart and the dumb with a comedic machete.

In a nutshell, On an army base in Virginia, we are introduced to Private Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), an average man who wants nothing more out of life than to finish the last six years of his time in the military so he can collect a nice pension. Against his protests, Joe is volunteered for a top-secret project, the Human Hibernation Project. For years, the armed forces have been training a number of excellent pilots, soldiers and officers, only to see their entire careers wasted during extended times of peace. So before the military sends their best and brightest into deep sleep, they want to test these hibernation chambers on ordinary test subjects. Thus, the most average person in the Army will be the first test subject: Joe, who is unmarried, childless and an only child with no living relatives to ask nosy questions if something goes wrong. Unable to find a suitable female soldier, the brass are forced out into the private sector, bringing in a young woman named Rita (Maya Rudolph), who only agrees to join up in exchange for the dropping of some criminal charges and a fee paid to her pimp, Upgrayedd (with two D’s for “a double dose of the pimpin’”). As is wont to happen, the project doesn’t quite go the way it was planned, and Joe and Rita are kept in hibernation for five hundred years, until a tidal wave of trash their pods have become a part of sends them crashing into an unfamiliar future, which has become overrun with simpleton mongoloids, caused by hundreds of years of overbreeding by the cesspool of society and a lack of breeding by the best and brightest.

In my January 2004 review of the screenplay, I said “So savage and scabrous does this screenplay get at times, this reviewer cannot imagine the powers of be allowing everything in the script to make it to the final cut. Which would be a shame, because what makes the screenplay so uproarious is its brutal honesty about what is happening with the world today.” There are a number of minor scenes that ended up being scaled down or outright truncated between the writing of the screenplay and the release of the final film, but that could also be because Judge was never given a proper chance to finish the film as he saw fit. (Rumor has it that Robert Rodriguez donated a number of special effects shots to help Judge, a fellow Austin filmmaker, get the film completed, one that could have a basis in fact, judging from the special thank you Troublemaker Studios gets in the film’s end credits.) What is surprising, though, is how much of the screenplay actually did make it to the screen. (Rumor also has it that the film was the target of a civil suit by several large corporations who were unhappy with the way they were being satirized in the film, and the lawsuit helped the studio lose confidence in the film, even though this all happened after the film was greenlit.) The favorite channels of the future being The Masturbation Channel and Fox News. The favorite television show being “Ow! My Balls!” and the favorite film being “Ass” (a single shot of a bare ass, which farts every few seconds). The size of a Costco being bigger than a large city. Starbucks being a place where you can get a lot more than a coffee (if you know what I mean, huh huh).

Like many of the greatest cinematic comedies, “Idiocracy” is a lean machine, clocking in at a mere 83 minutes. It sets up its premise succinctly and gets right into the story, flooring the acceleration right from the get-go and never looking back until the very end. Not a moment is wasted. Everything that happens on the screen is there for a reason, every joke set up to payoff two or three more down the road. And like all great comedies, having a talented cast with the smarts to trust in their filmmaker makes all the difference in the world. Luke Wilson gamely spirits Jimmy Stewart as the story’s everyman, constantly befuddled at what the world has become, while Maya Rudolph shines in her too few scenes at the prostitute who quickly comes to understand she has a lot more advantages in the future than she ever would have had in the present. Dax Shepard and “Everybody Hates Chris’s” Terry Crews are always hilarious as Joe’s future lawyer and the WWE-esque President of the United States, respectively, and there are great cameos from “Office Space” vets David Herman, Greg Pitts and Stephen Root.

Mike Judge is like a modern Lenny Bruce, recognized as a genius in his time but destined to become an immortal, the impact of his jabs not truly felt until years and decades after. “Idiocracy” will find its audience in the very near future, and that audience will chuckle, chortle, snicker, cackle and guffaw at how right Judge got it. But then they will stop laughing and remember one of the opening lines in the narration, “Evolution does not necessarily reward that which is good or beautiful, it simply rewards those who reproduce the most,” and will begin to cry, as the scenario depicted in “Idiocracy” is truly becoming more and more a probability with every passing day.

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The Ice Pirates movie

Yeah, that’s Anjelica Huston in a campy sci-fi spoof, but that doesn’t mean it ever takes itself seriously.

Robert Urich stars as a space pirate in the far future, when there’s no more water in the galaxy, and pirates work the shipping lanes of open space to steal what ice there is left. Urich’s Jason winds up in a plot involving a kidnapped princess, an evil empire, and a visit to “the seventh world,” which includes time travel,

It’s sci-fi camp, but the cheeseball special effects, low-budget sets, and iffy dialogue actually enhance the film to the point where it’s kinda sorta fun. When the “space herpe” (a ripoff of the chest-burster from Alien) shows up on the ship, we know we’re in for something, well, a little different.

Stupid, stupid, stupid… but amusing.

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I Robot movie

When all of the dust from 2004’s crumbling blockbusters has settled, I, Robot will likely emerge as the strongest mainstream motion picture of the summer. The best big-budget science fiction film since Minority Report, I, Robot gets high marks not only for storytelling but for its compelling vision of 2035 Chicago. Directed by Alex Proyas, who previously imagined the strikingly noir cityscapes of The Crow and Dark City, I, Robot takes ideas (and a character) presented in Isaac Asimov’s classic anthology of nine short stories and uses them as a jumping-off point for a thrilling action-adventure movie. Proper recognition goes to credited screenwriters Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman (and uncredited Hillary Seitz) for remaining faithful to the essential themes of Asimov’s writing while taking the story in a different, more cinematic direction. Asimov fans take note, however: this isn’t close to a faithful adaptation. In fact, it’s not really an adaptation at all.

I, Robot transpires some 30 years in the future, when robots are becoming as familiar an everyday household appliance as refrigerators or vacuum cleaners. But, on the eve of the rollout of the landmark NS5 series, trouble is brewing at U.S. Robotics. Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), the head of robot and cybernetic research, has apparently committed suicide. Technophobe cop Del Spooner (Will Smith) has been called in to investigate, and his first suspicion is that Dr. Lanning didn’t kill himself - a robot did it. His prime suspect is Sonny (Alan Tudyk), a robot with personality and who seems to have found a way around the Three Laws of Robotics. Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), a robopsychologist who works for U.S. Robotics, and CEO Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood), are suspicious of Spooner’s motives for blaming a robot, and skeptical of his conclusions. But that doesn’t stop Dr. Calvin from aiding the detective’s investigation and Robertson, who has a lot of money on the line, from pulling out all the stops to end it.

The film’s action sequences, which include chases and fights, are anything but generic. They are directed with flair, and that results in them being both tense and involving. The way the robots swarm after Spooner during one of I, Robot’s centerpiece scenes is reminiscent of the aliens’ attack patterns in James Cameron’s Aliens. The film carries a sense of the unpredictable; we’re never sure exactly what’s going to happen next, and there’s no assurance that Spooner will be alive when the end credits roll. These elements, not flashes and bangs, are what make action films suspenseful.

I, Robot starts with the story, which is more intelligent and engrossing than what we have come to expect from movies in this genre. The script uses the Three Laws of Robotics (developed by Asimov and John Campbell) as its foundation. They state: (1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, (2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law, and (3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Instead of just making these precepts a throw-away aspect of the plot, they are integral to its development and success. Take away Asimov’s Three Laws, and there is no movie.

I, Robot tinkers with ideas that have always fascinated science fiction fans. At what point does a personality simulation become a personality? Where is the line that divides a machine from a living being? When does consciousness occur? And at what point does an entity achieve the ability to interpret the Three Laws as it sees fit, not as they were intended? There’s plenty of thought-provoking material in I, Robot - certainly enough to keep a thinking viewer attuned to the plot while never slowing down the proceedings or dulling the action. I, Robot deserves to be called “smart.” It earns that distinction during nearly every frame of its 115-minute running time.

The setting - 2035 Chicago - is meticulously realized. Like in Minority Report, a great deal of thought went into imagining what the near future might look like. (Admittedly, however, I think much of what I, Robot postulates is too sophisticated for 2035. A better match to the technology evident in the film might be 2070.) Nothing in the film is outrageous. In fact, many aspects of life in 2035 aren’t that different from what they are today. And there are some neat touches (watch how Spooner’s car is “parked” after he arrives at U.S. Robotics). There are no phasers or lasers for weapons - the cops still use good old fashioned guns. Aside from that, the film looks stunning - but what else would one expect from the director of an eye-popping spectacle as Dark City?

I, Robot features some of the best uses of CGI special effects ever. Put this alongside the Star Wars prequels and The Lord of the Rings as a primer for the seamless incorporation of special effects. There’s a lot of computer work in I, Robot, but it’s never obvious or evident. It rarely calls attention to itself, and it is not clumsily inserted . When Will Smith interacts with a special effect, we forget that it’s an actor posturing with something drawn in by computer. After seeing a lot of cheap effects work that looks like it was exported from a computer game, it’s refreshing to see something of such high quality.

Another thing that I, Robot does is to prove that Will Smith can carry an action/adventure film on his own. Without support from Martin Lawrence, Tommy Lee Jones, Gene Hackman, Jeff Goldblum, or Kevin Kline, he shows that he’s got enough charisma and energy to hold a viewer’s attention. Plus, he can deliver the mandatory one-liners with as much brio as Schwarzenegger or Willis. Despite the physicality of the role, Smith manages to connect with the audience in everyman fashion, and, although the part requires a certain amount of wit, he doesn’t play it like a clown. Effective, but not outstanding, secondary work is provided by Bridget Moynahan (The Recruit), who plays the lead human character from Asimov’s stories. Bruce Greenwood is instantly recognizable as a bad guy, because he has become one of Hollywood’s favorite villains ever since he graduated from the obscurity of Atom Egoyan films (which still represent his best work to-date).

Although I, Robot isn’t quite as pulse-pounding or intellectually challenging as Minority Report, it stimulates many of the same areas of the brain, and causes the body to pump nearly as much adrenaline. In almost every way imaginable, it satisfies, and that (unfortunately) has been a rare quality at the multiplexes this summer. This is a movie to restore the faith of those who had given up on science fiction after The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions. By adeptly combining action and ideas, it proves that Hollywood can still produce astonishing entertainment.

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I Am Legend movie

I Am Legend, the third cinematic adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel, has been in development for a very long time. Originally slated to star Arnold Schwarzenegger and be directed by Ridley Scott, this movie has kicked around for so long that by the time it has finally reached the screen, Schwarzenegger is out of the business altogether and the director is someone whose career in music videos hadn’t even started when Michael Bay was being touted as possible replacement for Scott. Nevertheless, all these years later, we finally have this new version of I Am Legend, starring Will Smith as the Last Man on Earth and directed by Francis Lawrence (Constantine).

I suppose it’s a common fantasy - believing that you’re alone on the planet. The reality, if it ever happened, would be more the stuff of nightmares. When Matheson wrote I Am Legend; from which this movie takes its name, its main character, and certain events and themes; he was interested in exploring the hard aspects of what this kind of existence might really mean. Loneliness can drive a person slowly insane even if they guard against it. That lies at the core of I Am Legend - the psychological torment endured by the protagonist. That, and the vampires.

Matheson’s book has often been credited as the “inspiration” for many of the modern-day zombie movies; his “vampires” have a kinship with George A. Romero’s dead. Cinematically, the creatures of this film most evidently echo (perhaps because of the circumstances) those in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later. In fact, there are numerous similarities between that movie and I Am Legend, not the least of which is that both feature a scenario in which an apocalypse occurs because of a disease and those who don’t die turn into slavering, raving monsters.

I Am Legend opens in 2012 New York City - the most deserted place on Earth. Kudos to the special effects wizards for using computers to so effectively depopulate the city. It’s eerie watching such emptiness. New York has a human population of one: Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith), an ex-military scientist who was to some degree culpable for what happened to his race. The disease was initially hyped as a cure for cancer (by Emma Thompson in an unbilled cameo) but it mutated and became a killer. The creatures it transforms can’t emerge in the sunlight, so they stay hidden during the day only to come out and seek fresh blood between dusk and dawn. In that period, Robert and his faithful dog, Sam, are padlocked within his apartment. They hunt by day and hide by night.

Robert is lonely and his loneliness is eroding his sanity. He talks to Sam as if she was a human. He speaks to department store mannequins he has dressed in clothing. He rents DVDs of old news shows not so much so he can revisit the past but so he can hear human voices and pretend he’s not alone. In many ways, it’s how Tom Hanks survived in Cast Away - by making a volleyball, Wilson, his best friend. Robert has set a broadcast to shout out his location on every station on the AM dial, but so far, no one has come looking. He uses a private lab in his apartment to continue research on the disease, always searching for the elusive cure. If he could save one vampire - turn it back into a human - he would no longer be alone. Ghosts of his past haunt his dreams, and it’s through those tortured flashbacks that we gain some knowledge of what the last hours were like for our kind.

The first two-thirds of I Am Legend are superior to the fast-paced, action-oriented final 35 minutes. There’s a key event that occurs just past the hour mark and, after that, the movie feels more like a typical Hollywood adventure than the introspective, thought-provoking production that graces the screens for the first 65 minutes. The ending, while not a complete cop-out, diverges from that of Matheson’s book and feels a little too convenient and facile. For most of the movie, character drives plot. The closer we get to the conclusion, the more plot drives character.

There are some top-notch action sequences, such as one in which vampires and vampire dogs attack Sam and an injured Robert. There’s also another scene in which Robert tries to take out an entire cell of vampires with nothing more than a speeding vehicle. There are some missteps - the deer chase is dumb and marred by CGI deer that look CGI. And the climactic struggle is less exciting than it should be. There’s a sense that some of the action was inserted into the movie to keep from losing the attention of younger viewers. It’s okay for the movie to deal with intelligent ideas as long as there are enough bangs to enliven the proceedings.

As Tom Hanks did in Cast Away, Will Smith pulls off this half-insane role perfectly. Of course, in addition to being alone, Robert has other crosses to bear. He is hunted by the living dead. He carries a weight of guilt. And he knows, on one level or another, that he is responsible for what happened to his wife and daughter. Smith nails the portrayal. It’s not the kind of work that will earn him an Oscar nomination but audiences usually don’t see better than this in genre films.

Science fiction fans hoping for a faithful adaptation of Matheson’s novel will be disappointed. This is no more a visitation of the source material than its predecessors, The Last Man on Earth or The Omega Man, were. The updates are timely - the movie makes the suspension of disbelief curve as easy to ascend as it was in Children of Men. For me, the most engaging aspects of the movie are connecting with Robert and understanding how he uses routine to survive each day. It’s seeing the empty New York and understanding how its desolation offers both solace and pain. For the most part, the action sequences work - and they are directed in a straightforward manner that thankfully does not rely on fast cuts and shaky camera movement - but they are not the real reason to see this movie. Cautionary tale though it might be, I Am Legend offers a window into a future that probably won’t be but that is easily believed within the context of this workmanlike motion picture.

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The Happening movie

  • Author: admin
  • Filed under: Drama, Sci-Fi
  • Date: Aug 18,2008

Bodies catapulting themselves off of construction sites–hitting the ground with hard, wet thuds… A man lying down, waiting for the teeth of a lawnmower to take him… A woman suddenly stabbing her own throat… Yep… Something is definitely in the air…

As most should know from the gratuitous previews for the Happening’s controversial “R” rating; M. Night is back with a vengeance to reclaim his seat as an amazing storyteller like that of Hitchcock (which he has compared himself)… But after two recent flops–both in gross and reviews–does anyone even care?

Following the recent trend of cinema focusing on post 9/11 fears, the Happening weaves a suicidal tale of paranoia and suspicion around abnormal behavior and actions. When large quantities of people begin offing themselves in progressively gruesome ways, public speculation believes it to be a terrorist attack of sorts. But as the “attacks” continue to defy thought and reason, opinions shift and loyalties wane–forcing everyone into a constant hysteria as they try and flee whatever force is reeking the violent havoc.

Leading the acting pack is ol’ Marky Mark… I mean, Mark Wahlberg as a high-school science teacher married to a secretive and emotionally distant Zooey Daschanel. Also along for the apocalyptic ride is John Leguizamo and even that “Horris” fella from that 90’s show, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (funny what we remember, eh?). Performances are solid for the most part and I’m happy that Zooey finally shows something other than monotone boredom… There have been some complaints about some sequences of over-acting, but I think that just seems that way because of the script that–while fine for the majority of the film–has moments of questionable writing–and thus–delivery.

Another complaint that I’ve witnessed among many reviewers is the fact that the actual “happening” is never truly described. And well… It actually is… At multiple scenes the idea is constantly thrown out that this is–to wrap it all up–the earth getting back at all of us… And it’s pretty pissed-off… While it’s true that this is just character speculation, that should suffice. To come right out and say what’s causing all of the problems not only destroys any suspense, but it also takes away any aspect of thought that the viewer could apply to the film. The film is incredibly straightforward and easy to understand. There is no big “twist” at the end like in his previous works, but for a film like this, you don’t need one.

Honestly, one of the only real problems I had with the film is the over-dependence on the “R” rating. The content here is nothing shocking and feels more like a tad-harder PG-13 than an R-rated feature. I’m glad that M. Night is taking chances, but trying to push the rating so much feels like a cheap way to sell your movie–especially when the content therein is hardly different than that seen within something of a lesser-rating (just look at the pervasively violent and stupidly pathetic Live Free or Die Hard which was PG-13).

Well, after The disappointing Village and the incredibly dull Lady in the Water; The Happening seems to be a restarting point of sorts for Shyamalan. While it’s far from great and lacks the sort of staying power that the Sixth Sense and Unbreakable entailed–it still proves that the director hasn’t yet lost his magic as both a writer and director.

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The Host movie

It’s a lovely summer Sunday at the riverside park in the capital city : picnics, touch football, pretty girls listening to iPods. Strollers buy snacks from the family-run food truck in the parking lot by the embankment. Something massive and slimy hangs from the underside of a bridge.

Say what?

A crowd gathers to gawk and the thing slowly uncurls from its girder and knifes into the water. It swims with the current, people run along the bank, shouting and pointing. Then someone pelts it with a beer can.

Mistake.

How do you make a monster movie in the 21st century? Or rather, how do you make a monster movie that’s not a joke? Bong Joon-ho’s merrily deranged “The Host” provides an answer: by inviting audiences into the joke, then knocking them continually off-balance. The puckish South Korean filmmaker’s third movie is many things: dysfunctional family comedy, social satire, bureaucratic farce, germ-warfare horror flick. Mostly, though, it’s “Godzilla” with a severe case of Murphy’s Law, and it is never less than bizarrely delightful.

On one side of the ledger we have the monster: a galumphing sea-serpent with stegosaurus legs and a mouth that’s a Freudian nightmare. We learn in a B-movie opening scene that the creature’s probably a result of 200 gallons of formaldehyde poured directly into Seoul’s Han River, but whatever: It’s big and it’s ticked.

On the other side we have the Park family, the clan running that snack van by the river. They’re hardly heroic but they’re all we’ve got: grease-spattered grandpa Hie-bong (Hie-bong Byeon), his useless layabout son Gang-du (Kang-ho Song), and Gang-du’s no-nonsense schoolgirl daughter Hyun-seo (Ah-sung Ko).

Later we’ll meet Hie-bong’s other useless son Nam-il (Hae-il Park), who at least is able to get up in the morning but still can’t find a job, and Nam-il’s fetching sister Nam-joo (Du-na Bae), first seen losing an archery contest on national TV. It helps to have someone handy with a bow and arrow in this kind of movie. It’s supposed to, anyway.

Like a mob fleeing the monster’s approach, “The Host” fans out in a number of directions, most of them unexpectedly funny. The schoolgirl gets carted off by the beastie but is able to check in with Dad before her cell phone batteries run out. The Parks then mount a rescue attempt that is stymied by (a) government troops who insist Gang-du has been infected by a virus carried by the monster and (b) their own spectacular ineptitude.

The United States and the World Health Organization get involved; soon the Parks are on the run with their faces broadcast on TV under the legend “Warning: Infected Family.” At a certain point it becomes unclear what’s the greater horror: the rampaging mutant, the government’s over reaction, or the populace’s bovine acceptance of that over reaction. “This man’s brain may be our only hope!” says one government scientist about Gang-du, and that’s when you know the country’s really in trouble.

South Korea can take a joke, at least, since “The Host” broke box-office records when it opened there last year. It should find find an audience in this country, too. The special effects are both marvelous and richly bogus, and they come courtesy of New Zealand’s Weta Digital and San Francisco’s The Orphanage. The ease with which the monster back-flips along the underpinnings of highway superstructures is as mesmerizing to us as it is to the characters.

Still, it’s Bong’s movie, and he plays with the creature-feature genre like a brat with a fresh toy. His last film was 2003’s much-praised detective story “Memories of Murder”; he’s working on an omnibus project called “Tokyo” next with France’s Lйos Carax and Michel Gondry, both directors with similarly shaggy approaches to filmmaking.

“The Host” reflects either rigorous playfulness or major-league attention deficit disorder; either way, it’s an engaging exercise in entropy. Gallant plans go awry, people fall asleep when you least expect them to, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Bong gives us a rough beast slouching toward Seoul, and the idea that we get the monsters we deserve is enough to give him the giggles.

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Highlander II- The Quickening movie

  • Author: admin
  • Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi
  • Date: Feb 26,2008

It doesn’t seem to matter what the filmmakers do to try and improve Highlander 2; the movie remains a muddled and largely incoherent sequel. The film was originally released to theaters in an 89-minute version, which went over terribly among audiences (fans of the original included). A “renegade” edition was released on video several years later, which restored 19-minutes and was - admittedly - an improvement. Now, Lions Gate Home Entertainment presents Highlander 2 with improved special effects and sound design - though it’s impossible not to wonder if the movie is even worth all the effort (answer: not really).

Set in the year 2025, the film follows Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) as he battles a fellow Highlander (played with over-the-top glee by Michael Ironside) bent on world domination. Also along for the ride is returning character Ramirez (Sean Connery) and a beautiful eco-terrorist named Louise (Virginia Madsen). The heart of the story involves a shield that covers the entire planet, erected after the ozone layer proved ineffectual in protecting citizens from the sun’s harsh rays.

It’s a storyline that’s mostly confusing and convoluted, though as the film progresses, things do start to make sense (sort of). Presumably the “renegade” cut - which is included on this disc, not the theatrical version - clears up a lot of the baffling elements in Peter Bellwood’s screenplay. But on the flipside, the longer running time means there are several superfluous sequences - resulting in a movie that is slightly more coherent, but also fairly dull in spots.

Director Russell Mulcahy (who also helmed the first Highlander) infuses the film with a palpable sense of style, though his lack of restraint eventually becomes somewhat overwhelming. Along with cinematographer Phil Meheux, Mulcahy transforms even the simplest sequence into a laser light show of swooping camera moves and kinetic editing. While such antics keep things interesting, they also make the story that much more difficult to follow.

Highlander 2’s representation of the future isn’t all that convincing (why are trains rolling through crowded streets?), and marks yet another riff on the landscape created by Blade Runner (although the film must be commended for including widescreen televisions). Lambert gives a typically mediocre performance, while Connery seems to be enjoying himself in what essentially amounts to a cameo appearance.

It’s hard to imagine Highlander 2 appealing to non-fans of the franchise, as the film barely captures the sense of fun that was so prevalent in the original. With its complicated storyline and dreary visuals, it occasionally feels more perfunctory than anything else - though, to be fair, it’s nowhere near as bad as it’s been made out to be over the years.

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